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Revenge of the Sith parallels current events: Corrupt Senate gives away freedoms to wannabe dictator

by Open-Publishing - Monday 16 May 2005
7 comments

Cinema-Video Democracy Governments USA

"This is how liberty dies — to thunderous applause."

So observes Queen Amidala of Naboo as the galactic senate grants dictator-to-be Palpatine sweeping new powers in his crusade against the Jedi in the final "Star Wars" movie opening this week.

It’s just one of several lines in "Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith," that reveal the movie to be more than just a sci-fi blockbuster and gargantuan cultural phenomenon.

"Revenge of the Sith," it turns out, can also be seen as a cautionary tale for our time — a blistering critique of the war in Iraq, a reminder of how democracies can give up their freedoms too easily, and an admonition about the seduction of good people by absolute power.

Some film critics suggest it could be the biggest anti-Bush blockbuster since "Fahrenheit 9/11."

New York Times movie critic A.O. Scott gives "Sith" a rave, and notes that Lucas "grounds it in a cogent and (for the first time) comprehensible political context.

" ’Revenge of the Sith’ is about how a republic dismantles its own democratic principles, about how politics becomes militarized, about how a Manichaean ideology undermines the rational exercise of power. Mr. Lucas is clearly jabbing his light saber in the direction of some real-world political leaders. At one point, Darth Vader, already deep in the thrall of the dark side and echoing the words of George W. Bush, hisses at Obi-Wan, ’If you’re not with me, you’re my enemy.’ Obi-Wan’s response is likely to surface as a bumper sticker during the next election campaign: ’Only a Sith thinks in absolutes.’ "

AFP reports that the movie delivers "a galactic jab to US President George W. Bush."

It’s been generating "murmurs at the parallels being drawn between Bush’s administration and the birth of the space opera’s evil Empire."

Are some people reading too much into the movie?

Filmmaker George Lucas insists that the genesis of his story dates back 30 years. But he pointed out that certain themes do seem to repeat themselves, whether here and now or a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

Bruce Kirkland writes in the Toronto Sun: "Star Wars is a wakeup call to Americans about the erosion of democratic freedoms under George W. Bush, filmmaker George Lucas said yesterday.

"Lucas, responding to a question from the Sun at a Cannes Film Festival press conference, said he first wrote the framework of Star Wars in 1971 when reacting to then U.S. President Richard Nixon and the on-going events of the Vietnam War. But the story still has relevance today, he said, and is part of a pattern he has noticed in his readings of history.

" ’I didn’t think it was going to get quite this close,’ he said of the parallels between the Nixon era and the current Bush presidency, which has been sacrificing freedoms in the interests of national security. ’It is just one of those re-occurring things. I hope this doesn’t come true in our country. Maybe the film will awaken people to the situation of how dangerous it is.’ "

David Germain writes for the Associated Press: "Lucas never mentioned the president by name but was eager to speak his mind on U.S. policy in Iraq, careful again to note that he created the story long before the Bush-led occupation there.

" ’When I wrote it, Iraq didn’t exist,’ Lucas said, laughing.

" ’We were just funding Saddam Hussein and giving him weapons of mass destruction. We didn’t think of him as an enemy at that time. We were going after Iran and using him as our surrogate, just as we were doing in Vietnam . . . The parallels between what we did in Vietnam and what we’re doing in Iraq now are unbelievable.’ "

Lucas said he has long been interested in the transition from democracy to dictatorship.

"In ancient Rome, ’why did the senate, after killing Caesar, turn around and give the government to his nephew?’ Lucas said. ’Why did France, after they got rid of the king and that whole system, turn around and give it to Napoleon? It’s the same thing with Germany and Hitler.’

" ’You sort of see these recurring themes where a democracy turns itself into a dictatorship, and it always seems to happen kind of in the same way, with the same kinds of issues, and threats from the outside, needing more control. A democratic body, a senate, not being able to function properly because everybody’s squabbling, there’s corruption.’ "

Harlan Jacobson writes in USA Today: "Since screenings began last month at Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch, people have been discussing parallels between the final film in Lucas’ six-film Star Wars saga and current political events. . . .

"Lucas said Darth Vader’s saga is about how a good man turns himself into a bad one.

" ’Most of them think they’re good people doing what they do for a good reason.’ "

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Forum posts

  • My father and I are both big fans of the Star Wars films and have been recently re-investigating some of — what we assume to be — the "lessons" that could be infered from them by watching the some movies again. And then it hit me last night that the whole transformation of Lucas’ "federation" into the "Empire" seems to hold some sort of striking congruence in our very own American society today even in spite of the fact that the story was created about 30 years ago. To myself I earlier wondered how well a publishing regarding the subject might be received... personally, I think that it’s refreshingly different, so ^ good work on that and thank you for putting it together!

  • another great article about this...
    AMERICA HAS ENTERED THE DARK SIDE

    "Watching Condi Rice tell the world, with great sincerity, that America respects other nation’s religious practices while the whole world knows we have and continue to trample innocent Muslims and their religious practices makes me realize that we have fully entered the dark side .

