The use of weapons in films has been around since the first silent film The Great Train Robbery where guns were used to The Watchmen which was released this year. Our American culture has been experiencing weapons in films throughout our film industry in every film genre from comedy to western to science fiction. In the film Star Wars: A New Hope (George Lucas, 1977, United States and Guatemala) the weapons in the film were not only incorporated throughout the movie, but the guns and weapons were tremendously enhanced and improved through special effects. During the late 1960’s and early 70’s science fiction films were looking for new ways of depicting themselves. As stated by Christine Cornea in her book Science Fiction Cinema she states “the science fiction film was busy reinventing itself: both the speculative and fantastic components of the genre” (1). Star Wars was able to highly contribute to this “reinventing” by the use of technological special effects. With the use of special effects Star Wars was able to enhance and give audiences a new edge of how special effects put them in the fantastic world of technology and science fiction.
Star Wars was the first movie to introduce the special effect of the lightsaber to science fiction films. The lightsaber gives a revolutionary change to the way sword fights are fought with a more fantastic science fiction aspect. The lightsaber consists of a handle and with the press of a button illuminates a bright energy of light which takes the place of the ordinary metal blade of the sword. This light that creates the lightsaber is not actually real but computer enhanced from a tube of aluminum that is in place temporarily during filming then it is digitally developed into the bright colored lightsaber. The lightsaber is not only a special effect which helps give Star Wars a clear separation between the real world and the fantastic, but it’s a new way of perceiving sword fights with a science fiction stand point. When audiences view the battle scenes or use of the lightsaber they are set outside the realm of a tradition fight with metal blades where actors receive bloodshed and the “cling” noise of the blades connecting. Instead the lightsabers produce visual engaging fight scenes and sense of the technology advance in the space future. As Scott Bukatman in his article “Zooming Out: The End of Offscreen Space” he states about the importance of technology in sci-fi films, “science fiction has been an essential part of technological culture for more than a century” (2). The lightsaber in Star Wars is a perfect example of what Bukatman is stating by the use of technological special effects in the sense that the film was able to develop a more fantastic science fiction sense. Not only does the lightsaber assist the special effects of the weapons in Star Wars but the guns used widen the human vision of the technological advances in science fiction.
Besides the main highlighted weapon in Star Wars, the lightsaber, the guns used in the film are also given a special effect spin to them. Unlike the conventional guns in our culture and word that shoot bullets the guns in Star Wars shoot rays of lasers. This way of enhancing the bullets through special features and turning them into laser rays does a tremendous amount for the science fiction genre and the fantastic world. Audiences are able to escape the real world of shooting scenes of bullets with a light show of scenes with laser rays being shot; also it’s something that our culture isn’t accustomed to. It’s not every day Americans see people getting shot by laser rays. This effect is also visually attracting to audiences because they are able to see who is shooting and being shot at unlike the traditional gun where one hears the shot and waits for it hit. Having this technological advance of laser rays in place of bullets provides a stronger sense of technology in science fiction just like Bukatman states about the strong relation between science fiction and technology.
Looking at a larger scale of guns the Death Star has a massive gun on it which shoots green laser beams which destroy entire planets. This special effect also places audiences into the fantastic realization that there could be technology that could diminish whole planets. This sets audiences outside of the real world into a film with highly incorporated technologies such as the special effects of the weapons.
Star Wars is a science fiction film that was able to reinvent the fantastic world from the real world through technological special effects like the lightsaber and other weapons. These weapons that took on new special effects were able to help enhance the realism of the fantastic narrative by giving human items a science fiction spin. Even though this is one way special effects gave Star Wars a fantastic science fiction spin it clearly shows that technology advances in special effects which boosts the films distinction between the real world and the fantastic.
End Notations
(1) Christine Cornea, “The Family Films,” Science Fiction Cinema: Between Fantasy and Reality. (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2007) 81.
(2) Scott Bukatman, “Zooming Out: The End of Offscreen Space,” The New American Cinema. (Durhman: Duke University Press, 1998) 252.
Works Cited
Cornea, Christine. Science Fiction Cinema: Between Fantasy and Reality. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2007.
Lewis, Jon. The New American Cinema. 3. Durhman, NC: Duke University Press, 1998. Print. (Bukatman 252).
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