So I watched "Star Wars" last night

[rene moon]

Yes--I bought the Special Edition DVDs. I still love these films, no matter what the naysayers babble on about. I think Lucas is a genius and it was his films that got me interested in the business.
But, I digress.

I was thinking, while watching the film, that the Rebel Alliance was like the Democrats and Empire/Darth Vader was like the Republicans.

Anyone have similar thoughts?

[clonebot]

1. Why do you hate America?

;)

[rene moon]

5. No, this guy hates America! Not me!

I tried to get Darth Vader's picture here but I dont quite know how.

Sorry!

[4_Legs_Good]

2. The rebels are terrorists

plain and simple. I'm amazed that this film is allowed to be shown in the US.

Granted the Empire is a dictatorial regime x 100.

I think most of us really LOVED the original Star Wars movies. We hate Lucas because he massacred the stories with Eps 1 & 2. Keep in mind that Lucas also only directed (and wrote the screenplay for) the original Star Wars, and had other, more capable, directors do Empire and Jedi. For some reason he's insisting on writing and directing Eps 1-3. Ludicrous!

I just picked up the DVDs today (Widescreen of course - Lucas should have put his foot down and not released a pan and scan version!). I'm bummed that only the Special Editions are included. He should have put both in the set. I don't mind the film being "updated" and being a work-in-progress, but I want to also be able to reject, if I choose, his ex-post facto work.

Anyway, the DVDs are probably worth the price of admission just for the commentaries.

[MsUnderstood]

8. The reason he did not direct

In a show called Directors, George Lucas explained why he did not direct the 2nd and 3rd Star Wars:

He wrote a 6 hour movie and had to cut it into 3 parts. He negotiated with the studio for Lucas to keep licensing rights (at the time he thought he would sell some t-shirts to help fund parts 2 and 3). Low and behold the modern day movie marketing was born on Star Wars and Lucas became a rich man.

He built his studio near San Francisco and then decided that raising his children was worth more to him than directing the next 2 films and signed on as the producer only.

Now his children are grown up so he has time to go back and re-edit the films as he perceived them when he wrote the script originally (because the special effects are more readily available) and direct his the first 3 (or newest 3) films of the Star Wars series.

It wasn't that he thinks himself incompetent, it is that he sees himself as the creator and as many creators, wants to do the work himself.

[4_Legs_Good]

13. For goodness sake, then PLEASE GEORGE HAVE MORE KIDS!!!

He may not think of himself as incompetent, but I sure do! He's an awful director! He's an awful screenwriter too IMO.

Heh heh heh.

He's such a smart guy (and a good father, obviously!). Why can't he realize that it might be better to turn the reigns back over to Kirshner?

david

[rene moon]

9. I dont really see it as "messing with the stories"

It's his work and this is how he wanted the films to be---if he had the money, at the time. I'll admit it's unnerving but I would never tell an artist what not to do with his/her work.

He wrote the stories for all three films (SW,Empire and Jedi) but had to split them up because it was too long. He had screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan come in and tidy up Empire and Lucas and Kasdan co-wrote Jedi. Irvin Kershner directed "Empire" and Richard Marquand direct "Jedi" because he was tired of directing.

[4_Legs_Good]

15. I agree to a degree...

I think he's doing a tremendous amount of "revisionist history" with the new films. I don't think he originally thought that the force was a bacterial by-product. Nor did he believe that C-3PO was made by Anakin, etc.

And I think he's gone crazy in gearing the films to kids. I think the originals were so enjoyed by kids precisely because they did not talk down to us. These new ones are just plain silly. I watched TPM like 3 times, and often around 6 year olds. Nobody liked Jar-Jar. NOBODY.

As to the Special Editions, sure, as I said, he can do what he wants, but there are always obstructions to an artists work. That's one thing that makes it so creative. I'm sure that Michaelangelo would have loved to make a 10,000,000 foot tall David, but that's impossible, so within his constraints he created something different and magnificient.

Anyway, I like to see the deleted scenes, but I still think I prefer the originals.

david

[Big Kahuna]

3. I'm sure the republicans

would think the same thing of themselves. It's hard to say, because I do not associate with many these days, and the ones I do associate with, hate Bush with a passion.

I think however, the power we have given emperor bush is similar to the power granted Chancellor Palpatine.

[Radical Activist]

4. I'm so jealous

I was thinking that about episode two. I'm not sure I get all the plot exactly. But it seems like the bad guys are propping up a fake enemy to build a huge army to use once they slowly dissolve the Republic by extending Executive Power to the Chancellor. Doesn't that seem like the US for the post 50 years? Use Communists and Terrorism to scare people into building a huge army and giving extreme amounts of power to the executive branch. Yep, that's like Star Wars. We'll either have to change course or Darth Cheney will be running things in 3 years.

[Placebo]

6. You rebel scum.

[Deja Q]

7. Lucas WAS a genius. Now he's anal and overly revisionist.

Star Wars was NEVER originally a multi-part series. Only when the 1977 film (or rather it's effects as its acting and storyline are generic and rubbish) became successful did "Episode IV" get tacked on.

His change in Empire Strikes Back also reveals the Luke/Vader relationship long before the end (I'd read that, I did not see it in person and won't), and Luke screaming during his plummet seemed natural, so why nix that?

[rene moon]

11. Well, I thank him for THX

and Industrial Light and Magic.

[Ladyhawk]

10. I think Lucas is a genius in more ways than one. Dig this quote:

"All democracies turn into dictatorships—but not by coup. The people give their democracy to a dictator, whether it's Julius Caesar or Napoleon or Adolf Hitler. Ultimately, the general population goes along with the idea ... What kinds of things push people and institutions into this direction?"

- George Lucas

The answer this time? Terrorism, perhaps contrived.

[Lefty48197]

12. The force, Rene. Use the force...

.

[lightbulb]

14. ha! I watched my ep IV DVD last night as well

And the documentary a few nights ago. I think you're right about the strong parallels, and I don't think it's an accident. As the new SW documentary mentions, Lucas consulted extensively with Joseph Campbell about the timeless struggle between good and evil in the popular mythos. The basic storyline has remained consistent through the ages because this struggle has been in fact repeating itself through the ages.

Perhaps an even closer parallel is the movie Dune, based on the Frank Herbert novel:

A desert planet is the only source of the most valuable resource in the universe, and is inhabited by a deeply religious society of indigenous warrior people... Of course a big, corrupt government tries to exploit their world and steal this resource...

Red Dawn is also a good one - especially since it was made pretty much as a pro US propaganda film, but now it's meaning has turned upside-down.