Just finished watching "Revenge of the Sith" on DVD...

[Rocknrule]

It really is pretty much the same situation we are in today. There are so many parallels between this movie and life under Bush. If only it had come out a year later, Kerry might have actually become president instead of just winning the election.

Bush and Cheney = Vader and Sidious (obviously)
Jedi = liberals
Sith = conservatives
Separatists = terrorists (fabricated enemy)
Jar Jar = Lieberman (both are stooges that assist in the rise of the empire)
Order 66 = Coulter and Limbaugh calling for execution of liberals
"If you are not with me, you are my enemy" = "Either you are with us or with the terrorists"
Yoda/Palpatine duel = Election 2004 (everything hinges on it and the good guy just barely loses)
Clone Wars = War on terrorism

[derby378]

1. I think a better parallel for Order 66...

...would be the government's active/passive inaction in terms of preventing 9/11 from happening in the first place. But that's just me.

Well done!

[Rocknrule]

2. No

the parallel for that is when Jar Jar suggests giving Palpatine emergency powers, which ultimately leads to him becoming emperor. But can't you just imagine Dick Cheney saying "Execute Order 66!" and having all the Dems in congress wiped out? :scared:

[derby378]

3. Jar-Jar Lieberman, indeed

It's sad to see how much water he's carrying for the Bush regime now.

[Rocknrule]

5. Although

Lieberman does bear a striking resemblance to Palpatine. Coincidence?

[Deja Q]

4. There are a few choice episodes of "Blake's 7" as well...

"Star One" (the finale to a story arc involving the location of the Federation's ability to control, replace the phrase "compluter control complex" with "oil" and things get a lot more scary...) it also questions what's justified between speaking up for what's right and being an outright fanatic...

"Space Fall" (part of the story arc that sets up the premise) has a lot of great dialogue about the ability to think and speak freely...

"Shadow" is the obligatory "drugs are bad" episode except it shows how the Federation controls the "illegal" drug cartel...

Of course, "Blake" shows us the surly reality of what happens when you try to fight those in power. "Return of the Jedi" by comparison is a wet dream.

Quite a few more episodes to choose from, if I wanted to...

The sad part is, it's a 27 year old tv show. And exponentially more overt about the nastiness of fascism; it doesn't hide behind cute puppets, watered-down topics, lame quote parallels, and kiddie prattle. TV shows and movies today have more money thrown at them and look better; but the early 1980s seem to be a cutoff point for anything overtly thought-provoking.

[NashVegas]

8. "Drugs Are Bad"

If you have Netflix, or can find it elsewhere, rent the original British version (it's a miniseries) of Traffik and you'll see just how much Hollywood wimped out when it came to showing who controls the market.

[sweetheart]

22. yes, i notice that too

That early 80's cutoff point... It coincides with the thatcher/reagan revolution of continuous
destruction of the Post ww2 consensus of a liberal society. So, unsuprising that criticism of
real fascism and its methods would be subverted in film at that point forwards.

[1932]

6. I think I read that Lucas was insipred to write the first one by Vietnam

and by things the US was doing in Latin America.

[Rocknrule]

7. How did the first one parallel to Vietnam?

I wasn't alive then, explain it to me

[1932]

9. Vietnam betrayed the principles of the American Revolution.

As Cornel West says, America was founded on competing principles: anti-imperialism (except on our own continent) and freedom (except when it came to slaves), and that the greatest moments of the Nation, as West and others have said, come when America expresses the better half of those founding (Emersonian?) values. The Revolution against British Empire, the Civil War and the end of slavery, and FDR battling fascism, being the zeniths.

In the 70s, many Americans believed that America was betraying those better anti-imperial values and becoming the equivalent of the British Empire, and those who would enslave others for profit (the crucial issue in the civil war) and those who would advocate an anti-democratic, anti-labor, pro-corporate totalitarianism (which was the crucial issue during WW2). (In what's-his-name's book (the author of the best democracy money can buy) he describes how his father gave him his WW2 medals to lose or break with the rest of his toys when he realized during the Vietnam War that America was becoming what he had proudly fought against during WW2.)

So, Lucas wrote Star Wars -- a movie about rebelling against empire -- inspired by this question of which values America was expressing during Vietnam. It starts with an allegory very similar to the American Revolution.

