It's just a great sci-fi film
What is it with the religious right in this country? Why does everything always have to be about them and their politics? I'm speaking about the recent allegations that George Lucas and the final installment of the "Star Wars" saga is really nothing more than a 2-hour, 26-minute Bush-bash.
Since some non-religious people have made the same charge of Lucas, are they still part of the "religious right"? By not defining his term, Mr. Decker, seems more intent on creating a pejorative then actual expressing who he is actually criticizing..
I remember when the first "Star Wars" installments were released. Even then there were right-wing fanatics spouting off about how the movies were anti-Christian.
Did Decker view the Ant-Defamation League as fanatics for calling the movie, The Passion, anti-Semitic? What about when Muslims feel they are stereotyped as terrorists on TV or film? In Episode IV, an officer of the Empire refers to Vader's adherence to the Force as an "ancient religion". The Force surrounds everything in the universe. It allows immortality (see Yoda, Obi Wan, and even Anakin). Star Wars is filled with immense metaphysical undertones many of which are in direct conflict with Judaism, Christianity, and even Islam. To say that the movie has anti-Christian elements is hardly fanatical. By the way, for those with a Catholic background, the expression, "May the Force be with you" is properly responded to with "And also with you!"
Now they've abandoned that crusade to bring their newest savior into the limelight. George W. Bush insisting that Vader's comment, "If you're not with me, you're my enemy," is a play on Bush's speech on terrorism and that the evil Vader is actually a metaphor for Bush.
Bush's statement from his Sept 20, 2001 speech was "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists." Now Vader's: ""If you're not with me, you're my enemy". Is Decker trying to say that common sense cannot not say, "Hmm, I can see a similarity here"? The Associated Press reports that even the "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." Is the Cannes audience really just right-wing fanatics? I'd like to see that evidence. Further, the AP article states the following:
Lucas said he patterned his story after historical transformations from freedom to fascism, never figuring when he started his prequel trilogy in the late 1990s that current events might parallel his space fantasy.
"As you go through history, I didn't think it was going to get quite this close. So it's just one of those recurring things," Lucas said at a Cannes news conference. "I hope this doesn't come true in our country.
"Maybe the film will waken people to the situation," Lucas joked. (emphasis added)
Even Lucas sees the similarities even though he claims that it was unintended.
I wonder if these intellectually challenged sci-fiphobes are aware of how many leaders and dictators in history have used that same line. Or, what about the words of their spiritual leader in Matthew 20:13, "He that is not with me is against me"? Is Vader therefore a metaphor for Jesus as well?
Intellectually, challenged sci-fiphobes?!? No wonder the Columbian honored this writer with the May 2005 Wodsmithing Letter of the Month. I do agree with Decker that similar lines have been used throughout history and Lucas says he was looking at the way history repeats. But it doesn't follow that just the statement has been used before that Lucas may not have used it intentionally to make a statement about Bush. There is only one person that knows for sure. It is not I nor is it Decker. It is Lucas. There is enough evidence for reasonable people to draw the conclusion of intent just as the Cannes audience did. To say they are intellectually challenged reveals much about Decker's own anti-intellectualism.
"Star Wars" is sci-fi entertainment. It's great storytelling, nothing more. Find another witch hunt, folks, and let the rest of us enjoy a great story.
Good. Might as well get one more pejorative smart bomb. Perhaps Mr. Decker can now sleep well knowing that he has used his feelings to become strong in the anti-intellectual Force, wielding his pejorative powered lightsaber to save us all from the forces of reasonableness and common sense - which after all lead, in the galaxy of his mind far, far away, to the "Dark" Side.
May the Force Be With You.
And also with you.
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