Poor Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru... Oh Well!

[arch101]

This has probably been discussed in another post, but, when you take into account the total deaths from Alderaan, the Death Star, Owen and Beru, Greedo, various Stormtroopers, Jawas and rebel pilots, this movie has one helluva death toll! And what did we all do? We sat in the audience and CHEERED! This is NOT a film about empathy.

 

[JD]

I can understand not stopping in the middle of the action for a scene of Luke and Leia grieving their loses, but it would have been nice if there was something maybe at the end showing them paying tribute to those loses.

 

[sojourner]

Owen and Beru have to die so that Luke is an orphan Hero. Also, because it's why Luke is instantly a die hard rebel with a cause. Also, because someone who matters has to die horribly so that we understand the Empire is evil.

Or to put it in modern action movie vernacular, "Shit just got real".

 

[TV's Frank]

I think some of you guys are missing the point of what the original STAR WARS was. It is a brilliant distillation of Heroic mythology plus 30's film science fiction tropes with a dash of Eastern philosophy. In much of the myth I have read from several cultures, there is death of parents/family for the main character(s) and once this occurs and acknowledged, the story moves on because it has to. It is being exactly what it is supposed to be. The hero is put through his trials and doesn't stop to internalize much or have conversations with side characters about struggling with the loss of his parents. The story and the hero's journey are key and the whole point of what the audience should be focused on, not his internal emotional state. STAR WARS is mythical archetypes writ large on the big screen and in space and it does exactly what it needs to follow this model on purpose, not due to some oversight or failing by Lucas, and to ask the film to be something else is your misunderstanding, not the film's fault.

STAR WARS also is a personal story as it mirrors and plays out on the feelings Lucas had as a kid in Modesto wanting to escape to a more exciting life. Luke is his avatar and the loss of parental figures is indeed the springboard required by the story (and the mythological basis) to get him out of town and onto exciting new places and adventures. This was also the late 70's and STAR WARS was pivotal in bringing a sense of fun back to the theaters when the country was in the doldrums following Vietnam and the recession. Movies are ALWAYS a product of the time in which they were made, you cannot look at them in a vacuum or without this context and compare to how movies are presented today.

If STAR WARS was made today, you can bet there would be more lip service paid to the character's emotional state following the loss of his parental figures, as most movies today want to divulge and discuss their hero's emotional and psychological motivations openly. Sometimes this works and sometimes you see complaints of it being unnecessary, slowing the film down, awkwardly handled, etc etc. But, you know as saying the goes, the Internet does not know what it wants.

STAR WARS could have included more discussion of character's feelings after losing family, but then it wouldn't have been the movie it is today. I feel like it's akin to asking a sibling or a best friend to be a different person instead of just accepting them as they are and appreciating the qualities they already possess. If STAR WARS doesn't have everything that you want in a movie, then find another movie, but don't blame STAR WARS for somehow being something it's not meant to be.

 

[Turtletrekker]

^ Well stated.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ I could accept all that as true if the whole series wasn't infused with a cavalier inhumanity.

their mother was a necrophiliac--

Clearly I'm WAY behind on my Clone Wars viewing...

Urk. It's a kid's show people! Maybe I should just skip the current season?

I was half joking. It was a reference to how Amidala was all turned on when Anakin committed genocide. That creeped me out as much as Luke and Leia in Episode IV.

 

[Beagleman]

She's probably just one of those women who write letters to serial killers in prison and try to hook up with them...

 

[Forbin]

This makes me wonder if Luke visited the old homestead when he returned to Tatooine during Return of the Jedi. And were the corpses still there? I mean, he appears to have scampered without burying them.

Or, if the local constabulary found the bodies, is there a warrant out for Luke?
I can see the Tatooine Times headline:
LOCAL COUPLE FOUND MURDERED. REBELLIOUS NEPHEW MISSING, SUSPECTED.

It's a wonder he didn't get nabbed the minute he set foot on-planet.

 

[TV's Frank]

^ Well stated.

Thanks!

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

and then his family turns up extra crispy after he realizes that something might be up with the droids.

He realized something was up before returning to the homestead; remember, it was the realization that Stormtroopers were killing witnesses while on the trail of the droids which filled him with fear for their safety, and sent him racing home.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

One additional scene, with Luke standing over their graves, saying some appropriate words conveying sorrow and determination and the reason to go on, would have helped. But I'll bet time/money constraints were the reason we never got this scene.

