And undermine your family . Or take the plea bargain. So i used to believe for a person to be locked up i believe people are locked up right now better innocent. So it clear your mind of the way the world is. Like venezuela where my wife corrupt or india are run by gangs like to believe it is totally different here. It is but not totally. So these experiences are i opening for me it gives my conservatism a more Solid Foundation thanks for your attention see the movie. The fates of a movie depends the first couple of weeks in the beginning it will spread out people say how to get your movie scene independence . Then go see it this week or coming weekend because if you see it now you put fuel into the market. Part of what you should learn to do is use your influence we use very little lever actual influence. We have 300 friends on facebook but they have 300 friends but today you are a little publisher inducer use your influence to get the information out you actually can change the way that people think. The beauty of the movie in 90 minutes it changes you a little bit on the inside they have the power to do that. Books have the power to change minds by providing information that is power so i urge you not to be apathetic but be very dangerous americans to go out there and change society to help save your country. [applause] is my pleasure to introduce Cass Sunstein and his book the world according to star wars her gois former white house advisor half of surveillance then Communications Technology and the hero of technology at harvard with that background Cass Sunstein is as surprised as anyone the he wrote a book about Science Fiction and star wars. He began researching the film the world according to star wars explains lessons from franchise to behavioral economics fatherhood and culture. Cass defines the i n your father moment and tell it relates to our culture and politics including president ial elections. To be as diverse as christian and in christianity he provides compelling insights that remain relevant for over four decades. Youll be invited to ask questions later in the program. Please line up at the microphone there will be a book signing in the back after words. We love to get your feedback on programming so please complete the survey you received an you can even on the table over there. Thanks for coming and please give a warm welcome to Cass Sunstein. [applause] it is a complete thrill to be here. This is the debut of my a discussion of feet extremely improbable book if you told me one year ago i would have a book on star wars i would say that is more likely i would become an opera singer. [laughter] and the likelihood of that is really low. So if friend at a dinner suggested that my little boy should see star wars the first one, a new hope. You need to know he is focused on baseball and baseball and yet there thing is baseball. So the idea of him watching star wars is not a probable success. But since a friend suggested it with their business and determination it was only polite to give it a try. He was hooked and i was obsess with the following question bordets how does george lucas come up with this and why is it the saga of our time . So i will get at those things indirectly by improvising the and i will tell you the reason for the improvisation. When i was first olmos stating my a now why she had a Job Interview and asked what were my favor recent movies . I said what the line the johnny cash movie and she asked what was your favorite scene . Was the best seen in the movie . I said was the one where johnny cash goes in to audition before that famous salmon fillets in the studio that made Elvis Presley famous and sings a song that is a traditional customary religious song but he sings with great confidence and clarity that is the route to success. And sam phillips says pretty good i have heard that song 1,000 times everybody sings like you. Go home. He said he didnt let me finish and he said if you were going to be in a song to tell about your life on this planet and what would you show your soul . Then johnny cash goes into a rough song prison blues show the shooting a man just as he died and that is his sole. It is a fantastic song. It is about in a deep sense but that is what he sang so more briefly there was a text message and she answered how did you know, that . Which i think what was meant to be a marriage proposal. [laughter] so what you are about to hear is Folsom Prison blues but if i had to have one song from the book is the song you are about to hear. George lucas, the great george lucas said offhandedly speaking about star wars comics betty has a choice to be a hero or not. Every day of their lives you can either help somebody or be compassionate or treat some people with dignity or not. Yoda said in response to the work please, always in motion is the future the coauthor of the several great star wars movie said very recently the biggest adventure you could have making apparel life and it is true for everybody. I think those of the same songs and say the same thing. Talk about infinite possibility arguably to be the deepest screenwriter of the last 50 years was in a very tough debate of what should happen in return to their jedi i will give you a realtime as it was taped, the content of the debate. A clash of the titans to people had a vested interest making it work to people the ownership in the end lucas had the final say. I. C. Q should kill lucan and have princess leah takeover. He said you dont want to kill