Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith -- Political Subtext

[LensmanZ313]

War! The Republic is crumbling under attacks by the ruthless Sith Lord, Count Dooku. There are heroes on both sides. Evil is everywhere. In a stunning move, the fiendish droid leader, General Grievious, has swept into the Republic capital and kidnapped Chancellor Palpatine, leader of the Galactic Senate. As the Separatist Droid Army attempts to flee the besieged capital with their valuable hostage, two Jedi knights lead a desperate mission to rescue the captive Chancellor.

George Lucas' homage to space opera and Joseph Campbell is fianlly finished (A live-action TV series bridging Episodes 3 and 4 and Clone Wars CGI-animated spin-off will be coming soon). The Phantom Menace took a beating from fans; Attack of the Clones fared slightly better. Personally, I liked both of the earlier films. Jar-Jar Binks never bothered me--hell, if you flashback to 28 years ago, Chewbacca the Wookie was bashed for the very same things.

How good is Revenge of the Sith?

Very good.

It's been rumored that Tom Stoppard and others helped Lucas with the script and Steven Spielberg helped with some scenes. This alleged input has helped to make this episode one of the best since The Empire Strikes Back.

This movie is a bridge to the second trilogy. The white-armored clone troopers now look like Imperial stormtroopers; the Jedi Interceptors have a distinct TIE fighter look to them and the Star Destroyers . . . well, I think that you get the picture.

A friend asked me about the politics of the film. As one story said (http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire2005/index.php?category=3&id=31025):

George Lucas, director of the upcoming Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith, told reporters at the Cannes Film Festival that he never intended the movie to comment on the current political situation in the real world. Appearing at the European premiere of Episode III, Lucas said that he never thought about the Middle East, George W. Bush or voter fraud when writing the script for the final prequel in the epic space saga.

"When I wrote it [the] Iraq [war] didn't exist," Lucas said. "We were just funding Saddam Hussein and giving him weapons of mass destruction. We didn't think of him as an enemy at that point. We were going after Iran and using him as our surrogate. This really came out of the Vietnam era."

In the prequels, which culminate in Episode III, Lucas said he wanted to explore how a democracy turns into a dictatorship: how it gets "given" away. Back in the mid-1970s, when he first conceived of the Star Wars saga, Lucas said that he "went back into history and began to study a great deal about things like ancient Rome, such as why did the Senate, after killing Caesar, turn around [and] give the government to his nephew? Why did France, after they got rid of the King, turn around and give it to Napoleon? You sort of see these recurring themes, where a democracy turns itself over to a dictator. It always seems to happen kind of in the same way, with the same kinds of issues and threats from the outside and needing more control and a democratic body not being able to function properly because everybody is squabbling and there is corruption. This is seen as you go through history, but I didn't think it was going to get this close. I hope this doesn't come true in America. Maybe the film will awaken people to how dangerous a democracy can be when it's subverted."

There are some interesting lines in the film. When Palpatine declares himself Emperor of the Empire, the New Order meant to insure safety and security throughout the Galaxy, the Senate responds with approval. To which Senator Padme Amidala observes: "This is how liberty dies . . . . With thunderous applause."

During the climatic lightsaber duel, Anakin Skywalker snarls to Obi-Wan Kenobi, "If you're not with me, you're my enemy."

Hmmm . . . .

Sounds like Bush's "With-us-or-against-us" diatribes.

During the film, Jedi such as Kenobi, Mace Windu and Yoda, along with Senators Amidala and Bail Organa are wary of Palpatine's increasing power; he has already done things to circumvent the Jedi Council and their traditions and he is sapping at the Senate's power--with the Senate all too willingly giving up their checks and balances.

It's mentioned in other Star Wars books, that the Republic has a "HomeWorld Security" directorate and elite clone shocktroopers stop citizens everywhere, demanding to see their new multipurpose ID cards.

There's a xenophobic backlash, with humans taking control of the government and military, shutting out humanoids and nonhumans, their rights denied.

Sound familiar?

What do some of you think?

 

[Winters_Sorrow]

I think Star Wars was a movie with more in common that Flash Gordon serials than modern-day political allegory

Don't inflate George Lucas' head more than it already is. He's no visionary. He rips off ideas (by his own admission) and hypes them up for public consumption.

I enjoyed the original trilogy as dumb entertainment, but if you want political satire, parody or allegory there are much better films out there than this...

 

[Eradius Lore]

i just seen the film and it was brilliant, apart from a few comical atemps the film was a smash. it was a million times better than any films that i have seen apart from the original trilogy, and i didn't fall asleep like i did in the LOTR films

 

[garreth Jacks]

i just seen the film and it was brilliant, apart from a few comical atemps the film was a smash. it was a million times better than any films that i have seen apart from the original trilogy, and i didn't fall asleep like i did in the LOTR films

Ever though it was almost as long and it and had a lot of bad acting

 

[kaneda]

i didn't fall asleep like i did in the LOTR films

 

[SethMullins]

Personally I thought the relevance of the prequels - and especially Revenge of the Sith - to the modern state of war and the erosion of personal liberty was uncanny and unnerving. I believe Lucas had the basis of the story in his mind for a long time (30 years or so), but world-events of the present day became an influence. Sub-consciously, if not consciously. INVENTING a conflict to create unease and insecurity within the culture, so that the people will put their faith in EMPIRE and the supreme rule of one...

 

[RaymondOwnzU]

I think that too. I liked the LOTR films too though!