His generation is a product of a vastly inferior educational system than the one that you and I were exposed to. They just don't teach real history anymore.
Craig Winneker:
Posted on 05/11/2005 6:39:05 AM PDT by EarthStomper
BRUSSELS -- I just saw a press screening of the new Star Wars movie, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, and here's my capsule review: It's superb; the last 15 minutes are better than anything George Lucas has ever done; and as Yoda would say, "This film must you see; love it, you will."
However, I left the theater with something more than the feeling that after nearly 30 years as a Star Wars fan, a cinematic era of my life -- with plenty of ups and downs along the way -- had been closed on a thrilling and thoroughly satisfying note. I also wondered why George Lucas suddenly felt the need to add so much topicality into the story line.
Everyone knows what is going to happen in this movie -- where it starts and how it will end. Part of its brilliance is the way it turns a foregone conclusion into a kind of challenging plot puzzle. You know what the picture's going to look like at the end, but you want to see how all the pieces will fit together. And Lucas has fun with this game, throwing in a lot of cheeky references to other films -- from Frankenstein and Nosferatu to Commando Cody and Apocalypse Now and even, yes, to other Star Wars movies -- to lighten the otherwise darkening mood.
But something else is disturbingly -- and rather awkwardly - evident: a recurring anti-Bush, anti-Iraq war message. Forget about the merits of the argument in question. This stuff has no place in a Star Wars flick.
The dialogue in ROTS is rife with distinctly unsubtle references to the current political situation. "This war represents a failure to listen," Padme laments at one point, before declaring after a vote to give executive power to Chancellor Palpatine: "So this is how liberty dies -- to thunderous applause." The wicked Chancellor, played brilliantly by Ian McDiarmid, talks on and on about "security", giving it an evilly sibilant S, and about "peace". As he lures Anakin over to the dark side, telling him what to say in Jedi Council meetings, you wonder if he's supposed to be Karl Rove. He does, after all, appear to be the smartest man in the movie.
The ultimate reference comes in the climactic duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan Kenobi on the planet of Mustafar, which seems to have long ago failed in its struggle against global warming. "If you're not with me, you're my enemy," Anakin shouts to Obi-Wan, who responds: "Only a Sith lord deals in absolutes." Yes, and so, it would seem, do neo-cons.
Meanwhile, at that very instant in the Senate chamber, there is a cool fight scene between Yoda and Darth Sidious that, as one reviewer has already pointed out, evokes Democrats and Republicans in violent deadlock. (I was just glad there weren't any more endless Congressional debates like the ones that bogged down the previous two Star Wars chapters. Episode I: The Phantom Menace had more talk of trade pacts and intergalactic confederations than an EU summit.)
The internet has been rife with rumors that Lucas had some script-doctoring help from noted playwright Tom Stoppard. Given the greatly improved quality of much of this film's dialogue over its predecessors (Lucas has a brilliant imagination but he is terrible at scripting a believable conversation between two or more humanoids), I'm apt to believe them. Could Stoppard have injected a dose of left-wing sentiment into our beloved film franchise? It's tough to say. The Czechoslovakian-born British writer has long been a foe of communism and once had nice things to say about Margaret Thatcher. But he was a vocal opponent of the Iraq war and recently wrote a dramatic trilogy idealizing the roots of socialism.
Again, all of this shouldn't matter. The film is exciting enough that I overlooked the few annoying instances when it veered away from its fantasy world and towards today's front pages. The rest of the time, thankfully, this movie took place right where it is supposed to: in a galaxy far, far away.
The annoying part about all this is that the Bush quote, "Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists" has reasoning behind it that is specific to the War on Terror. And I doubt few people would disagree with that reasoning. A country that has terrorists living there, plotting against the United States or our allies, must do something about it. They can't just sit back and say "we don't have a beef with the United States or Al Quida, we're just minding our own business." The President was smart enough to know that certain countries were going to harbor terrorists giving that reasoning.
Funny how the "enlightened" left can't seem to gather the depth behind that statement.