luke he says okay kill yoda. [laughter] i dont want to kill yoda youll have to kill people you are a product of the 80s. You dont go around killing people is not nice. [laughter] and tried to give the story an edge. By killing somebody a thing to alienate the audience. Im saying that the movie has more emotional weight if someone you love is lost along the way the journey has impact. I dont like that and i dont believe that. [laughter] those are precious words. Because of their order. Lucas is motivated he doesnt have to like it so he does not believe it so that disbelief stems from the antipathy that somebody that you love dies in the movie. I think lucas wins the argument by a knockout. And i dont believe it either. If you remember he dies kind of. Luka is wind up park at the front spoiler. Says he put it just a few months ago i thought i was the only one who knew the dialogue and to remember that debate very clearly. That i would always lobbied to kill somebody major because if everybody always comes out fine then there is no danger, wrong choice after death the very friend who gave the dvd that resulted in this book, my friend was distraught and spent tenfold and its in the bathroom crying and came out and said volume done. I will not see any more of these movies. And ims seeing every single one. And then one of the main characters is killed. Okay. Here is george lucas to say i absolutely will not to wait. I will never go to work every day so let us reason together says the lord your sins are like scarlett they are read as crimson. And my boy 86 is a dearth of cater fame and. And just turned seven. Three years ago was joined by the sister and i had an acute sense that declan may feel a threat and a loss. And within a few weeks of coming home i sang the song to my little boy that manage to be idiotic than offensive just one space song over and over with other certainty daddies are four boys and mommies are for girls. [laughter] but i would state that over and over with the certainty and delight. He pretended to hate it but his response was to sing right back daddies are for girls and mommies are four boys. Ive responded by saying you must be tired and confused you are singing the song wrong. He came right back at me. He was four or five years old. Daddy must me working too hard in all confused you are singing a wrong to do not get enough sleep last night . Whenever i came back from the business trip i would say this is amazing space not believe that was watching the news and a hotel room in california and the commercial cable and in there with these people that started to sing daddies are four boys in mommies are for girls and it is true he would enter we were garner was watching a baseball game home in the commercial came on and everybody started to sing daddies are for girls and mommies are four boys so you must be confused or you very tired . If you have a baby sister she takes some of your time but your dad is hear from you by now the meaning is simple im here for you. There is good evidence whenever some rand entirely to dinner i picked him up and this happened in the past week i start whistling the tune to the song but every single time he smiles. She turns for today and has heard the song countless times in both versions. Some time she sings with delight daddies are for girls and mommies are four boys. Sometimes with equal delight daddies are four boys and mommies are for girls. Both are right. They are complementary and not contradictory. So what star wars says over and over is daddys our four boys. Pointing to the indispensability of paternal love that the links to which they would go. To every kid male or female to think like a door theater the key is big and frightening and large and at least at one moment potentially violent for any child boyer girl dad is both jedi and also sith it and stars major is fierce and relentless. Everyone has is some combination at least to a child to have access to the dark side with the immense power to a remain capable of thought. So lucas could get primal about fathers and sons and gave some personal hints about why. His own relationship with his father was troubled and tortured. And those who always insisted between dorothy cater and luke was inspired by the relationship into going to the stationery business with the Office Equipment store was pretty much a devastated when i refuse to get involved. Their conversations were turbulent so pause over the term so if that was extraordinarily painful seleucus put it this way we had this big break when i was 18 years when he wanted me to go and as his father recalled i didnt want him to go into the movie business. Even decades later case feel that damned movie business . Nobody lost a hand but he yearns for his fathers approval and it took a long time for lucas to get his movingly he says acidly only have to accomplish one thing in life to make your parents proud of you. Love for them to know who their parents are. He did reconcile although that took years. He live to see me go as a late bloomer to being successful i gave him the one thing every parent works once to have your kid we safe and take care of himself that is all he wanted and what he got. In some ways when it is left moviemaking for two decades he went to dedicate himself to his kids charlie rose wanted to elicit Something Else y d1 on your epitaph for the first line of your obituary . He responded without instant hesitation i was a great dad. The first to you trilogys should called should