Owen and Beru were not quite finished in the original trilogy: they were referenced in a taunt by Vader (as "your family") in several drafts of The Empire Strikes Back's screenplay (during the lightsaber duel in the Carbon Freezing Chamber).

 

[Dale Sams]

This has probably been discussed in another post, but, when you take into account the total deaths from Alderaan, the Death Star, Owen and Beru, Greedo, various Stormtroopers, Jawas and rebel pilots, this movie has one helluva death toll! And what did we all do? We sat in the audience and CHEERED! This is NOT a film about empathy.

Not only that..:

This Halloween while my friends and I walked all our little rugrats around, I joked how funny it would be to dress up my kid as "The Saw Guy" (I haven't seen the film), my wife and more than one person krinkled their noses and said it would be in poor taste.....meanwhile about 20 little Darth Vaders walked past us.

As for the OP, as someone else said...the fact that he calls them "Aunt and Uncle" says that somewhere along the line Owen and Beru had second thoughts about this whole 'getting a baby dumped on us' thing. Besides we only know Luke was given to them as a baby from ROTS, does it say anywhere in Star Wars (I refuse to call it A New Hope) how old he was when they started raising him?

 

[Dale Sams]

This makes me wonder if Luke visited the old homestead when he returned to Tatooine during Return of the Jedi. And were the corpses still there? I mean, he appears to have scampered without burying them.

Or, if the local constabulary found the bodies, is there a warrant out for Luke?
I can see the Tatooine Times headline:
LOCAL COUPLE FOUND MURDERED. REBELLIOUS NEPHEW MISSING, SUSPECTED.

It's a wonder he didn't get nabbed the minute he set foot on-planet.

"MASS JAWA GRAVE FOUND, PROTOCAL DROID SOUGHT AS 'PERSON OF INTEREST'."

 

[Albertese]

and then his family turns up extra crispy after he realizes that something might be up with the droids.

He realized something was up before returning to the homestead; remember, it was the realization that Stormtroopers were killing witnesses while on the trail of the droids which filled him with fear for their safety, and sent him racing home.

Indeed! Which is why I wrote that "his family turns up extra crispy after he realizes that something might be up with the droids."

...

As for the OP, as someone else said...the fact that he calls them "Aunt and Uncle" says that somewhere along the line Owen and Beru had second thoughts about this whole 'getting a baby dumped on us' thing. Besides we only know Luke was given to them as a baby from ROTS, does it say anywhere in Star Wars (I refuse to call it A New Hope) how old he was when they started raising him?

No, but we can assume from Return of the Jedi that he was very young, since he tells Leia he has no memory of his real mother and there is absolutely nothing at all to suggest that there was some other intermediary family.

I don't think it's fair to say that the fact that Luke addresses them with the titles of Uncle and Aunt implies they have a sour relationship. Excluding the prequel movies, we have to assume that either Owen Lars and his wife, Beru, took in the boy at a very young age and have no relationship to him, but encouraged Luke to call them Uncle and Aunt to make him feel like he was among family or else that Beru was Anakin's sister and Owen was his brother-in-law and the Beru was Luke's natural aunt (not Owen, because otherwise his name should probably also be Skywalker instead of Lars.) The Prequels do establish that, in fact, Owen was Anakin's step-brother and they barely ever met and that Obi-wan made the hand-off of baby Luke when he was mere weeks old.

Luke is a nineteen year old kid who wants "to get off this rock" so, naturally, there's some tension between him and his father-figure, as I expect is true between the majority of teenagers and authority figures. But it's clear that both Owen and Beru care for Luke. Beru tries to convince Owen to let him go because he's "just not a farmer" and says so in a loving tone... not at all dismissive of Luke's feelings. And then Owen reveals why he doesn't: he's afraid that Luke will be "too much like his father" and go off and get himself in trouble. For all we know, Owen may just believe that Anakin was killed when the Jedi were hunted down by the Empire, so that's why he lied to Luke and made him accept as fact the much more boring idea that Anakin was a simple navigator on a spice freighter. If we go ahead and admit as evidence the prequels, then Owen probably does have an image in his mind of Anakin being kind of a weird guy. Granted, they only meet while Anakin is trying to find his mother and then is around for his mourning of her, and we have no reason to assume that he ever knew anything about the slaughtering of the sandpeople, but maybe he was left with a low opinion of Anakin anyhow.