The subsequent movies have, sadly, kept pace with developments in American politics so that now that we've completed six episodes we've learned that the empire in Star Wars went through the same thing that many think America has gone through -- we thought we were, as Lynne Cheney said recently, on the side of good, but we discover that we are now the imperialists.

[ET Awful]

10. The only problem is that the end of the saga, Vader turns back to good

I don't see that happening with Bush . . . who else do we have that is evil that MIGHT turn to good in the end?

[Rocknrule]

11. All I could think of is Lieberman

but he is so committed to fucking the Democratic party over from within, I doubt it.

However, I always tell my Repub dad, who used to be a Democrat, "There is still good in you Father. The Republican Party hasn't driven it from you fully.":D

[ET Awful]

12. I was thinking McCain. . .

:P

[harphunter]

13. hmmmmmm

I just thought it was a sweet fuckin movie. I can't "fathom" comparisons being made to politics now and days. What's going on now seems way too complicated. This movie just does an excellent job of tying up the loose ends. Afterall who was president when the first one came out? And what were the politics then?

Is Yoda Carter maybe? Hmmmm

I can't see it. But whatever. I had a bootleg version before it even came out and loved it. The other 2 sucked ass in my opinion. I guess it depends on your mindset as to how you compare movies. If I compared the Godfather to any administration I could probably make it work. But who knows. I am just a movie fan. Especially Starwars.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

15. Try watching it again and again and again you'll get it eventually.n/t

[harphunter]

17. well

The thing is I am a huge Starwars fan. I owned this one before it was released. I saw it at the theater 7 times. I oen the real one today. I love this movie. So maybe I am just not capable of spinning politics into a movie I treasure.

Don't get me wrong. I hated the guy who played Anakin. But politically you could spin this into any situation you want to.

I hate to see a movie I like ruined by current politics. There is so much we could find wrong with the current administration. Or any administration for that matter. Lets not ruin a great movie over politics.

That's my view anyway. Humble and unimportant.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

18. It's not spin. Maybe we watched different movies. n/t

[harphunter]

19. ok?

No..wait a minute....the third installment...aka the 6th and final...


Right?


The evil emperor is Bush?

Why not Nixon?

Why not Vlademir?(sp)


Hell maybe your right.

I am just not that intense I suppose. Just wanted to enjoy a movie?

Who is Chewbacca?

What about Dooku?

He could be Foster.
No. That wouldn't work. Wrong spin. Wrong administration.

Ok. Who is Luke and Lea?

Good or bad. They were spawned by Cheney? I think. Not sure. Who did we decide Anakan was?

Vader is Bush right? Shit I forgot. Nevermind. Ill enjoy the saga for what it is. A great story.


Wait....who the fuck is Han? I don't appreciate it if you say bad shit against Han. I like that character. And who is Greedo?


This is way too complicated.


So they used a quote similar to that of the Bastard Bush. Bush was speaking of Osama and as I "fathom" the movie... the term was used for the evil empire.


Maybe...damn....you could be right. That phrase kills the whole thing for me. I choose to seperate politics from recreation. Thanks a lot.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

20. Nice try, it's really not that complicated.

I don't remember saying anywhere that every character from every movie had something to do with republicans.

Anakin Skywalker: "You are either with me - or you are my enemy."

Getting special powers from the senate (patriot act?). Financing the enemy they are claiming to fight (S Hussein, The mujahideen, etc.). But hey whatever, there have been quite a few articles on the subject by people that know more than I do.

"So they used a quote similar to that of the Bastard Bush. Bush was speaking of Osama and as I "fathom" the movie... the term was used for the evil empire." What does this even mean?

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

23. Just for the record, are you referring o Vince Foster? Yup, figures.n/t

[harphunter]

14. edit

Shit. Double post.

[Hyernel]

16. Ooooo! That's out? I'll need to rent that tonight.

But for the scifi geekiness, not so much the undercover political commentary. Although I did notice that when I saw it in the theatre.

YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE!!!

Oh, one big difference: Bush was never the "chosen one" of American Jedi. He would have never been chosen for Jedi training.

[sweetheart]

21. likewise

I agree with your list as well..:

http://www.progressiveindependent.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=9451