After I read this the first time (somewhere else), I realized that Jedi Knights were democrats. Since then I have been rooting for Darth Vader and the Emperor.
Darth Vader was a hero of my youth. Especially how he dealt with those asinine generals.
Nuking Holy City #3 might tick off the Israelis.
Nuking Qom Iran is going piss off the Israelis ?
Especially since the Jedi themselves dead in absolutes.
If you choose to look at the movie w bush as the promoter of democracy, it also works and you'll enjoy it more
His generation is a product of a vastly inferior educational system than the one that you and I were exposed to. They just don't teach real history anymore.
Craig Winneker:
Was Reagan a good President? This is a yes or no question, unless you're one of those pansies that thinks that "Only a Sith Lord deals in absolutes." Was Reagan a good President? I challenge you to answer yes or no.
I recently completed reading a new book about Major Dick Winters, called Biggest Brother, the story of Major Winters and his personal life and WWII and Band of Brothers fame. During the making of the mini-series, one of the things that Major Winters OBJECTED to was the use of the "F" word so much in the movie. He says in the book, they did not use that word back then like it is used now. Then it was considered the most obscene profane you could use.
So, it just goes to show how movies have become. If they do not show boobs, butt, sex, violence, and use the "F" word 9,000 times per paragraph, then it does not fit.
I like action movies, but I do not go to the movies to see XXX-rated sex scenes in a war movie, or a cowboy movie.
Man where the heck is John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Clark Gable, Roy Rogers, and Gene Autry when you need them. (On DVD and video, that is what I watch now!!!!! Oldies!!!)
Well, not that I want to do spoilers, but you do get to see him in the movie, albeit briefly.
Although, come to think of it, with the rate at which commanding officers have their tracheas crushed under Darth Vader, it's amazing Tarkin lasted 20 or so years under his command.
Actually by Star Wars Episode 4, Tarkin was a Grand Admiral, the Empirial Naval equivalent of a Apprentice Sith Lord. Vader and Tarkin were basically the same rank in different parts of the Empirial Military. That meeting in Episode 4 in the Death Star with Vader, Tarkin and those officers were basically a meeting of the heads of the Empirial Military.
That's why Vader did not choke that officer to death during the meeting when had the chance and Tarkin had to remind Vader to control his anger.
That's great to hear. What part of the movie should I look for him to be in?
Pretty much the very end.
Thank you. I probably won't see the movie until a week or too from now, after the crowds have left.
Not particularly. But nuking Jerusalem, normally considered the third most holy Muslim city, surely would.
Why can't people stop reading anti-Bush polemics into this film? These lines she cites can be interpreted many different ways. Palpatine as Karl Rove? I didn't pay it any mind, and it had zero impact on a fine film.
"Funny, I thought it was sold as the spectre of a mushroom cloud hanging over lower Manhattan"
Funny, but you thought wrong. There were several reasons why we went in, all listed by Bush in his speeches - funny, but you weren't paying attention then either. The media are the one's who made WMD the centerpiece of the liberation of Iraq, not Bush. Funny how easily they influenced you.
"funny how a couple of years (and no WMDs) re-defines a mission."
The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Iraq had a WMD program. You're not going to find 100 barrels of Sarin in a warehouse - it just doesn't work that way. Stocks were destroyed or shipped to Syria - as per SOP (see Operation Sarindar). All that remained was enough research material to start-up operations after the West left. And we found that. Oh yeah, we broke up a Lybian nuclear black market along the way.
"Syria hasn't thrown in anything BTW."
More ignorance. Lebaneese protestors, emboldened by what they saw from the Iraqi elections, threw the Syrians out of Lebanon. You could agree thats a good thing, but like most leftists, you don't care about Afgani's, Iraqi's, or the Arab world in general. You would easily damn them all to Saddam's torture chambers and rape rooms if it meant opportunity to make Bush and America look bad.
What do you expect from a man [Lucas] who's life work is the plagerism of other's ideas and concepts?
Back on topic: I'm hearing alot of complaints about acting. The key subplot in this episode was the conversion of Skywalker to Vader - everyone I talk to says the actor was not up to such a challenging role.
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