be called the reduction of and can anakin scott walker. That is what is his defense to the dark side he cannot bear to lose his beloved his heart gets into very deep trouble. Attachment is also the reason for his return to the white whenever is said what Anakin Skywalker can bear is to see his son died and can be redeemed without attachment that is the strongest message the allowed counterpoint about detachments like the buddhist the me and this is what speaks the deepest if luke can forgive the worst person in the galaxy and any parent can be forgiven i will tell you something on Star Wars Day there was something to say with someone who has had difficulty with into our somebody saw that and just saying that made it work out. So he redeems them through forgiveness only through the love of his children even though he is a monster in a new hope Anakin Skywalker is a satanic figure because the son insists to see good and love him back. It is preceded by a vicious fight between father and son and also hates and is terrified of the idea. But he gains the upper hand then dark theater is forced back and knocked down the stairs so the kids ready to attack but says that the last moment i will not fight you father dora spader respond to are not wise to lower your defenses. At that moment that luke falls into a rage no question. And figuratively emasculates him by cutting off his right hand he says good drinker has made you powerful now familiar destiny he refuses to commit patricide and the emperor almost kills luke help me take off his mask. You will die. Nothing can stop that now. Just for once let me see you with my own eyes. Newt does that then he says go. Leave me he says i will not leave you now have got to save you a. You were right about me. Tell your sister you were right to. His dying words for very tail that is dead it is very good it is even great this carries forward the point was good and had come from him. And smiles up at his son and loves him for the first time and one reason we love other people is they help us to love ourselves. The quality of the dialogue he knows a spectacular visualizations but most of the time and if he enjoys editing he will enjoy a with people. In Harrison Ford famously told him you can type did you cannot say it to. [laughter] he confesses as says you are a terrible writer. And has marked recently that is the best feeling with human situations but at that decisive moment from the original trilogy he delivered. He was the best at that particular human situation so he knew he was doing he did not trick anybody. The major one is a hero with 1,000 faces fell whole series tracks campbell but the father sacrificing to repudiate the defining cost of his entire life in order to save his son is lucas that is the line i am your father but with their precall the underrated recall. [laughter] is about one thing of the perils that is a pair about so attachment is forbidden with yoda let go of fear and loss cannot argue. He is a wise man. Lucas selfconscious the portrayed a person turning to evil because he could not let go. And is terrified to lose the people he loves that despair is of the dark side but then it gets a little more politic. Even as a detachment but it is clear if you are attached you are vulnerable. Duke nearly fails as a jedi night because of his rage produced by a star debater and his sister and Anakin Skywalker does fail because if she dies comes back to life. As lucas put it sells consciousness doors faders un doing is that he loved to much. But no. If three revenge of the sith because Anakin Skywalker fear of death of the people he loves he chooses disastrously as a result of the fear but it is not by serenity and distance he cannot bear to see his son died so Anakin Skywalker chose that. So when making the redemptive choice of 100 continuous the very characteristics of the dark side when they express the point of forced the force with him and that is the finest moment the redemption of Anakin Skywalker has any individuals entreated thing and then what is universal that is the complicated saga with the separation of powers by their innocence and goodness and boundless capacity for forgiveness in the sheer power of faith and hope children redeem their parents to bring up their best in every child knows deep in his heart in any parent will choose to risk his life to save his child even if it is a contest. With the parent makes that choice the force will be right there with him. I like that and i believe it. [applause] s dividend political commentary. Listed in the washington d. C. Area. By a very much enjoy read the your new book would you have any particular meaning find important experience that was especially important to write the new book. When i was here a 18 granted not another planet i never heard of all the wrong but it sounded important. [laughter] in they taught me how to use [laughter] you want a serious answer. However you would like. Thanks for that. That immediate source is children. My daughter who is in her 20s now and win the force awakens can now. And burst into tears as soon as the music came on that is something and clearly that was the focus. And my boy that is his thing. And he sees me as a giant compared to the four or five yearold in to see the movies through his eyes met really got to me. Maya mother loves star wars my dad had no interest but he is game for anything he was not door to greater tight battle. But here is what got to me. Somewhere between 1,000,001,000,000,000 people. It