Christopher Vogler The Writers Journey
World.
Saloons and seedy bars seem to be good places for these transactions.
Countless Westerns take the hero to a saloon where his manhood and determination
are tested, and where friends and villains are introduced. Bars are also useful to the
hero for obtaining information, for learning the new rules that apply to the Special
World.
In Casablanca, Rick's Cafe is the den o f intrigue in which alliances and enmities
are forged, and in which the hero's moral character is constantly tested. In Star Wars,
the cantina is the setting for the creation of a major alliance with H a n Solo and the
making of an important enmity with Jabba the Hutt, which pays off two movies
later in Return of the Jedi. Here in the giddy, surreal, violent atmosphere of the cantina
swarming with bizarre aliens, Luke also gets a taste of the exciting and dangerous
Special World he has just entered.