The Star Wars Trilogy & The American Civil War (Is George Lucas Johnny Reb?)

www.jdedman.com ^ | May 20, 2002 | David Rogers

[Grig]

I was inspired to think some more about Episode 2: Attack of the Clones by "The Case for the Empire," which makes the case that the Empire, not the Rebels, are really the good guys in the Star Wars saga.

While not making any judgment on that premise, after a second viewing (yes I am a TOTAL geek -- I saw AOTC TWICE on its opening weekend), I have decided that I was wrong in claiming that that the Republic is the Weimar Republic (though the bit about the Chancellor assuming dictatorial powers was a strong hint).

Instead, I believe that the Republic is the American Republic, circa 1860.

Emperor Palpatine is Abraham Lincoln. The Secessionist Rebels are.. well, secessionist rebels.

Shocking, isn't it?

It's a world where Senators and Representatives grant "emergency power" to the executive branch, which the executive branch promises to return to the Senators and Representatives as soon as the current crisis is over. (But, of course, the executive never does return that power.)

And the executive, with his newly granted emergency powers, creates a "Grand Army of the Republic" -- precisely the same title Lincoln gave his army.

It is a world in which the new executive pushes aside the old because he has been "ineffective in dealing with the secessionist crisis" -- precisely the same complaint Lincoln made about his predecessor, Buchanan.

The Jedi, like the American graduates of West Point, are split. Some push the rebellion and secession (whose members suggest that their secession might be construed as treason), and others push the Republican Union.

Anakin Skywalker engages in a brutal massacre of Tuskan Raiders and Jawas ("Sand People" who nomadic lives and teepee-like dwellings suggest American Indians, particularly of the Southwest), whom he describes, in language reminiscent of George Armstrong Custer, as "animals." And like Custer, Anakin slaughters not only the men, but also the women and children.

But is Anakin Custer? Or is he Grant to Palpatine's Lincoln -- the utterly ruthless right-hand man whose brutality makes him essential to any attempt to put down the rebellion? And does that make his mentor, Obi-Wan, who we know will oppose Palpatine and Anakin -- Robert E. Lee?

And is it any accident that the Clone Wars are precipitated at the beginning by trade disputes like those that tore apart the industrial North and the serene, agricultural (Naboo-like) South? Is Senator Amidala really Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, who protests the depredations of the Trade Federation only to be ignored by the Senate, and whose daughter is the ultimate leader of the Rebellion?

If so, and if we are meant to take seriously Lucas' portrayal of the rebels as the good guys, and the Imperialist Republic as the bad guys -- does that make George Lucas Johnny Reb?

And what is the "dark side" of The Force? Is it the desire for centralization and mechanization -- the "force" that turns Skywalker into Vader, and turns the peaceful Republic into the violent Empire?

And is it coincidence that Count Dooku -- the man who gave Jengo Fett his orders -- is known also as "Tyrannus" -- the same name Booth gave to Lincoln after he fatally shot the president, by shouting form the stage of the Ford theater "Sic Semper Tyrannus?"

Oh, and then there is the issue of slavery. The Jedi representatives of the Republic seemingly have no interest in ending it -- but it is the catalyst that drives Anakin Skywalker -- and ultimately, it will be he whose anger (over his mother's slavery, among other things) propels the Republic -- the Empire -- to victory over the secessionist rebels at the close of the Clone Wars.

By the time of Episode 4 slavery is (mostly) gone. The Republic, which is seemingly responsible for this change of events, has been swept aside by the corrupt Empire.

Is Lucas saying that that good was incidental as the primary actors -- Palpatine and his cronies -- acted only for selfish aggrandizement and greed for power and in the interests of commercial disputes?

And is the evil battled against in Episodes 4-6 the evil of a Leviathan (modern) state?

Is Vader evil? Is Palpatine? Or are they merely corrupted by absolute power?

