Return of the Jedi brings the Skywalker saga’s first arc to a close, but the emotions hit harder because of how the film is built. This episode explores the formalist craft behind the storytelling—parallel editing, color theory, sound design, and symbolic framing. From the silence before Vader’s turn to the clash of sabers in cold imperial gray, everything is placed with purpose. In this final chapter, the myth ends not with words, but with form.

Though George Lucas created the world of Star Wars, it was director Irvin Kershner who shaped its most emotionally complex chapter. This episode explores The Empire Strikes Back through the lens of Auteur Theory, focusing on how Kershner’s style brought intimacy, ambiguity, and poetic stillness to a galaxy defined by war. In this film, the battles may be big—but it’s the quiet moments that cut the deepest.

What makes A New Hope feel timeless?

It isn’t just the space battles or lightsabers—it’s the myth beneath the story. This episode breaks down Luke Skywalker’s journey using Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, exploring how Star Wars draws on ancient narrative patterns to tell something bold and familiar.

From twin suns to trench runs, we follow the echoes of old stories made new— and ask what it means to answer the call.

This special intro episode sets the stage for a full arc dedicated to the Skywalker Saga—nine Star Wars films, each unpacked through a different film theory. From postcolonialism and Marxism to feminist theory and formalism, we reframe the galaxy far, far away as a mirror of our own. Whether you listen in order or pick your favorites, this arc invites you to see Star Wars not just as space opera—but as cultural text.

Revenge of the Sith isn’t just a story of betrayal—it’s the unraveling of a mind caught between love, fear, and identity. This episode explores Anakin’s fall through the lens of psychoanalytic theory, using Freud and Lacan to understand his unconscious desires and fear of loss. In trying to stop death, he loses everything. Including himself.

A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi are dropping next week!

In Attack of the Clones, war doesn’t emerge—it’s engineered. This episode explores the film through a Marxist lens, looking at how capital, class, and compliance drive the creation of the Clone Army. As the Jedi shift from peacekeepers to military commanders, we examine how labor is erased, power is disguised, and ideology keeps the war machine running without question.

The Phantom Menace opens with a trade dispute—but beneath its glossy sci-fi surface lies a story about colonialism, control, and the systems that maintain power through bureaucracy. This episode explores the film through postcolonial theory, examining how racialized “others” and hollow diplomacy reveal an empire already in motion, long before the Clone Wars ever begin.

In Donnie Brasco, the line between role and reality blurs. This episode explores how the film turns undercover work into an identity crisis, where loyalty, masculiniTy, and performance collide. When does pretending stop being an act? And what happens when you believe the part you’re playing?