[NEWS] - No Political Subtext To Episode III?

[Tim Bruening]

No Political Subtext To Episode III?
George Lucas, director of the upcoming Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge
of the Sith, told reporters at the Cannes Film Festival that the movie
has little to do with the current political situation in the real
world. Appearing at the European premiere of Episode III, Lucas said
that he never thought about the Middle East, George W. Bush or voter
fraud when writing the script for the final prequel in the epic space
saga.
"When I wrote it [the] Iraq [war] didn't exist," Lucas said. "We were
just funding Saddam Hussein and giving him weapons of mass
destruction. We didn't think of him as an enemy at that point. We were
going after Iran and using him as our surrogate. This really came out
of the Vietnam era."
In the prequels, which culminate in Episode III, Lucas said he wanted
to explore how a democracy turns turns into a dictatorship: how it
gets "given" away. Back in the mid-1970s, when he first conceived of
the Star Wars saga, Lucas said that he "went back into history and
began to study a great deal about things like ancient Rome, such as
why did the Senate, after killing Caesar, turn around [and] give the
government to his nephew. Why did France, after they got rid of the
King, turn around and give it to Napoleon. You sort of see these
recurring themes, where a democracy turns itself over to a dictator.
It always seems to happen kind of in the same way, with the same kinds
of issues and threats from the outside and needing more control and a
democratic body not being able to function properly because everybody
is squabbling and there is corruption. This is seen as you go through
history, but I didn't think it was going to get this close. I hope
this doesn't come true in America. Maybe the film will awaken people
to how dangerous a democracy can be when it's subverted."
Lucas added that Episodes I, II and III explore how a good person can
be transformed into a bad person. "Most bad people think they are good
people, and they are doing it for the right reasons," Lucas said. "The
other core element of the film is condensing things down to very
simple levels. And in this particular case, greed and
self-centeredness being the root of a personality that will become so
self-absorbed that it will hurt and corrupt everyone around them."
Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith opens May 19.
In Cannes, Lucas was honored with the Trophy of the Festival de Cannes
at a ceremony held aboard the Queen Mary 2.

How will the New Republic prevent a Dark Jedi from taking it over?

[Tim Bruening]

In the prequels, which culminate in Episode III, Lucas said he wanted
to explore how a democracy turns turns into a dictatorship: how it
gets "given" away. Back in the mid-1970s, when he first conceived of
the Star Wars saga, Lucas said that he "went back into history and
began to study a great deal about things like ancient Rome, such as
why did the Senate, after killing Caesar, turn around [and] give the
government to his nephew. Why did France, after they got rid of the
King, turn around and give it to Napoleon. You sort of see these
recurring themes, where a democracy turns itself over to a dictator.
It always seems to happen kind of in the same way, with the same

kinds

of issues and threats from the outside and needing more control and a
democratic body not being able to function properly because everybody
is squabbling and there is corruption. This is seen as you go through
history, but I didn't think it was going to get this close. I hope
this doesn't come true in America. Maybe the film will awaken people
to how dangerous a democracy can be when it's subverted."

I understand what Lucas is getting at. And he's correct in his message
that society needs to be careful not to allow it's democracy to
deteriorate into dictatorship. But to say that he "didn't think it was
going to get this close" is a little paranoid in my opinion.
Lucas says that there is a recurring theme in history where democracies
turn themselves over to dictators in order to deal with outside
threats. But how have we (speaking as an American) "come close" to
being a dictatorship? I don't see any danger of this whatsoever. In
fact, our system of government is designed with precautions built in to
prevent things like this from happening. If people don't like the
current president and fear that he is corrupt and has bad intentions,
they can be glad that term limits will prevent him from being president
at the end of his terms.
Now if we didn't have term limits or there were serious proposals by
people supportive of the president to do away with term limits, then I
would say we would have reason to be worried.
Or maybe I'm just misinterpreting or reading too much into what Lucas
said which is entirely possible.

I hereby propose that the 2 term limit on Presidents be repealed!:)

[Maaike Charron]

Post by Tim Bruening

In the prequels, which culminate in Episode III, Lucas said he wanted
to explore how a democracy turns turns into a dictatorship: how it
gets "given" away. Back in the mid-1970s, when he first conceived of
the Star Wars saga, Lucas said that he "went back into history and
began to study a great deal about things like ancient Rome, such as
why did the Senate, after killing Caesar, turn around [and] give the
government to his nephew. Why did France, after they got rid of the
King, turn around and give it to Napoleon. You sort of see these
recurring themes, where a democracy turns itself over to a dictator.
It always seems to happen kind of in the same way, with the same

kinds

of issues and threats from the outside and needing more control and a
democratic body not being able to function properly because everybody
is squabbling and there is corruption. This is seen as you go through
history, but I didn't think it was going to get this close. I hope
this doesn't come true in America. Maybe the film will awaken people
to how dangerous a democracy can be when it's subverted."

I understand what Lucas is getting at. And he's correct in his message
that society needs to be careful not to allow it's democracy to
deteriorate into dictatorship. But to say that he "didn't think it was
going to get this close" is a little paranoid in my opinion.
Lucas says that there is a recurring theme in history where democracies
turn themselves over to dictators in order to deal with outside
threats. But how have we (speaking as an American) "come close" to
being a dictatorship? I don't see any danger of this whatsoever. In
fact, our system of government is designed with precautions built in to
prevent things like this from happening. If people don't like the
current president and fear that he is corrupt and has bad intentions,
they can be glad that term limits will prevent him from being president
at the end of his terms.
Now if we didn't have term limits or there were serious proposals by
people supportive of the president to do away with term limits, then I
would say we would have reason to be worried.
Or maybe I'm just misinterpreting or reading too much into what Lucas
said which is entirely possible.

I hereby propose that the 2 term limit on Presidents be repealed!:)

Um. It's already been proposed.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:H.J.RES.24.IH:

-Maaike

[Tim Bruening]

Palpatine's term was limited until he manipulated the situation so

that

the Senate granted him an indefinite term allowing him to elevate

himself

to Emperor.

Which would never ever happen in the US, the public wouldn't allow

it.

I'm sure that we'd all like to believe that, yes. But I don't.

Like I said - if congress ever granted an indefinite term, then we
would have reason to worry. But this isn't happening, so I don't see
any reason to worry.
Also there's no reason to believe that will happen. We've made it
through crises before while changing leadership without problems. And I
don't see Bush lobbying for a third term.
Besides, even if it actually came to a point where there was a crisis
so great that it was felt necessary to extend a term for some reason, I
would hope that congress would be smart enough to put a limits on that
extension.
Which brings my point full circle back to SW - it never made sense to
me that the Galactic Senate would just turn everything over to
Palpatine without any restrictions. I guess there wouldn't be a story
if they hadn't! :)

The Senate was mind warped by Darth Sidious.