    We have, indeed, become the Evil Empire ( the Death Star ) and Darth Vader is not Bush The Dark Lord of the Sith is none other than Dick Cheney, whose paranoia and Global empire building schemes are still very much intact.

    By the way, who did the secret service hustle into a bunker right away when the Piper Cub approached the White House last week ? It was Cheney while Boy Bush happily rode his bicycle a few miles away oblivious of the alert.....

    It is time now to remember the words of our founding fathers, poets and leaders and use them to excricate ourselves from this hole we have dug.

    Words like these from Carl Sandburg;

    For we know when a nation goes down and never comes back , when a society or a civilization perishes, one condition may always be found they forgot where they came from . They lost sight of what brought them along.

    Or these hopeful words of Kenneth B Clark ;

    The essential for hope is to be found in that critical minority of human beings who insist on being unrealistic, who for some still unknown set of reasons continue to argue that human beings are capable of the possibility of empathy, compassion, love and sensitivity even as cruelty, hostility, insensitivity and rationalized dishonesty now dominate. In the final analysis, only those courageous individuals provide the hope for the ultimate realism that is defined by the capacity of a society to survive rather than be destroyed on the alter of human barbarity"

    • I’m sure George Lucas intended his Sith film to be a hit on George Bush, but just like fellow lunatic Michael Moore’s insane Farenheit 911, he will fail miserably. Only the fanatical left, who see conspiracies everywhere, will "get it," while sensible people will be entertained (or not) by a clever piece of fiction. Believing that George Bush is Darth Vader-like, and that the Iraq war is a parallel to actions of the Empire, is beyond stupid. It is sickening. Only sheltered, priveleged people - supremely naive - who’ve had no exposure to reality, could believe such silliness. It is pure fantasy. Laughable. Ultimately, insulting. I could rip the rationale piece by piece, but it would be as worthwhile as explaining that 2 + 2 = 4 to a rock. The fact that you lefties are guided by a fictional story, which is twisted and turned by its writer to fit a preconcieved outcome, is all the testimony needed to establish your weakmindedness. Your immaturity. Your utter unreadiness to live in the real world. A sober, fact based analysis - FACT BASED being the key - of the US actions in Iraq, as well everywhere else in the mid-east, clearly shows that this country is the liberator from tyranny and dictatorship, not the perpetrator. Hatred of the the US, as currently constituted (capitalist) is what blinds you, causes you to choose to believe things that aren’t true. To believe things that stoke and satisfy your hatred. To George Lucas: get properly informed and grow up before you shoot off your "cautionary tales." You’re embarrassing yourself. To the rest of you following Mr. Lucas and his ilk, go back out to the sand box. We’ll call you when it’s lunch time.

    • You, sir, are an idiot. Obviously, anyone with common sense should realize that Revenge of the Sith isn’t a commentary on the current US situation in Iraq and the world at large. The story existed long before a conflict with either Iraq or Muslim fundamentalists was a glimmer in the politicians minds. However, to denounce a cautionary advisement from a storyteller as ignorant foolishness is absurd. This story is a mere retelling of human history, a history which we as (supposedly) rational people are more than enthusiatstic to ignore or forget. The story of Star Wars (and many other films, both popular and obscure) stretches back as far as human history can recall. The story of Rome, of France, of Britain, Russia, Germany et al. How noble democracies and republics progress to inefficiency due to overburdgeoning beurocracies and overdrawn wars. Because the conflicts drag on, and because the beurocracies preclude immediate action or closure, the people willingly handover their rights to one or a few "elite" in the interest of expediency and absolute safety (which is an absurd illusion we insist on promulgating). What Lucas no doubt meant by his comments, and what his films and all media that focus on falls from grace and redemptions, is merely that history has an unfortunate tendency to repeat, and that while America has eluded the pitfalls of power and fear which the rest of the world has not been able to avoid, she is ever on the edge of the blade, and she must never forget nor forsake what the founders of the nation envisioned and laid out in the US Constitution in exchange for ephemeral promises of security from self-interested politicians and ambitious men.

    • Indeed we become this imperialistic and militaristic force. Like how the the Galactic Empire keeps all planets in the galaxy in check with their weapon of mass destruction.( The Death Star) We keep all other countries in the world in check with our military. But like history has shown us. ALL superpowers don’t last forever. As the Galactic Empire fell in Return of the Jedi. The Roman Empire falling apart as well. The U.S. can follow in the same place as well. I hope this film can wake up Americans all over the country.

    • Throughout history, there has always been some kind of pattern, and I think Lucus simply followed the part where a democracy turned into a dictatorship and followed that pattern. As for the connection with the US, coincidence that it should come to theatres at this point in history. The United States is loosing power, perhaps we will become a militaristic dictatorship (which seems the strongest possibility), but I doubt that Star Wars was specifically targeted at the US.

  • Get the soundtrack to this article. MP3: Bush Dubbed to the Imperial March to War

    from Scottie’s cut and paste project
    www.scottiescutandpasteproject.cjb.net