Not long ago I watched The People vs George Lucas. It was a documentary that was part homage and part lament.

I still remember going to the movie theatre in 1977 to watch Star Wars. The line to see the movie circled around the theatre. Every seat was filled when the lights went down. I recall the moment of awe that came when the Star Destroyer cruised in pursuit of the rebel vessel and seemed to fly over my head.

Like many in 1977 I was mesmorized. Yes, this was a fairy tale and a story of good and evil like many that had been told countless times before, but it was told on a scale that blew all of those earlier stories out of the water. Yes, Luke Skywalker seemed like a whiny kid, but we all wanted to be him, fighting against the evil empire, surrounded by our friends Princess Leia, Han Solo and Chewbacca.

In one memorable scene, after he has already met with Obi-Wan and Luke at the cantina, Han Solo has an encounter with the bounty hunter Greedo. Han owes someone named Jabba a lot of money and Greedo is here to collect. After a brief exchange in which Greedo states his intent to take Han back to Jabba, Han blows Greedo away. It was a relatively minor scene, but on which stablished Han Solo as a man not to be trifled with.

Twenty years later in 1997 George Lucas re-released the Star Wars movies. In the re-release he made many changes to these beloved movies, including bigger explosions, more vivid backdrops and totally redone special effects. In the re-released version of Star Wars, Lucas reedited the scene between Han and Greedo. In the new version, Greedo tries to shoot Han first, but misses at point blank range. Han returns fire and kills Greedo.

The re-edit of this scene became emblematic of everything wrong with the revisions made to the Star Wars movies. Star War fans were livid that Lucas changed their beloved movies. In The People vs. George Lucas, Star Wars fans talk about their disappointment with Lucas. He had given them something almost transcendent. He was the rebel film maker who fought to have his vision called “Star Wars” brought to the silver screen, however, with the revisions in the re-release and the disappointing prequels, Lucas created an incredible backlash of disappointment and disgust. He had sold out. He was no longer the rebel film maker. Lucas was now more Darth Vader than Luke Skywalker.

In The People vs. George Lucas, extensive attention was given to the whole topic of Han shooting Greedo. For the average person on the street this may be much ado about nothing, but as these fans explained, having Han shoot first was an important element of his character. Han Solo was not a nice man. He was a smuggler. He was a man who could be bought for a price and was cold and a little heartless. All of this is what makes his later decision to come to Luke’s rescue all the more dramatic.  The coldly calculatings smuggler finds his humanity and saves the hero.

The documentary speculated on was why Lucas made the revisions to the scene. Lucas was now older and more conservative. Good guys don’t shoot first and Lucas wanted Han to be more unambigiously good, but in making these kinds of changes, Lucas showed us why he doesn’t understand the nature of evil and human nature.

In Lucas’ universe, Han Solo can’t be a good guy if he does morally ambiguous things, such as preemptively shoot other bad guys. However, is this true?  Is it true that good guys cannot do evil or bad things? I think most of us understand that the dichotomy of evil and good is often blurred with a fuzzy grey line in-between. Out in the world, there are very few of us who are purely good or purely evil. Good people are capable of inflicting great hurt and pain and evil people are capable of good and even compassion.

When I watched The People vs. George Lucas, I watched it with a good friend who also happened to be a big Star Wars fan. The documentary seemed to put to words many of the things we felt as fan boys. One of the things that troubled us were the prequels. In the prequels we saw how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader. Before the prequels we probably expected a kind of tragic turn and instead were invited to watch a whiny teenager complain about being misunderstood and who turns to evil because of love. The Phantom Menace was perhaps the most anticipated movie of all time, so perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that it was a disappointment, but it wasn’t even a close call for many of us. The prequels were embarrassingly bad.

One of the major story lines in the story was how the Emperor was really an evil Sith Lord. The first two movies reveal this elaborate plot whereby the Emperor basically deceives everyone and then in the third movie, he pulls back the curtain to reveal himself as this evil guy hell bent on controlling the universe through the dark side of the force.  I confess that this grated on me when I saw the prequels for the first time and it still grates on me. It was pure vaudeville and Darth Vader even had black hat.

In weaving this elaborate tale Lucas is expressing a basic misunderstanding of people and the nature of good and evil. In the Star Wars universe, everyone is deceived by the Emperor. Nobody realizes that the Emperor is evil until he gains full power and finally unveils himself as a Sith Lord. Everyone is a dupe and a fool. It’s as if Lucas is telling us that a good and decent person, such as Anakin, would never reasonably follow an evil person or do bad things.  Yet, the reality that I have found in history and in life is that good people sometimes do bad things and even willingly follow bad people. We sacrifice our morals and even ourselves for a so-called greater good. If we go into life thinking that evil will only come to us wearing a Darth Vader helmet, we only do so at our own risk. Sometimes evil will come to us with a reasonable and gentle voice. Evil will speak to our greatest insecurities and fears. Evil will invoke the greater good. Evil will try to gain my trust and offer me reassuring words. Evil will often be pragmatic, so that in the end, what was formerly abhorrent to me will now be labeled as “collateral damage.”

In the end, the shock and surprise is not so much that any of us are capable of doing bad things. We are all like Han Solo. We are all self-interested and sometimes we are capable of doing the most shockingly bad things. Having this self-knowledge can be devastating. How could I be capable of such things? How could I do that?! Yet, this this self-knowledge can also be freeing. I am someone who makes mistakes and is capable of committing heinous acts, but in the end I don’t have to be defined by these things. This is me, but this is not the end of the story. This is the nature of grace.

Like Han Solo we can come back at the end, seemingly out of nowhere, laser cannons blazing.

“You’re all clear kid. Let’s blow this thing and go home!”

There is redemption to be found.