Is Luke Skywalker, the man from the desert, descended from the avatars of Lincoln and Grant, Ronald Reagan, from the desert of Los Angeles? Is Luke's struggle against a too-large, unresponsive government with oppressive taxation Reagan's struggle?

And what does this mean?
Yoda ---> Dooku / Tyrannus
Dooku ---> Qui-Gon Jinn
Qui-Gon ---> Obi-Wan
Obi-Wan ---> Anakin/ Darth
Obi-Wan ---> Luke
Yoda ---> Luke

Is Yoda Jefferson? Is Obi-Wan Robert E. Lee? Are they teaching a lesson of state's rights which is ignored by their immediate successors, but is embraced by Luke Reagan?

And, if Palpatine is both Lincoln and the embodiment of the Dark Side, and NOT a Jedi, but someone who decisively rejects the Jedi/Jefferson tradition and who teaches something entirely new and mechanical in place of the spiritualism of the Yoda/Jefferson Force -- then what is Lucas saying about Lincoln?

Was that noise Yoda made really the rebel yell?

[Charles Martel]

I thought that particular plot twist ruined the entire movie, if not the series. Imagine a much more tragic outcome: Dooku and his allies are fueled by their hatred of the tyrant Palpatine. The Jedi, in their arrogance, gather all their powers, and, in concert with the genocidal abomination that is the clone army, they crush Dooku and the rebellion. When in despair and horror they realize they have been manipulated by Palpatine and The Dark Side, there is no recourse: They have killed Dooku, the only one among their ranks who had the power and the integrity to challenge Palpatine, and they must flee in cowardice, as Skywalker hunts them down and mercilessly assassinates them.

I think you may have described a pretty good chunk of the plot that we'll see in Episode III, along with the Anakin Skywalker - to - Darth Vader transformation and the concealment of the Skywalker twins.

I don't necessarily think that the scene you refer to ruined the film or the overall story, but it does beg some questions, such as: How does Count Dooku know about Darth Sidious, but none of the members of the Jedi Council have been able to sniff that out - even *after* the Darth Maul incident? I know, I know... "Always in motion, the future is..."

[ffusco]

a french revolution that murders its own revolutionaries?

[Charles Martel]

I forgot to post this...

One of MAD's funnier covers, IMO.

There are some pretty humorous Flash-animated "out-takes" from Episode II on Mad Magazine's website, too.

[shuckmaster]

Aw, Shucks!

[MadIvan]

Hmpf. I prefer the Dark Side. They're the rebels since they are knocking over the established, corrupt order.

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

NO WAY - the Empire is a genocidal regime gaining power through deception and use of the Dark Side of the Force. The Rebels are dedicated to restoring the former, representative form of government.

Garbage. The Rebels are trying to re-establish a corrupt order that doesn't work. We see how badly it functions in Episode I and II.

The Rebels, oddly, are the same people who helped the collapse the regime along: the Republic wouldn't let the Secessionists go in the first place.

Regards, Ivan

Support the Dark Side

[rebelsoldier]

It ain't called the rebel alliance for nothing! Yeeeeoooowwwwuuuuuuuuu!

[archy]

Seems likely.

Or, as Thor was fond of saying, "I've lost my Mojo."

He didn't lose it, exactly. Loki stole it and hid it.

[NovemberCharlie]

Hmm. I didn't see Dooku's scene on Coruscant (bad time for a bathroom break) so I can speculate wildly as to what happened. My predictions for Episode III:

Anakin, having married, leaves the Jedi and is taken under Chancellor Palpatine's wing. Palpatine is covertly helping the rebellion to justify his power grab, and Anakin becomes his hatchet man. Obi-wan sees Palpatine for what he is and joins Dooku, leaving/getting kicked out of the Jedi to do so. The resulting rift destroys the Jedi, with its members hunted down and killed by either Dooku and Kenobi or Skywalker and Palpatine, depending on which side they take. Kenobi and Skywalker have a climactic battle which results in Skywalker's injuries, and his having to wear his breathing apparatus.

[Cultural Jihad]

Whatever you choose, you have WAY too much time on your hands.

