P5 B - Relevant issues of
Representation
Star Wars: The Force Awakens made
progress in many areas compared to previous films, with special FX and budget
being the obvious ones, but it also made progress in a lot of ethical areas.
One example of this is that the main character of the film (Rey) is a girl and
is played by actress Daisey Ridley. This is in stark comparison to the previous
two trilogy’s and the main characters in both of the previous trilogy’s have
been male (Anakin Skywalker and Luke Skywalker) played by actors Hayden
Christensen and Mark Hamill. Star Wars again pushed for gender equality with
the release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story with the main character of that
film also being a female (Jyn Erso) played by actress Felicity Jones which
helps confirm that gender equality has been on Disney’s mind throughout the
production of the new Star Wars films. 
Another example of gender equality
being included within the new Star Wars films (particularly The Force Awakens)
is how female characters are now being portrayed. For example, in the very
first Star Wars film Princess Leia (played by Carrie Fisher) was the classical
damsel in distress and needed the male characters within the film to come and
rescue her. But in 2015, this was far from the case with Rey in Star Wars: The
Force Awakens, she was portrayed as a strong independent female character who
knew how to look out for herself and found herself in multiple cases of
conflict throughout the course of the film and was still able to hold her own
without the help of any of the male characters. 
Star Wars: The Force Awakens also
showed an advancement in racial diversity and racial representation. For
example, one of the main characters (Finn) played by John Boyega is black, he
fights against the first order throughout the course of the film and is shown
as an all-round good character. However, if we look back at Star Wars: The
Empire Strikes Back, the only black character was a sub-character featured in
only a few parts of the film. But the real controversy with this character is
caused by the fact that he went behind the backs of the main protagonists and
betrayed them for financial gain. Some people have therefore suggested that
LucasFilm was portraying the black community as greedy and untrustworthy due to
the actions of Lando Calrissian in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
Furthermore, there have been suggestions that certain races within the Star
Wars universe have been parodies of real life races. 
Research as shown that Star Wars: The
Force Awakens overwhelming passes the Bechdel test. The Bechdel test figures
out just how balanced a particular film is in terms of gender portrayal and representation.
An article that put Star Wars: The Force Awakens through the Betchdel test
determined that it has done much better than the original saga in the Betchdel
test for putting a lot of things that were wrong with the original films;
right. For example, Princess Leia is no longer the damsel in distress as was
particularly shown in the ‘slave leia’ scene featured in the original saga.
Instead, she is now commander of the resistance. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
now has multiple women playing important roles in the film, compared to the
original saga only having one (being Princess Leia). Rey, Princess Leia,
Captain Phasma and Maz Kanata are all women with crucial roles within the film.
This clearly shows why Star Wars: The Force Awakens has done so much better on
the Betchdel test in comparison to the original films. 
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