If you needed a reason to see the new Star Wars - here's the best one ever

[LynneSin]

http://www.imdb.com/news/sb/2005-05-19/

All 'Star Wars' All the Time for Some Theaters


With post-midnight screenings of Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith selling out quickly, some theaters were scrambling to hire additional staff in order to remain open the entire 24 hours, published reports said today (Thursday). The film was being shown in 3,661 theaters, 79 of which were running it on digital projectors. Some analysts were forecasting that the film could earn as much as $45 million today (Thursday) alone and was likely to set a box office record for the weekend. Others, however, noted that with a PG-13 rating, the film was not going to bring out the huge family crowd that greeted the previous Star Wars movies. Still others took note of a mounting campaign by conservative groups to portray the film as a thinly disguised attack on President Bush and his policies in Iraq. (The current record for a four-day opening is held by The Matrix Reloaded, which earned $134.3 million when it opened over the same weekend in May 2003.)

[Beetwasher]

1. From What I'm Hearing, It's Not Even THINLY Disguised!

n/t

[everythingsxen]

7. The only thing *SPOILER*

*SPOILER* This is a single line from the film:

Anakin: You're either with me or you're my enemy.

That's it. That's one of the only references to Bush that could be made; even that is essentially something Hitler had already said before Bush.

[trotsky]

10. And that even goes back farther.

It's attributed to Jesus in the bible.

[SkipNewarkDE]

13. There were other references...

That bit where Anakin wants to bring Palpatine to trial, and Windu makes the comment about the emperor controlling the Senate, controlling the judiciary...

[lenidog]

14. Which is a line that someone in that position

would say anyway. I think we are hoping that this is a attack against Bush but in reality its an attack on Fascism and totalitarian rule in general. As I recall from my giant fandom as a child George Lucas had the outlines for 9 movies before he even started to film the first. He supposedly had parts of this batch written years ago and started on the final draft for this movie before Iraq was even conceived of. I think we could fit this into Nazi Germany, Communist Russia, Napoleonic France, etc.

[Beware the Beast Man]

17. I absolutely hated that line- it sounded forced and contrived.

Like it was dropped in at the eleventh hour to convey some sort of message. I know where I stand politically, but sometimes, I just want to be entertained.

[Love Bug]

30. Big deal. I think I've heard that line in every Western I've seen

"You're either withus or agin' us!" It's hardly original.

[everythingsxen]

2. Well, as a die-hard Star Wars fan...

I wish I could say that this was a thinly veiled attack on Bush, as Fox and friends would have some believe.

It is in fact an attack on fascism in general, if it happens to attack the President, that's because he happens to be a fascist.

[MountainLaurel]

8. Got it in one

Bush was still a fuck-up oilman in Texas when Lucas wrote this storyline out. But, if the facism shoe fits . . .

[dbonds]

16. Isn't that kind of like them admitting he is a fascist.

If someone was criticizing thieves in general and a person stood up and said you are talking about me, that seems to be an admission of guilt.

[Zuni]

23. I think it is more like a fairy tale version of the Roman Empire

[everythingsxen]

25. It is that..

but it is a hybrid of every democracy that has succumb to fascism.

Just as Palpatine is an amalgam of every dictator of those eras (Hitler/Mussolini/Caesar/Napoleon) and Vader is an amalgam of the loyal soldier who obeys his orders without hesitation (Eichmann is the best example I can think of, but there are many, many others), so too the Empire is just another parable.

[Pacifist Patriot]

3. I need a babysitter!!!!

I'm going to feel slightly off-center until I can see the movie. Something in my life is just not right until I've seen the latest Star Wars movie. I still remember vividly seeing Star Wars for the very first time in Decatur, GA as a fourth grader.

[tigereye]

19. hmm

my kid is 9 and sat through LOTR ROTK twice. So I am somewhat torn about this new SW movie. Can't decide if I should see it first and then decide, or just take the risk. He's seen all of the other Star Wars movies several times.

[Pacifist Patriot]

21. From what I understand, if a kid has made it through LOTR

they can take this movie.

[tigereye]

26. that's kind of what I figured

it's odd, kids are not scared/scared in the ways that we expect them to be. Little kids are more reactive to visual and sensory stuff that the older kids miss; I am always more concerned about the emotional effects of what is beyond the grasp of any age kid... i.e., why do people kill and hurt each other in the first place! Although I do think that there are different effects of different types of violence... even cartoonish violence can have negative effects, according to the research.

Other than LOTR, we are pretty picky about what we let him see.

[RubyDuby in GA]

4. I was going to wait until sometime next week

but this alone will make be go see it this weekend.

Doing my part to piss off the Radical Right. :evilgrin:

[MuseRider]

5. My youngest is there

watching it right now. It will most likely be weeks before I get to see it. I will have him post if he has anything interesting to say about it.

[ReadTomPaine]

6. Considering Lucas is an avowed liberal, this is not a shock.

Recently posted this elsewhere..

http://www-cgi.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Movies/05/16/cannes... /

''In terms of evil, one of the original concepts was how does a democracy turn itself into a dictatorship,'' Lucas told a news conference at Cannes, where his final episode had its world premiere.

