Of pre-eminent gnostic inspiration is the science fiction movie "Star Wars", whose hero Luke Skywalker, "a long time ago in a galaxy far far away," fights valiantly for "the Rebel Alliance" against the malevolent Emperor who insists on ruling the universe. Originally subtitled "A New Hope", the screenplay was conceived by its author George Lucas in apocalyptic dimensions. In conjunction with two sequels, "The Empire Strikes Back" and "The Return of the Jedi", it constitutes only the mid-section of a greater nine-part epic called "The Adventures of Luke Skywalker". Three "prequels", scheduled to begin appearing in 1999, will explain how the "evil" Emperor seized power in the first place, and the whole story should eventually close on what happens after his defeat.

When "Star Wars" came out in 1977 only the sophisticated New Yorker magazine commented on its "neo-Sophoclean" and "mythic" overtones. Although it is not hard to recognize Lucifer in names like "Luke" and "Skywalker", most reviewers declared the production nothing more than good, clean, noisy fun with the simplest of plots. That the rebel group's headquarters occupies a temple described in the book as "converted to modern service by technicians of the Alliance", where an ancient throne room "too beautiful for the architects to modify" was left intact and presumably awaiting an occupant, apparently raised no eyebrows. Nor did the mysterious Obi-Wan-Kenobi, ably portrayed by the English Catholic convert Alec Guinness, who would form a kind of anti-trinity with Luke and the eerie creature Yoda.

If any critics suspected at the show's opening that the plot which appears so simple on the surface actually contained subtleties fully grasped only by adepts of the Old Religion, or that the evil Empire and its foremost defender the sinister knight Darth Vader (who turns out to be Luke's father) might be reverse representations of the Kingdom of God and His Christ, they never voiced their opinions. In the Catholic diocesan reviews no alarms sounded, even when Obi-Wan arms the neophyte Luke with a "lightsaber" for the deadly warfare of mind over matter about to take place and indoctrinates him inot the use of the "Force", a secret power existing in everything, "binding the universe together" and enabling the initiate to control all technology.

There would be a dramatic awakening twenty years later, however, when Newsweek for January 20, 1997 would call the epic "a classic fairytale about good and evil, evoking old-time mythology with futuristic intergalactic cavalries. It has religious, paternal and political overtones". Proclaiming it "part of the culture", the magazine furthermore announced that "the Smithsonian next fall will open a big exhibition on the mythology and social themes of 'Star Wars'" whose "score was a hymn, the plot a parable". Even the general public may be catching on, for at the movie's revival at the Gotham Cinema in Manhattan, a man in the men's room was heard to exclaim "God, this is spiritual, isn't it?" But then, as a gnostic proverb has it... "Nothing is concealed, from him who knows!"