In a recent interview with IGN, Mark Hamill (better known as the saber swinging optimistic Jedi, Luke Skywalker) tossed in his two cents on why Luke does what he does and acts how he acts in the latest Star Wars movie, which ignited an absolute firestorm across the internet.
"It is tragic. I’m not a method actor, but one of the techniques a method actor will use is to try and use real-life experiences to relate to whatever fictional scenario he’s involved in. The only thing I could think of, given the screenplay that I read, was that I was of the Beatles generation—‘All You Need Is Love’, ‘peace and love’. I thought at that time, when I was a teenager: ‘By the time we get in power, there will be no more war, there will be no racial discrimination, and pot will be legal.’ So I’m one for three. When you think about it, [my generation is] a failure. The world is unquestionably worse now than it was then."
Good Lord, Hamill! Way to point out that your hippy-dippy generation screwed us all over! Kidding. Kinda. I mean, the man has a point, but I think the problem was, while all the peace/love people were out smoking big nugs and talking about how everyone should chill, the people who were, you know, not doing that were learning how to be politicians. And here we are.
Still, it's a sobering critique from an actor on the character he played (not that that matters in the slightest), and it does fit; Luke was such an optimist, he almost died from it when he gambled on turning his father. Take it for what it is, but it does ring true for the character.
What do you think? Did they screw the pooch on this interpretation, or does it make some kind of sense, now that the fury over seeing the film has died down a bit? Lemme know in the comments.
