Posted on 05/16/2005 1:18:49 PM PDT by Destro
In the context of the times (1970's), Anakin/Vader was the ultimate "Hard Hat"--and the perfect metaphor for the leader of the "silent majority," a la Richard Nixon, that represented the forceful (and, yes, sometimes angry) backlash against the so-called "Counterculture" (who were always a tiny minority made up of malcontents, mindless screamers, incipient terrorists, and other assorted scum) and their enthusiastic boosters in the mainstream liberal media.
Many of us understood this immediately, and instinctively, back in 1977 when that first massive Star Destroyer--spitting laser bolts and brooking no further argument--filled the screen and the magic commenced; that's why a good many of us rooted for the Stormtroopers. Underneath those white helmets, many of us accurately speculated, lurked the ghost of the kid down the street who'd done his duty in Vietnam and returned to be spit on by leftists; and those doing the spitting, we again accurately surmised, where the "heroes" of the "Rebellion": Lucas didn't fool us from the git-go. I, for one, groaned while others in the theater cheered when the first Death Star exploded in Episode IV. I didn't fully understand why, at the time. I do now.
But neither did we turn away from that magic; we just took the side that Lucas disdained in his epic, and have been cheering it ever since. This is the real reason Episode V, The Empire Strikes Back, was and remains the most popular film in the franchise to date. Art has a funny way of backfiring on its creators that way when the tale told is compelling and powerful, but the vision behind it is blurred.
Anyway, enough of this high falutin' talk; suffice it to say that I was the only kid in my middle school who went to his 1978 Halloween Party fitted out as an Imperial Stormtrooper--and that outfit got the loudest cheers and most intense attention among any of my peers, particularly from the girls I was keen to impress at the time...
Long Live the Empire.
The kid from the small town wanting to go to the military was Luke Skywalker - who was not a hippie nor was Han Solo a hippie nor was Obi Wan who kicked ass. The Jedis in fact are much like the Templar Knight warrior monks.
It is kind of funny to read your statement because it shows you have no conception of what it is to be in the spirit of the Founding Fathers who wanted a small standing army and hated militarisim like they found in their Hessian enemies.
What you are is in fact a Statist and what you mistake as patriotisim is in fact Statisim. That is not being a Conservative in the tradition of the Founding Fathers.
You need to repent and convert.
duh...watch Vaders death scene in Return of the Jedi and he realizes it himself
That was the worst remake ever. Mark Wahlberg in the role Charlton Heston immortalized. Pathetic. The original was spectacular and who could forget Heston's famed "Get your hands off me you damned, dirty ape."
Heston was and is a real actor. Wahlberg is just a wanna-be. The only good movie he did was "The Italian Job." Anyone else notice how he always seems out of breath in all his movies?
You have to be kidding Mars Attacks was one of the funniest movies ever. Any movie which takes Sarah Jessica Parker's head and puts it on a chihuahua and vice versa CAN'T be bad.
Only until George
gets feeling lonely or poor.
Then he will be back
to really finish --
episodes seven thru nine . . .
Just imagine those!
What could be funnier than a herd of flaming cows?
And as for that bit about "mistaking" patriotism for statism, I need no lectures in patriotism from a keyboard coward such as yourself, who probably never served a day in uniform in his pathetic, pasty-faced life.
and Hitler was a war hero.
If scripts are not Lucas' strong point, then I guess it showed in THX-1138.
Believe it or not, I really did like that movie.
"much more humorless, universe entirely."
well, the subtle humor has been replaced by fart/burp humor and slapstick visual pieces.
"There is no watering down of Vader."
This is fair...the issue IMHO is that lucas has grossly mishandled the first half of vaders story, from the casting of that kid onward, the petulant teenage after that, useless dialogue and acting, etc.
It may be the most spectacular dumbing down of one of the most successful franchises in movie history.
"it just didn't work out like everyone (in the fictional Star Wars world) thought it would. "
If you are referring to gross miscasting and mis-writing for those miscast to play anakin, then I agree wholeheartedly.
"Lucas Arts video games have more plot and better dialog than his second trilogy."
Maybe they plot out the video games first and then base the movie around those games?
"There's something else missing from the prequels, too: *humor*. The Original Trilogy had Han Solo - a non-boring, non-tedious, non-Jedi character. His charm and humor helped balance out the heavy, serious Jedi component"
Do you meant ADULT-oriented humor? The prequels have lots of humor - fart humor, jar jar antic humor, slapstick visuals humor, etc. If you have the mind of a 10 year old it is great.
I just watched the Triumph vs. Star Wars nerds again... that has got to be one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Any word on whether he'll be back for this flick?
Amen.
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