is up for 7 million star wars brings back the dead they never got to be a little boy and when that use it comes on the intergenerational connection that star wars creates so that is extremely powerful one reason is it he thinks of me. That is completely level. But the fatheaded is his dad it is a thing. So of course, knowing about separation of powers and then to see the prequel nine only to the perils of attachment with the separation of powers this is a deep emotional connection nonetheless. I ask you 50 questions right now. It is pretty common knowledge. And then but when consul lodis. Did i cry . Very much but we accepted that of was that something that came up if we kill off the main character . I had a professor at penn and new photoshop other empire weapons into the dday invasion pictures because it was striking in the force awakens of basically the third reich it was very disturbing even more so than the original trilogy and can you comment on the world war ii similarities . That is great. In terms of Harrison Ford he made noises about his character dying early on. He did one thing for which he deserves to be in every hall of fame there is. As a person he gets a quick ticket to heaven. Leia says i love you and he says i know. That was not in the script. He made that up. But here it is the artistic case said there is an artistic case for han solo dolling before it would have been devastating if he died before but we dont know if that came up with the architect of the narrative. But with a nazi germany, lucas as democracies become dictatorships. I found while researching the book with the German Parliament to surrender that legislative power to give coble authority to hitler. And it could be completely is something of a star wars. Lucas didnt want that to be limited to any particular historical catastrophe where democracy yields itself but when they say this is how liberty fails to thunderous applause we rehearse this but anticipating this issue and put a thunderous applause with putin not the he is hitler but. Donald trump . I think theyre onto something about paul populist or despair about the al functioning institutions can be played upon. Abrams has more of a reference theyll lucas did in designing the plot that they had plotted reentry into global and political what ever. What would that look like . And that helps to account for the more explicit imagery. Howdy think it is possible with the original trilogy could be sold incredible and though later trilogy is so awful . So what if you or your said have the view about the force awakens . Citizen kane was great and there is some great movies made in their the first order but not in this sense the way at their in excellence but the Empire Strikes back is the best movie ever. Though one issue on this i am publicly disagreeing very sharply with the president of the United States of to my worked there is one issue he is wrong to say that a new pope was the best. That was a big blunder. [laughter] the second best of all time is a new hope. First is the Empire Strikes back the third is return of the jedi citizen kane is not cracking the top three. No way. Number four is revenge of the sith that was fantastic it isnt perfect so it isnt in the top three but the volcano seen them during were Anakin Skywalker says yes to the dark side and luke says no is very precise that is the fourth best. Number five is the force awakens. Better than anything that scorsese did even though he was a genius it is fantastic number six is an attack of the clones. [laughter] deeply underrated and then the phantom menace. I would put citizen kane number eight chariots of fire number 10 but on the last three there is reasonable disagreement. [laughter] i will use my head a little bit and not my heart. Headfirst not part first. The prequel are underrated they dont have the inspiration of the first three lukas said something great if i looked at my movies one that seems to define then is the effervescent giddiness because i am not like that as a person and that is in the first three but not in the sea quells and people feel that they take risks and there are scenes an attack of the columns and revenge of the sith that are nominally good but the fact that there is brave departures for anything he has done before he didnt repeat himself and the dialogue says he isnt that good with dialogue he got that wrong with the force awakens ive everybody who has seen him has been its in their head the virtue is they did good but it was a hard task to meld a new cast of characters with the standby to make it work and move fast with interesting and new mysteries it is a good movie. The other view it is the reworking of a new hope and doesnt have that fantastic imagination that lucas had in search of the the first three. Is it world historical . Know. Does it take, is a brave . No. Is a very good and excellent . How about the best movie of all time . [laughter] you alluded to this already but i think for most people there is the extreme nostalgias connected to the old trilogy so why eight days a those of the best movies of all time so what is your thought or your feelings toward the introduction into seven and eight and nine as it has been sold to a new disney and that could affect those allegories of those references. I am optimistic. I think ray is a terrific character and to clearly she is the new look luke and she has a mystery of acting ability but she is good. The other new characters have a lot of promise. The methodology