Star Wars Through the Eyes of Peabody High
“The resistance will rise one final time.” This has been the catchphrase to the long-awaited film that will end the Skywalker Saga, but not Star Wars altogether. On Friday, December 20th, the release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will mark the end of the nine-part series and its iconic characters. Many people have grown up watching these films and have seen every single one in theaters, making this movie very important to this broad community of fans. Peabody Veterans Memorial High School cannot be excluded from this group as both students and staff can be seen representing the franchise with shirts and many other items.
My objective was to find these people and ask them the most critical questions associated with the new movie and the future of Star Wars. Many generations have grown up watching these films, and as the catchphrase “Every generation has a legend” suggests, each person has their own way of connecting with the three trilogies. The following interviews were held with a few teachers to find out the scale of the impact Star Wars has had.
Mr. Sullivan
1. What does Star Wars mean to you?
I grew up watching Star Wars and my oldest daughter loves it. I recently started watching them with my twins as well.
2. Do you have any theories for the next movie?
No, I want to go in completely blind and I’m avoiding any theories.
3. How is the ending of the Skywalker Saga going to affect you?
Probably not a lot personally. I’m more invested in the ongoing universe. The Skywalker Saga doesn’t mean as much to me as the world itself.
4. What do you want to see in the new movies Disney might make?
Nods to the Old Republic. Like little throwbacks.
5. What’s your favorite Star Wars movie and who’s your favorite character? Why?
The Empire Strikes Back and Leia because she’s the best Disney princess.
6. What’s your favorite and least favorite thing about the franchise?
My favorite thing is the concept of the universe they built. It’s a universe filled with all sorts of weird things and a group of ragtags. My least favorite thing is the entitled fans and how they get mad when nothing they want happens.
Mr. DeHart
1. What does Star Wars mean to you?
Star Wars was what I grew up with. We saw the movies, we played with the toys. Everybody was into Star Wars.
2. Do you have any theories for the next movie?
I don’t have theories because I’m trying to keep an open mind. I would be thrilled if Baby Yoda showed up, but I don’t think he will.
3. How is the ending of the Skywalker Saga going to affect you?
This movie series goes back to some of my earliest memories, so to say it’s the end of an era is cliché, but it is the end of a long stretch of time. But Disney is going to keep milking this for as long as they can.
4. What do you want to see in the new movies Disney might make?
I want to see other characters who aren't Skywalkers. They’re doing a really great job with The Mandalorian and I want more of that.
5. What’s your favorite Star Wars movie and who’s your favorite character? Why?
My favorite movie is a toss-up between The Empire Strikes Back and Rogue One. Growing up, my favorite character was Boba Fett because he had all of the cool toys, but I actually really like what they did with Luke in The Last Jedi.
6. What’s your favorite and least favorite thing about the franchise?
My favorite thing is that it’s just fun. I’m going tomorrow night and there will be a crowd full of people who love it and are cheering. It’s just nice to have something that people can enjoy. The part I least like would be the prequels because they’re just awful.
Ms. Ceruolo
1. What does Star Wars mean to you?
I grew up watching the old one. That was the first movie I went with my dad. I remember walking in on the part where Darth Vader and Princess Leia are having their scene where he blows up her planet. That was my first memory of Star Wars.
2. Do you have any theories for the next movie?
No, I just want to be surprised.
3. How is the ending of the Skywalker Saga going to affect you?
It’s not really going to affect me, it’s just going to bring about closure.
4. What do you want to see in the new movies Disney might make?
Maybe what’s happening at the same time on another planet.
5. What’s your favorite Star Wars movie and who’s your favorite character? Why?
Princess Leia is by far my favorite for her strong female character. Besides her I would say Chewbacca. I like the old movies, even if the special effects are kind of cheesy.
6. What’s your favorite and least favorite thing about the franchise?
I’m not really a big fan of Jar Jar Binks. I just think it’s fascinating that it’s gone on for so long. They’ve gotten such a big audience with their characters.
Mr. Chiasson
1. What does Star Wars mean to you?
My sister took me to see the first movie when I was a little kid. She took me to the movies I shouldn’t have seen as a young child. A part of childhood for me is Star Wars.
2. Do you have any theories for the next movie?
No, I don’t.
3. How is the ending of the Skywalker Saga going to affect you?
I don’t think much because I don’t really think it’s going to be over. They’re going to be cashing in on Skywalker for years to come.
4. What do you want to see in the new movies Disney might make?
I’d like to see more stories about the dark side and the villains. I find villains more interesting than heroes.
5. What’s your favorite Star Wars movie and who’s your favorite character? Why?
My favorite one was The Phantom Menace. Darth Maul was the coolest with the double-sided lightsaber. It was awesome when he was sliced in half.