''The parallels between what we did in Vietnam and what we're doing in Iraq now are unbelievable.

''On the personal level it was how does a good person turn into a bad person, and part of the observation of that is that most bad people think they are good people, they are doing it for the right reasons,'' he added.

Not a huge fan of the later films, but rich outspoken liberals are definitely our friends.

[LynneSin]

11. Looks like Hayden Christiansen is also a liberal (although Canadian)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7750917/

When the Ottawa Sun asked Christensen if the flick “takes metaphoric shots at the war-mongering politics of U.S. presidents Richard Nixon and the two George Bushes” the star answered: “Absolutely.”

He went on to say that he thinks that some people who weren’t American allies in the Iraq war will love “Revenge of the Sith” because of it.

“I think for that reason the French will be really responsive to it,” Christensen said. “I think they’ll get it. They’ll get the political commentary and the subtext. Anakin says: ‘If you’re not with me, you’re my enemy!’ I think they’ll love it.’”

[stellanoir]

9. so let me get this right. . .

this is part III of a six part series which was conceptualized in the early 70's.

We don't even know what the heck * was doing in the early 70's.

From what I've gathered it's about manipulation and corruption of power and loss of liberty.

If the shoe fits. . .

No, no, no, it's all about * all the time.

Forgot my afternoon dosage of Kool Aid. Whoops.

[LynneSin]

12. I think you're off a bit

yes, the series was conceptualized back in the 70's but episode III was really put on paper a few years ago. You can get that timeline from this week's Entertainment Weekly. So it would be very easy for Lucas to add a few anti-Bush barbs into the movie

[stellanoir]

18. I think it's a bit of both in truth

The second (#4) in the series was indeed called "The Empire Strikes Back."

I agree with you that he may have made some of the dialogue more pointed given the excrutiating demise of democracy we've had to bare witness to over the past few years.

Yet the only point I was trying to make was there was a federation that was reasonably fair and functional which got coopted and made perverse by selfishly controlling entities. That was indeed the set up for the initial 3. Lucas had the impossible task of linking the past to that which he created almost 30 years ago. It's simply not his fault that it happenned be so synchronous with our disasterous times.

All empires fall over time through hubris. They always have and they always will. IMHO

[tigereye]

20. I think Lucas is referring to a number of empires over time

too - it's not as if that kind of despotism is new.

[Zuni]

22. seriously

You could make the case that the demise of the Republic into an empire was loosely based on Ancient Rome---Palapitiane could be Augustus caesar

[tigereye]

27. ooh

I love men who know their history. Sigh. Lecture me about some Graeco- Roman political- strucural parallels, baby. ;)

[Zuni]

28. well, as Plato wisely pointed out...

:P

actually T, my expertise is mainly in 20th century history. I could tell you parallels with the Soviet Union or Imperial Japan but there really aren't many, as both the USSR became an empire during the Civil War when they reconquered much of the Tsar's empire (all those stans countries in central asia, for example) and Japan's brief foray into democracy post-WWI was not only brief but not really all that democratic either (and they were already an empire, holding Korea and Formosa/Taiwan) before the Japanese Empire turned really, really aggressive in the 1930s

[tigereye]

31. cool - actually you would probably enjoy talking to my brother

he knows more about that period than I do!

One of the coolest periods of my freshman year, from a purely academic standpoint, was hiding in the stacks of the library where I worked, reading articles for an early- 20th century American History class I wasn't taking. Aimee Semple McPherson, The Scopes trial, all that great stuff.

I was supposed to go and get the articles for the students and then reshelve them, but I would get lost for about 10-15 minutes each time to get away from the dragon-like nun who was the librarian there. Great reading and a really unique perspective on American history from that period. ( sorry if I'm repeating myself, that is one of my fave stories.)

[Karenina]

15. Errraaaa...

There are LOTS of folks real knowledgeable about where the *dauphin was and wasn't in the early 70's and EXACTLY what he WAS and WASN'T doing. Don't know how many would be willing to talk on-the-record... :evilgrin:

[supernova]

24. I wonder why the RW has taken RotS to heart

thinking it's a purposeful slap at them (may or may not be, but the timing sure is right), when they tried so vigorously say that 9/11 wasn't. :shrug:

[Bridget Burke]

29. As good as Ewan MacGregor in the nude?

Darn. (Running off to watch Velvet Goldmine again.)

Seriously--the plot is based on archetypes (found in myth, literature & even history). "Stock characters" sounds so common! (Besides, I read Joseph Campbell before any of the movies came out.

But a few details in the script may have been tweaked a bit....

[Hippo_Tron]

32. I think it shows how paranoid they are

There were SOME thinly veiled references, but it was about fascist takeovers in general. I saw some elements of the Bush regime (using war as a mechanism to stay in power), some elements of the Roman Empire, and some elements of the 3rd Reich.

If they are really that concerned, then maybe it says something about the guy that they support.