The Politics of ROTS & The Saga

:::Furthermore, anyone's oppinion on the political themes of ROTS (or the saga now) will greatly depend on their own point of view and will generally have little to do with the movies themselves.

Yeah.

This thread (or at least the the idea which the Creatrix (is Zam a girl?) of this thread began with) has little to do with "Politics", as much as her idea that GL's, implied, Bush-hatred mirrors her(?) own.

I know (not really, but one could come to the "conclusion") that GL is a Commie-Mutant, but does that mean that we have to bow down to the DNC, and/or the CPUSA (i.e. Communist Party USA - the DNC's best friend, and Campaign Manager), while watching the Saga?

I don't thinks so...

And so it is.

 

arielthalandra, what on Earth does that have to do with this thread?

I want to make one thing clear though, this is still a Star Wars thread. I haven't seen Star Wars in this thread for a while now, so if it doesn't get back on track soon then I'm going to close it down.

 

OW506 EDIT: Off topic

 

Is it this difficult to talk about Star Wars?

 

LOL, "you sound like a terrorist, I mean seperatist".

I think the politics of Star Wars is fascinating. I'm glad GL discussed it on the RotS commentary track because it really revealed some cool insight. I never realized the "dissing" he was giving to corporations helping evil politicans who really don't care about the corporations to begin with.

He makes the politics vague enough they can be universally applied to many historical tragedies (including... one going on now )

 

I can't say that Star Wars is political. I know that Lucas mentioning his Nixon as an influence for Palpatine must have rubbed several older people the wrong way. I doubt if it rubbed our generation the wrong way. We never had Nixon as president. Besides, most people don't know what he did these days unless they've read a history book.

I would say that Lucas isn't happy with capitalism. Look at the Seperatists. In the original script of AOTC, they pledged to devote themselves to capitalism. But this doesn't mean that Lucas is socialist or anything. I think many capitalists in this country don't like the way the government manages it. Some people hated the Clinton administration's approach, while some people hate the Bush administration's approach.

Personally, I think that Lucas is a Democrat. He says that Clinton was an influence for Valorum. However, I can't see any anti-Bush stuff in Star Wars. (I don't like Bush. I've disliked him since 2002. Before then, I actually liked him.) If Lucas wanted to get in trouble, he would have tried to put some modern political allegory in Star Wars. Lucas is more focused on ideas. The ideas that interest him are democracies giving themselves up to become dictators to "clean everything up," as well as backward societies defeating more technologically advanced societies.

 

The scene w/ Anakin and Padme where she says," Did you ever think that maybe we are on the wrong side, and this war represents a failure to listen." He then says you sound like a terrorist, i mean a separitist. And then where Palpatine and Anakin are always wanting him to have more powers to get around the senate, was directed at the Patriot Act. The scene after Anakin goes to the darkside and he says,"if your not with me your my enemy." and Kenobi says only a "Sith deals in absolutes." Shows how this current administration takes that if you do not agree with us your not with us.

Although I don't fully agree with the political standpoint of GL, it is intriguing that this has become a clear parallell to the Bush Administration and the war on terror. I am a conservative, loyal to the country, but even I must say that Bush's tactics have become scary if he needs to spy on the people and surpass the senate. VERY reminiscent to Padme's views on the Clone War. Patriot Act = Emergency Powers.

"If you are not with me, you are my enemy" -Darth Vader
"If you are not with us, you are with the terrorists" -George Bush
(paraphrased)

However, if this is one extreme there must be another.

Obi-Wan: "The Council has demanded that you report on all of the Chancellor's dealings"
Anakin: "Thats treason"
Obi-Wan: "We are at war, Anakin"

Several Republicans and Democrats in the senate have made it clear that we are indeed in the midst of a war, and certain contraversial tactics must be used. Could this be a shoutout to the concern and determination of the Jedi Council?

I think that GL used these two point of views to allegorize the current events in American politics.

 

Given that SW is about an EMPIRE and a REVOLUTION and how both of those got started, there has to be politics in it. Given GL's background as a product of "Western Civ" and the Cold War, quite naturally that is going to inform his artistic expresssion.

As a whole, the story in SW is far more general than anything specific to Nixon or W. It has elements that go back to ancient Rome, as well as elements that reflect more recent times. But I can also see GL being unable to resist adding a few things to ROTS that mirror his "take" on current events.

I highly doubt that GL is any kind of extremist. I tend to be extremist, but perhaps that's simply due to the fact that I'm rather histrionic and tend to take things further than necessary. In light of that, even I would submit that extremism in any form is destructive. Go far enough to the right, you get fascism. Go far enough to the left, you get Soviet-style communism. Neither of these extremes resulted in a free, open society. The "empire" in SW always struck me as fascistic, but how much do we really know other than that Palps played the galaxy like a fiddle?

Those with power will ultimately abuse it. That was a big point in ROTS and it's relevant to the current administration. It's also relevant to any hierarchical paradigm, as anybody with an egomaniacal boss will tell you.

 

I'm a conservative. Lucas is a liberal. I think I'll leave that statement to encompass my feelings on his views. As for the PT itself, I was a little tired by ROTS of having Lucas' political views being shoved down my throat. I feel that if I pay money to watch a film that wasn't directed by Michael Moore I should just have a good time, not go home wondering what so-and-so said that relates to the current administration. In the end, it's poor political commentary and I would watch CNN if I wanted my opinion to be chastised.

 

Lucas puts politics in all of his movies, ever seen THX, just in ROTS he was not as subtle as usual.