6. What’s your favorite and least favorite thing about the franchise?
I think my favorite thing is the connection between the Force and Buddhism. Obi-Wan explaining the Force and how it binds us and holds us together and when they measured the midichlorians. That’s similar to the Buddhist idea of coming from elements and things from the past. The Buddhist idea is that everything comes together and moves apart, and you’re never really born, but a part of something. One thing I don’t understand is the dark side. They take this idea of Buddhism and turn it into relativism. They change it and make it seem as if nothing matters. I guess they are like a nihilistic version of the Jedi.
Whether you have grown up watching the originals, prequels, or sequels, everyone can admit that in some way or another these films have affected them. The end of this saga marks the end of an era that has lasted around 40 years. Even if Disney continues to make more movies, nothing will be the same without the renowned soundtrack and characters that are unlike anything else. However, the love of the franchise will always remain in the hearts of many as more and more generations are introduced to the movies that have inspired thousands.
BONUS INTERVIEW
Here is a transcript of an interview with Mr. Hayes, someone who is very excited for the new film and has even gone to the location of where scenes in Star Wars: The Last Jedi were filmed in Ireland.
1. What does Star Wars mean to you?
Star Wars is really fascinating to me because it is good versus evil. But it’s clear-cut good versus evil. And I think what we’ve done is we’ve warped the lines of what is good and evil now. I like it because you have a clearly designated dark side and a clearly designated light. And that’s what it means to me.
2. Do you have any theories for the next movie?
Since Disney has purchased the product, it has been, I think, altered so that it encompasses everything into it. It’s trying to make every subgroup in the world happy at once. I like things that are definitive. It’s not going to offend me if a female’s the hero, if the person who’s Asian is the hero, if the person who’s African American is the hero, if a child is the hero, but I think they need to make one person the clear, clear designated hero of the story. And I think that is what they did in the first three. You had the three heroes, but they focused on one. Now it’s just kind of like scattered where everybody gets a piece of the hero pie. The hero is split among ten characters. They should pick one to three and that’s it. Everybody else helped out, but you’re not the hero.
3. How is the ending the Skywalker Saga going to affect you?
Oh, I’m going to be scarred for years. Because I have no expectations this time, I don’t think the ending will affect me one way or the other.
4. What do you want to see in the new movies Disney might make in the future?
I’d like to see some non-fiction heroes. In the civil rights movement, you have, of course, Martin Luther King. But you also have some people who put their lives on the line. I like some of those sub-stories. They’re not the main character. This just contradicts what I just said about Star Wars. What I like is that Star Wars is a fantasy, but these other ones are real-life human stories. I went to the Negro League Baseball Museum. It’s very, very famous now and about how they fought through segregation. I did this while I was traveling and did every Major League Baseball stadium in the country. I went to the Negro League Baseball Museum and there are so many sub-heroes besides just Jackie Robinson that pushed that crusade forward. The nurses in the Civil War that amputated men’s legs without anesthesia—those are great sub-heroes. But the Star Wars ones are all manufactured and fictional. These heroes actually exist. The nurses actually had to take the saws out. They strap the men on the table and they amputate the leg. And they pour whiskey on it to help anesthetize because alcohol is a depressant and also kills the infection. That takes a lot of courage to saw off a screaming man’s leg. I would like to see more on nonfiction sub-heroes. There are thousands of those stories.
5. What is your favorite Star Wars movie and who is your favorite character? Why?
My favorite is Return of the Jedi. I think it’s because it had some completion at the time. All the bad guys either were killed or converted. So I liked that decisiveness. They either died or converted to the light. I really like that definiteness. My favorite character? There’s so many. I think I like, to this day, Luke Skywalker because he is really just an average person. He is just a planet farmer. But he has exceptional skills and I think all of us are very ordinary and very unordinary at the same time. Plus, I was at the Skelligs seven miles off the coast of Ireland. It is the home of the Jedi Warrior Temple where they filmed The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. I climbed that as part of my bucket list up to the beehive huts where the monks built the monastery out of solid rock, no cement or mortar. They're windproof and they're waterproof and they're a UNESCO heritage site, probably only 1,100 of them in the world. It’s just magnificent out there to climb the 643 steps to the top to see the home of the Jedi Warrior Temple. I did bring a plastic lightsaber. I actually borrowed a kid’s up top. My favorite is pretty much the Return of the Jedi. The Empire Strikes Back is pretty impressive, too.
6. What is your favorite and least favorite thing about the franchise?
My favorite thing about the franchise is it is easy to understand. It is good versus evil. The redemption of some of the characters is fascinating. And the condemnation or death of some is fascinating because there is certainty there. It’s either convert or die. I kind of like that decisiveness. My least favorite thing is now they’re spreading the wealth. It’s almost like the lawyers took over the scripts and said you have to cover yourself legally or make 30 different entities happy. Stick to the story and let the public either love it or hate it. A lot of the stuff in the movie is futuristic, but a lot of it is ancient from the past, so it’s a cool blend of the future and the past.