can be taken in the direction there is a lot of mr. Riis and i expect they will do things that our impressive the tricky so one thing that lucas got act is stars evader runs away with a new pulp and when he is not on the screen it is our every kid wants to be on halloween you know, how many want to be luke . Most people want to be dearth maitre. Why . William blake said maybe the greatest religious text the reason not milton wrote when he spoke of jesus and god at liberty is he was a true poet blake did not believe that but it was brilliant that satan runs away with paradise lost and star wars is a cartoon but he went there. It has seductive power with the possible exception he has mystery he is captivating and captures the narrative. But yet he restores balance to the force. Luke was right but at the same time not coincidentally having the same name as george lucas he goes start when his sisters threatened the novel is completely clear about this season and the ecstatic period. You can see that on the screen that is pretty good bet is a potential of the very worst of us. That is something he got in a simple way that is devastating. See if theyre current crew gets at the same thing is much more complicated that is my prediction. How do people respond with many serious topics. I dont feel super proud to walk around with the book in academic institutions. [laughter] i am talking about a chapter of the book at the Ivy League University soon, tamara. [laughter] i have trepidations which. If i werent doing a book of 1 million footnotes and almost unreadable i would feel a little lecter was taking a holiday from my day job i love doing the book. Will i get fired . Their reaction has and then to my face, a super dash. In star wars san not star trek but people divide into star wars hearses star trek is that an issue of lack of mythology . There are no godfather movies on your list . We have a whole fatherson thing that we thinks those are to the mythologies. Godfather is fantastic they belong on the list of the 15 movies below the top seven. [laughter] so i completely agree. I love star trek. Before i did the book i Like Star Wars a lot i love star trek but now i love them both civic the advantage of star wars has a more visual while wow. What is this about . And star trek doesnt have that quality. It is less like paintings and more like novels some of those best episodes were britain by a novelist. There was one early star trek episode may be jubilant this level of the key keenness. [laughter] but the one episode where kirk appears as to people. One is himself one is passive the other is a killer and the viewer sees the gentle good guy that is what you are thinking but as the narrative develops each has both of those in him or her aunt if you dont have if the aggressive added control part of you youre not fully human if you cannot make decisions. You need that in a way that is deeper than anything from star wars. So in a way it is deeper of anything in star wars if you have a literary sensibility star trek at its best will appeal to you. If you have an artistic or mythic sense of sensibility star wars will get you if the dazzling special effects are producing some odd and wonder they space go crazy for star trek is a little dumpy that little ship that is this big. [laughter] i am just curious how you went about organizing to put the individual chapters together was as a general process with your editor . The latter. The inspiration for doing the book was learning that lucas improvised and he didnt know that youre a trader was the data from the beginning in fact, he was a minor character and luke was old so they couldnt be father and son there is every reason to believe that George Reader was the dad came after a new hope if you look at that freshet doesnt seem likely he could have been the father but the idea that leak a hint leia were siblings and he did know that all along makes that a little creepy their relationship so the fact that he improvised as he did with the plot is what got to be bad is artistic creation you cannot plan that an advance there are connections in the deeps that happens for fiction or nonfiction writers and politics by the way he would have thought samesex marriage would be a constitutional right as late as 2006 that would seem preposterous or unthinkable and all of the constitutional developments have characteristics like that of unforeseeable liddy with the idea someones middle name would be president of the United States with the name hussain also africanamerican was not anticipated or even possible the fact donald trump is the nominee so that is politics like that and in a way they get that it is life. If you think about what brought you to this point in your life the you love, your best friend and your career path, you can trace accidents and a burst to that lucas would not go to film school a friend said it is easy he thought maybe i would try that. I know you write about this a little bit but with star wars i have heard strong arguments the movies have strong feminist moments or antifeminist i have heard both sides of the coin so i am curious undertake on that and then you have a steady dollar the movies probably more in depth and i have so few think rey is . [laughter] i actually know and if i told you there would be a drone that would kill me because i cant tell you. [laughter] but in terms of feminism there is a view that has foundations that theres something very retrograde about the trilogy that there is only one