'Star Wars' Raises Questions on U.S. Policy (Barf ALERT!!!)

www.yahoo.com ^ | May 16, 2005 | DAVID GERMAIN

[GLH3IL]

CANNES, France - Without Michael Moore and "Fahrenheit 9/11" at the Cannes Film Festival this time, it was left to George Lucas and "Star Wars" to pique European ire over the state of world relations and the United States' role in it.

Lucas' themes of democracy on the skids and a ruler preaching war to preserve the peace predate "Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith" by almost 30 years. Yet viewers Sunday — and Lucas himself — noted similarities between the final chapter of his sci-fi saga and our own troubled times.

Cannes audiences made blunt comparisons between "Revenge of the Sith" — the story of Anakin Skywalker's fall to the dark side and the rise of an emperor through warmongering — to President Bush's war on terrorism and the invasion of Iraq.

Two lines from the movie especially resonated:

"This is how liberty dies. With thunderous applause," bemoans Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman) as the galactic Senate cheers dictator-in-waiting Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) while he announces a crusade against the Jedi.

"If you're not with me, then you're my enemy," Hayden Christensen's Anakin — soon to become villain Darth Vader — tells former mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor). The line echoes Bush's international ultimatum after the Sept. 11 attacks, "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."

[GLH3IL]

I'm going to watch the movie. Somehow, I doubt if I will see it through the fantasy-land glasses of a hopelessly lost liberal.

Is it me....or do they miss the larger picture of good versus evil? Where the good guys play by the "rules" and the bad guys lie and back stab on a regular basis.

[Betaille]

Todays left has a child-like view of events. Every message is anti-bush to them. It's all reflection. Lucas made it quite clear that this was all written 30 years ago.

[Dallas59]

Can't you do that with every movie, story?

[West Coast Conservative]

I always liked the Empire better anyways.

[BradyLS]

I enjoy Star Wars enough, but this reaching by Lucas takes the good.

By extrapolation, you can argue that Lucas thinks slavery is a GOOD thing: because that's what that nutjon, Anikin Skywalker, might have stayed (minding his betters all the while) if that meddling hippie provocateur, Qui-Gon Jinn, and his running dog, Obi-Wan, hadn't bailed him out that dirtball of a planet, Tattooine.

That or he woulda cracked up in a pod-race accident.

[Betaille]

"Is it me....or do they miss the larger picture of good versus evil?"

They don't have any objective, firm idea of what's good or evil. Their views and principles can change overnight (Howard Dean can attest to that).

[West Coast Conservative]

If Bush is Vader or Palpatine, wouldn't that make al-Qaeda the Rebels (the good guys)?

[Pikamax]

Matthew 12:30
He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.


>>If I hear this idiocy from the press one more time about that line.

[MadIvan]

Excuse me but the "good guys" in Star Wars lie all the time. Remember "A young pupil of mine named Darth Vader...helped hunt down and destroy the Jedi knights. He betrayed and murdered your father"?

Regards, Ivan

[Right Angler]

Is it wrong that I don't give a rat's arese about this movie? I feel so uncool, but I would honestly rather watch a frog frig a football.

[Betaille]

"If Bush is Vader or Palpatine, wouldn't that make al-Qaeda the Rebels (the good guys)?"

No... duhh.... Michael Moore and Howard Dean are the rebels... Just alot fatter, uglier, and dumber.

[bigdcaldavis]

Michael Moore could be Porkins, that big fat goatee guy whose x-wing blows up when Biggs tells him to eject. Moore and Porkins share the same gut and same stupidity.

[Echo Talon]

IF Lucas was trying to make a political statement about Bush, I would like to ask Lucas something... Since the Emperor was the Leader of the Darkside and you(supposedly) depicted him as Bush, since Darth Vader turned on him in Return of The Jedi and killed him are you advocating treason or portraying treason as a heroic thing to do?

[Darkwolf]

Oh please. Haven't you noticed that you never see Michael Moore and the Death Star in the same place, at the same time? Case closed!

(And Howard Dean is that big mouth thing that slurps people into his icky maw, in Return of the Jedi.)

[Question Liberal Authority]

Honestly, at this point, they could dust off Bambi Vs Godzilla and market it as an anti-Bush film.

[Question Liberal Authority]

Matthew 12:30 He that is not with me is against me

I wonder if the Cannes crowd would give a standing ovation to The Greatest Story Ever Told, if they were led to believe it was anti-Bush.

[Question Liberal Authority]

I would honestly rather watch a frog frig a football.

They're probably saving that for the special edition dvd.

[Question Liberal Authority]

Haven't you noticed that you never see Michael Moore and the Death Star in the same place, at the same time?

I've never seen Michael Moore and an uneaten donut at the same time.

[Dilbert56]

Arthur Chrenkoff is now an Austrailian reporter but once lived under Communist tyranny. He wrote Luc-ass publicy and called him on his stupid comments. If the U.S. is the evil Empire, then Luke & crew are the ones who fought the U.S. Then they're the ones who killed tens of mmillions and enslaved hundreds of millions.

Luc-ass, anothe worthless Hollywood POS thinking he's a foreign policy genius.

I wouldn't ask Dick Cheney to choregraph an opera scene so I sure wouldn't want someone from lala land offering foreign policy advice.

[MrsEmmaPeel]

I just don't get it -- I really don't. HOW can anyone with half a brain say we are slipping into fascism, when we have more rights than we did under Bill Clinton? Bill Clinton's cronies would seize your land without explanation, for the good of the "environment". The most extremely radical thing the Senate will be doing is *gasp* the "nuclear option" which is simply to follow the Constitution! Under Bush MILLIONS of people have been liberated and Al Quada's back is broken. Clinton encouraged its growth.