It is said that some film director, or some critic, used to say that Star Wars was a western with the setting changed: from the dusty plains we moved to the immensities of space, from the Indians to the Martians, and so on. There is in fact a genre called space western that places the cowboys of the West in a science-fiction setting, and many have no qualms about fitting the saga into that pigeonhole. I am going to deny the assumption here and argue that Star Wars does not particularly resemble a western at all but another genre altogether: epic fantasy. The comparison breaks down into the following points:
- There are good guys and bad guys, as in westerns and as in nearly every film of every other genre. But the western admits human nuances which, in the idealised characters of fantasy — space-set or medieval — are simplified, or else become an existential tragedy of good and evil, light and darkness.
- People shooting at each other, yes, as in every gangster film, thriller, or murder story from any time and place. But if anything is memorable about Star Wars, it is the lightsaber duels: special, powerful blades, like the magic swords so frequent in medieval epic.
- Magic — the strongest argument in favour of my thesis. There is no magic, no supernatural power whatsoever in the western, and yet it is central to our saga, as in any self-respecting epic fantasy. The Jedi are subjects in possession of a supernatural talent that they may use for good or for evil. Once again we see how nuance is blurred away in the face of this force that drives the characters along.
- Mythological creatures and monsters. Only by twisting the story to absurd lengths can we count the Indians as fantastic beings. In Star Wars we find creatures of every sort, with the most varied qualities. The fantasy sagas offer an equally varied catalogue: elves, orcs, trolls, dragons, dwarves, giant spiders, bear-men, and whatever else the author can dream up.
- The political setting of a tyrannical empire against republican freedom-fighters. There are no struggles against oppressive monarchies in the western. Yet such struggles are common in medieval fantasies, full of kings, princes, princesses, and mercenaries. The protagonists of the western, by contrast, bear no trace of messianism — unlike Luke Skywalker, a fellow chosen by the Force for a great destiny. This too is a recurring feature of epic fantasy, where seemingly humble figures become heroes and fulfil their redemptive nature.
- Epic fantasies escape from our world: they care not for the real map but for the one invented by their story, just as happens in Star Wars. The opposite of the western. The films of the West unfold in a recognisable historical and social context that leaves little room for the flights of fancy so necessary to science fiction and to medievalising epic.
In conclusion, the criteria adduced for comparing Star Wars to the western are too general and imprecise, and could be applied to almost any story of good guys and bad guys, of exploration and pistols. There are, however, elements in Star Wars utterly contrary to the topoi of the films of the West, and that fit perfectly with the staples of epic or heroic fantasy: monsters, supernatural magic, empires, chosen ones, mighty swords, fantastic worlds, fabulous places, and so on.