Cannes premiere of `Star Wars' raises questions of U.S. imperialism

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

CANNES, France For some Europeans, George Lucas' latest "Star Wars" film is invoking comparisons to today's political climate.
Audiences viewing "Episode Three -- Revenge of the Sith" at the Cannes Film Festival are comparing the story of Anakin Skywalker's fall to the dark side and the rise of an emperor through warmongering to President Bush's war on terrorism and the invasion of Iraq.

Among the lines they cite is when Anakin tells former mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi "If you're not with me, then you're my enemy." After the Nine-Eleven attacks, Bush said, "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."
<snip>

not much more here: http://www.kfvs12.com/Global/story.asp?S=3345915

[unhappycamper]

1. One of movies in the series was called "The Empire Strikes Back"

I seem to recall some sort of link between imperialism and empire.. . .

[Amonester]

2. I heard (or read) Lucas say he writes...

the script as time goes by...

so the following:

<snip>

Lucas says he created the "Star Wars" story long before the Iraq war.

...<snip>...

...doesn't surprise me. Yes, he created the story way back then (in the 70's), but the final draft's script is written "as history unfolds" (what I know... and cannot confirm).

:popcorn:


AMERICAN REVOLUTION 'O5
http://www.dougwallace.com

(please support him and give)

[FlemingsGhost]

3. "Star Wars" was lifted from the Samurai film, "Hidden Fortress."

Lucas is good, but not a complete original.

[Amonester]

4. Thank you. I admit not knowing much about movies of this kind.

Only that the upcoming Episode III here (in Montreal) seems to be one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) talked about topic all over town.

<snip>

George Lucas has professed a great fondness for this movie, and you can see the basic Star Wars plot, with a Han Solo, a princess, and two comic characters (the farmers become C3PO and R2D2) crossing enemy territory, but it's a richer plot, with more complex characters than Lucas's space opera/comic book.
--David Loftus, Resident The Hidden Fortress Scholar

...<snip>...

http://www.allwatchers.com/Topics/Info_3706.asp


Thank you.

[Protagoras]

24. The Hidden Fortress DVD

is awesome. A part of my essential collection.

[sweetheart]

7. That line is used in "Ben Hur" as well

Its a rather old principal, black and white politics. Just cuz
lucus uses it, makes it repeated, not new.

Empires have used it since the dawn of time.

[Chovexani]

19. Lucas writes scripts?!

And here I thought a developmentally challenged monkey was sitting at the typewriter for the last two.

</bitter SW fangirl>

[Placebo]

5. Yeah it's pretty blatant...

Another is "Only a Sith deals in absolutes." :)

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

6. Kinda says it all...

[Vogon_Glory]

8. Il n'y sont pas des FReepers a Cannes

Of course my take on it is that George Lucas is playing it safe with Revenge of the Sith by having that movie's first showing someplace where so-called "Conservatives" and FReepers will have difficulty gathering enough numbers to disrupt the premiere for being "anti-Amurrican" because they think that the movie takes a swipe or three at Dear Leader, his Banana Republican followers, or Dear Leader's policies.

:party: :bounce: :silly: :hi:

[damntexdem]

9. Where's the parallel?

Darth Dubya was always like that. Don't let the former alcoholic and cocaine fog fool you.

[cal04]

10. Final Star Wars bears message for America

Lucas wins festival trophy - and hopes his epic will awaken US to democracy in peril
The republic is crumbling under attack from alien forces. Democracy is threatened as the leader plays on the people's paranoia. Amid the confusion it is suddenly unclear whether the state is in more danger from insurgents, or from the leader himself.

It sounds more like a Michael Moore polemic than a Star Wars movie. But George Lucas, speaking as his latest epic was given its world premiere at Cannes yesterday, confirmed that Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, could be read as a parable about American politics. When he conceived his series of films in the 1970s, he says, he was thinking about Vietnam and Nixon, investigating "democracy, and how a senate could give itself over, could surrender itself to a dictator".

He found historical echoes down the ages. "I looked at ancient Rome, and how, having got rid of kings, the Senate ended up with Caesar's nephew as emperor ... how democracy turns itself into a dictatorship. I also looked at revolutionary France ... and Hitler. "It tends to follow similar patterns. Threats from outside leading to the need for more control; democracy not being able to function properly because of internal squabbling." "I hope that situation never arises in our country," he said. "Maybe the film will awaken people to this danger."

Asked whether Star Wars Episode III openly alluded to the Iraq war, he said: "When I wrote it Iraq didn't exist. We were funding Saddam Hussein and giving him weapons of mass destruction. We were going after Iran. But the parallels between what we did in Vietnam and what we are doing in Iraq are unbelievable."

http://film.guardian.co.uk/cannes2005/story/0,15927,1484795,00.html

[gulfcoastliberal]

11. "...a senate could give itself over, could surrender itself to a dictator"

Is that not the state of affairs since the selection?

[ztn]

12. yep!

I think it's wrong for righties to attack Lucas. And they will! it's fits their anti-hollywood talking point.

Nonetheless, if Bush-loving conservatives are angry, too bad!
If seeing the parallel hits to close to home, maybe they should reconsider their blind adherence to the Bush doctrine.

Lucas' message his timely, universal and has been there for decades, centuries and millenia.

[Vyan]

15. Fact is stranger than fiction

Well, let me just say that the Europeans at Cannes have it wrong. All Six Episodes of Star Wars were written over 20 years ago, and were not intended to have political relevance in the current day. George Lucas himself has come forward to underscore this point, according to an Entertainment Reporter I heard on Geraldo Rivera's Fox News program yesterday, and apparently he stated that the theme behind the first three episodes of Star Wars is actually the Vietnam War, not Iraq. Darth Vader is not George W. Bush, he is far more likely to be modeled on Nixon-era thug, G. Gordon Liddy, but unfortunately Lucas is a terribly hackneyed writer of shallow cliched dialogue. He is not being clever, it's simply an unhappy coincidence that he shares this tendency for mindlessly simplistic statements with our current President.

Movie conincidences of this type, where life has begun to immitate fiction, are far more prevalent than most of us would think.

http://vyan.blogspot.com/2005/05/fact-is-stranger-than-fiction.html[br />]More examples...

Vyan

[GirlinContempt]

13. this sums it up

http://www.livejournal.com/users/queensugar/132641.html?nc=14

[Robworld]

14. Episode 2 had a part that seemed like a swipe at the Bush administration

When the senate gave up certain powers to Palpatine (future emperor) to keep everyone safe during war.

http://www.dumdumgoestothecircus.com/

[Selatius]

16. You mean when they voted him the power to mobilize troops?

Yeah, I noticed it too, but I kept the observation to myself around here.

[gatorboy]

17. Here's a quote from Lucas:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050516/ap_en_ot/cannes_star_wars

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."



May the force be with him! :D

[ngGale]

18. I second that.....

n/t

[magellan]

20. Art imitates life

Or maybe Bush** is a closet SW fan who's taking it WAY too seriously....

[Enraged_Ape]

21. Well, if the black cape and respirator mask fit...

wear them.

[PurgedVoter]

22. Enron named their projects using Star Wars lingo.

The Star Wars Missile Defense System was also named after Star Wars. It seems the Conservative Right like to steal from Lucas. I have yet to see the film but only Yoda has Bush ears. Lucas didn't steal from current events, the Rebublicans wrote their playbook stealing from Lucas.

[Kool Kitty]

23. Does this mean that we are going to see

protests by freepers and fundies over this movie? :D