I do not see any evidence that Owen and Breu had anything but a healthy, normal relationship with their "nephew"/informally adopted son.

Also, I'm not questioning the mythological archetype of Star Wars or it's position in time having been released in the grim-dark of the 1970's, All I'm saying is that it strikes me as odd that Luke never acknowledges this later in the movie. It is an oversight in the screenplay, but it doesn't effect my enjoyment of the film. I still love Star Wars and enjoy it every time I see it, warts and all.

--Alex

 

[CorporalCaptain]

For all we know, Owen may just believe that Anakin was killed when the Jedi were hunted down by the Empire, so that's why he lied to Luke and made him accept as fact the much more boring idea that Anakin was a simple navigator on a spice freighter.

In retrospect, after Empire came out, Owen's admission that he was "afraid of" Luke turning out like his father fit perfectly as one of the things in the original film foreshadowing the revelation that Luke's father is Vader. To me, that line really plays like Owen is aware that Luke's father turned out bad.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

As for the OP, as someone else said...the fact that he calls them "Aunt and Uncle" says that somewhere along the line Owen and Beru had second thoughts about this whole 'getting a baby dumped on us' thing. Besides we only know Luke was given to them as a baby from ROTS, does it say anywhere in Star Wars (I refuse to call it A New Hope) how old he was when they started raising him?

Luke's lack of a memory of his true parents always--and strongly suggested he was adopted at birth, since that would be the age when limited experiences would not be strong enough to be recalled later in life, hence Luke's "no memory" statement to Leia in Return of the Jedi.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

In retrospect, after Empire came out, Owen's admission that he was "afraid of" Luke turning out like his father fit perfectly as one of the things in the original film foreshadowing the revelation that Luke's father is Vader. To me, that line really plays like Owen is aware that Luke's father turned out bad.

When watching Star Wars back in '77, Owen's line "that's what i'm afraid of" just screamed something horrible--possibly related to Vader. In the film--and when no one was thinking a sequel would be produced--Owen being fearful of some random Imperial officer would not make much sense, as they (the empire staffers) were faceless, but Vader was the standout--the mystery man with supernatural powers.

Who else would Owen refer to in that way?

 

[sojourner]

I always took the line as "I'm afraid he'll turn into a reckless, carefree, adventure seeker like his father", as opposed to Owen's dependable, sensible farmer archetype.

 

[The Wormhole]

Star Wars is not exactly known for its depth of characterization-- nor is George Lucas known for his depth or insight. The death of the aunt and uncle free Luke up to go off on a big adventure where things blow up; they are never mentioned or thought of again. Leia is both tortured and forced to watch her entire planet of billions of people incinerated, and it has no long-term effect on her. In the prequels, her mother is actually turned on when Darth Skywalker commits genocide.

Thinking about the SW characters as if they were real people is just creepy. It's best to just sit back and watch the explosions.

People in Star Wars, especially the OT just weren't emotional. In addition to these examples, you had Han Solo, after spending a couple of years frozen in carbonite and nearly fed to a giant vagina in the sand after being woken, the first thing he does is lead a rebel strike force against the Empire's premsuably most well-defended facility.

That's one of the things I like about Star Wars, what should be significant life changing events are just shrugged of by all concerned. Nothing is dwelt on, everything gets swept under the rug. Well, almost. Luke did have trouble accepting Vader was his father, and Leia had some trouble dealing with Luke being her brother. But still, they worked this stuff out a lot quicker than most people, who might require some pretty extensive therapy in those situations.

That's something that worries me about Abrams doing Episode 7. He's so into emotions. Someone's probably going to cry in that movie.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

^^ I could accept all that as true if the whole series wasn't infused with a cavalier inhumanity.

Clearly I'm WAY behind on my Clone Wars viewing...

Urk. It's a kid's show people! Maybe I should just skip the current season?

I was half joking. It was a reference to how Amidala was all turned on when Anakin committed genocide. That creeped me out as much as Luke and Leia in Episode IV.

Then wouldn't she have been more attracted to one of the dead Sandpeople? I guess this is the point at which the conversation should be dropped.

In addition to these examples, you had Han Solo, after spending a couple of years frozen in carbonite and nearly fed to a giant vagina in the sand after being woken, the first thing he does is lead a rebel strike force against the Empire's premsuably most well-defended facility.

Now that makes sense, he was pissed!