Time?

[Dr. Eckleburg]

Yes, sir, that's one scary Aesir.

[boris]

R2D2 is a Munchkin...or maybe it was the little dudes with the glowing eyes?...

[archy]

R2D2 is a Munchkin...or maybe it was the little dudes with the glowing eyes?...

That would be the Jawas. Not the ones from Czechoslovokia, though:

[archy]

Yes, sir, that's one scary Aesir.

Don't sweat Loki, he's out of the way, for the time being, at least. Watch out for the Big Guy with the hammer. Now THAT is a guy with a temper....

[lentulusgracchus]

I do believe that's an explicitly Neo-Nazi image. I've checked some of the Neo-Nazi sites, and that same anti-Christian, neo-pagan animus is quite strong, actively hostile, and equally explicit.

[lentulusgracchus]

I agree with you, Lucas is telling us a story about a shady operator who uses loose tales of rebellion and ill-defined threats to obtain sweeping powers carelessly granted. Did you notice that the senate resolution granting Senator Palpatine an office very similar to Napoleon's "First Consul" and the extraordinary powers voted by the Roman senate to e.g. Pompey, and later Caesar and his successors, is offered in the film by the offensively vapid clown-character, JarJar Binks? That could be taken as a jaded comment on the mental maturity of governance in Third World banana republics.

As for the observation that "it's only a movie", movies have partially supplanted books as a medium for discourse. And keep in mind that you could have said, 110 years ago, "it's only a book" about Das Kapital.

[lentulusgracchus]

I don't think George Lucas had the American Civil War in mind.

He is telling a more generic story on the blank canvas of science fiction, on which a writer can paint anything he wants, with almost complete freedom and radius -- and then retreat behind the many veils of fiction, science fiction, fantasy, and finally, "it's only a book/movie".

Science fiction has been, for 70 years and more now, or longer if you go back to H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, a way of addressing very general ideas freely and without rigor. Social comment that would have gotten a man run out of town, or dropped by society 60 years ago, can be safely transported to a fantastic realm (the way Swift did it) and discussed freely and frankly. That is what George Lucas does with the later films in his series. I don't think he had more in mind, when he did the original Star Wars, than to use the then-new special effects inventory developed for e.g. 2001: A Space Odyssey to pump up the old two-reel "cliffhanger" for a new audience. He and Spielberg have spoken of "homages" to the old thrillers, and the flattery may have been genuine, but it was a pretty reasonable bet in 1976 for a popular hit. All the morality-play mummery was pretty much tacked on, and Lucas had to work at it, to work the paranormal and metaphysical theme into the plot line of Star Wars -- you can see him laboring, it shows. "Use the Force, Luke!" Yeah, okay, if you insist. I think we should look at his appeal to historical themes the same way, as generic "deepening" appeal for a mass audience.

The artifice of morality-play mummery in Lucas's first film is why the Han Solo character is the most believable creation in the original Star Wars, and I think that distinction has had a lot to do with the comparative prosperity -- compared to everyone else's -- of Harrison Ford's subsequent career. Of all dramatis personae in Star Wars, Ford's was the only one that wasn't a cardboard cutout: he was "real", and instantly recognizable as "a regular American guy" with a smartass streak, totally Boomer in his worldview and instincts. Harrison Ford "got over", and he has never looked back.

[Redcloak]

At the risk of sounding like I don't have a life...

I noticed something "disturbing" about the Jedi in Clones. They accepted the use of the clone army without hesitation. But this army is not a clone army, but rather a slave army. None of the clones were recruited or even conscripted via some legal means. All were raised from birth to fight someone else's wars. On top of that, their genome was tampered with to make them accept their slavery without question. The Jedi Council isn't as pure of heart as they would have others believe.

[Redcloak]

R2D2 would have to be the Scarecrow since Chewbaca must be Toto.

RWWWaaaaeaaaarrrraarawwwaa

No Toto, I don't think that we're on Tatooine anymore