I always thought “A New Hope” was a parallel to the cold war, where the oppressive Soviet Empire wanted to invade and destroy the underdog (militarily) US and NATO. A new hope was needed.
Hans Solo was epitome of American, cowboy and owner of a hotrod.
Princess Leaha was your typical liberated female character. Not submissive female role.
Luke was the typical restless highschool kid who just got his drivers license, and wants to take on the world.
The Empire was extreme conformity, communistic totalitarian control, brutality and extreme centralized government, wrapped in the evil part of spirituality (the force)
Atheism (Solo) denied the evil, up to a point, until things get so bad that a clear good/evil decision has to be made against the easy choice.
Now ironically, as we fell into the collectivist evils of Obama over the last eight years, then the next movie, The Force Awakens, comes out, re-awakening all the old characters and issues.
And Trump is elected. Conservatism awakens.
No this is definitely not a movie series theme that favors the liberals because that would be to favor the totalitarians.
I do a speech with nice slides about Star Wars and how Reagan was Luke, how the Evil Emperor was the any of the old Soviet Dictators (and I have a slide of Brezhnev & the Emperor & they are VERY close, so I go back and forth), then Gorby and Darth, but Darth without his helmet where he is pasty faced and has that red streak on his head, right where Gorby’s red birth mark is.
The students think it’s hysterical.