>(and those things DID have an impact on american culture, and
>lots of films were made out of the real life ones)

Yeah everyone knows the Nazis were bad and the Allies were good, but there's no singular hero figure/story that Americans identify with like they do with Star Wars.

>you're saying Lucas reinterpreted old archetypes and made them
>accessable to modern audiences? well yes but those archetypes
>are EVERYWHERE and people were reinterpreting them ALL THE
>TIME and they didn't NEED to be made accessable.

Then why did Star Wars resonate so much more deeply with people than all that other stuff?

>you could
>write star wars with no education about mythology

You could, but it wouldn't have become the cultural phenomenon that it is.

>I don't see how you can give Lucas credit for writing a story
>about good vs evil. It's the same damn story as countless
>books and films. That's what the Jung/Heroes things says, that
>the same underlying story is used everywhere (not just in old
>myths)

It's not just good vs. evil, it's the hero's journey. And it's not the same as countless books and films, Lucas structured it specifically with this in mind.

>Star TREK on the other hand, since it presents a utopian
>vision of humanity, maybe it has shaped what we imagine will
>come in the future. Aside from impact, Star Trek is much more
>concerned with morality... virtually every episode is a new
>moral dilemma for the crew, whereas SW is just "yeah kill the
>Empire whatever"

That's a good point. But we're talking about America - we're very much "yeah kill the Empire whatever" kind of people.

But you'll probably enjoy this essay by sci-fi author David Brin on this topic:

http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/feature/1999/06/15/brin_main/

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