Star Wars film mirrors themes of post 9/11 world

Well, just one week remains before the opening of the new, highly anticipated Star Wars movie, and my human is understandably very excited to see this last installment of the films she loved so very much as a teenager. I was reading that this latest version is somewhat darker than the previous films and is being given a rating of 14C. This means that no one under the age of 14 will be allowed into the theatre unless accompanied by a cat! This is very good news for the likes of my feline friends down the road because even though we sometimes look upon a vast majority of human culture with a great deal of disdain, even we can't help but look forward to viewing this monumental film.

After a few of us watched the movie's trailer through the grimy window of a neighbouring farmhouse, we immediately launched into a lively conversation of the parallels between the Star Wars series and life in a post 9/11 world. One of the most astonishing synchronicities is the depiction of how a modern, overly beaurocratic but still democratic society, can morph over time into a souless dictatorship. The similarities between the Evil Empire and Bush's America are numerous and frightening to say the least.

One facet of the movie that seems most apt in these days of fake terror alerts, rampant media propaganda, Patriot Act fascist legislation and increasing planetary chaos is that of personal choice. The dark side of the force in movie terminology, or entropic path of the universe in modern parlance, is just one face of reality that lies open to us all. The light side of the force or creative path is also open to those who desire it. The difference being that of CHOICE, and how it is up to each of us personally, in every waking moment of our lives to make a choice that favours the creative aspect and the not the entropic aspect of the universe.

This of course entails that we begin to observe ourselves closely, being aware of all the insidious but subtle programs that influence our thinking and behaviour. All of us carry these erroneous belief systems that have been conditioned into us since birth by parents, peers, education, politics and media, and prevent us from perceiving reality objectively. The creative path towards the light side of the force awaits in potential as one by one, each of us use what time remains for us on this planet to really begin to SEE.

It seems that us cats are not the only ones thinking along similar lines...

by William S. Kowinski
San Francisco Chronicle

In the hubbub surrounding "Revenge of the Sith," the latest and last Star Wars film, George Lucas has made no secret of saying the theme of this film and the prequel trilogy it completes is "how a democratic society turns into a dictatorship, and how a good person turns into a bad person."

A pop culture phenomenon like "Star Wars" has an inevitable relationship to other cultural currents of its time. This is especially true of Lucas' films, since the story within their space opera is political: the rise and fall of an empire.

The first "Star Wars" burst onto screens in 1977 when science fiction films were rare and dour. After Vietnam and Watergate and with the Cold War superpowers still facing off, the future seemed doubtful. The anti-hero ruled the screen.

Lucas came up with a simple, revolutionary concept: injecting heroic mythological themes into a fantasy world -- Joseph Campbell directs Flash Gordon.

"Star Wars" edged the old innocent virtues with contemporary knowingness in recognizable new heroes: Hans Solo, the swaggering mercenary with hidden heart, and Princess Leia, the damsel in distress who runs the war room and shoots the bad guys. Soulless technology became personable in the robots, C- 3PO and R2D2. But the true hero was Luke Skywalker, all impulse and openness.

Lucas captivated audiences on another level with an astonishing premise: The Force, which emanated from all life and was accessible to all, although present more strongly in some. The Force had a good side, accessed by the Jedi knights, like Obi Wan Kenobe, serving the rebel alliance.

It also had the dark side, represented by Darth Vader, serving the Imperial Empire and its powerful hooded emperor. The Force not only added an all-purpose explanation for fantastic accomplishments but also had a mystical and spiritual dimension largely absent from a 1970s American culture dominated by the linear materialism of economics and science.

In the third film of this trilogy, "Return of the Jedi," the empire was overthrown by Luke Skywalker and an underdog alliance with more virtue than technology in a final battle fought partly in space, and partly on a green world that looks very much like Eureka (Humboldt County).

It was a satisfying ending. Released in 1983, its message inspired New Age advocates and environmentalists as well as President Ronald Reagan, who began referring to the Soviet Union as the evil empire and proposed a missile defense system that was quickly dubbed "Star Wars."

But Lucas had a larger, more complex and less comfortable story in mind. Darth Vader, the black-clad, half-machine villain skulking in the darkness, turned out to be the evil father of Luke Skywalker and his twin sister, Leia. Even though Vader turns away from the dark side before he dies, the question of how an evil father becomes good was raised. The new prequel trilogy demonstrates the reverse: how good is the father of evil.

Beginning with "The Phantom Menace" in 1999, Lucas explores the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker, who becomes Darth Vader in "Revenge of the Sith." (The Sith are revealed as the dark side equivalent of the Jedi.)

In between chat on the mechanics of filmmaking (the Bantha is really an elephant in costume), Lucas reveals how deliberate his thematic thinking has been. The evil empire figures wear black and white because they represent a black-and-white world view of self-righteous certainties. The rebels are clothed in earth-tones, representing organic complexities. The same situations and motifs recur purposefully. The difference is in the choices characters make.

In "Jedi" we saw Luke reject the temptations of the dark side's power by restraining his anger and hate. The entire prequel trilogy may be seen as a demonstration of how someone makes the opposite choice, and Lucas has clearly tried to make Anakin Skywalker sympathetic as well as strong. [...]

Moreover, Lucas is clear about the paths to the dark side: The hunger for more and more power serving a possessiveness and greed that include surrender to revenge and to the emotional demands of what Buddhists call attachment.

The prequel trilogy says that hot-blooded righteousness in a hero is not enough, for it is too easily perverted. Like all cautionary tales, this is a call to consciousness. Like all tragedies, it tells us that even born heroes have human flaws that mirror their society's faults.

That's a lot for a film series to bear, especially one wrapped up in the animated noise of a tech-crazy age and partly pitched to children. This film, Lucas warns, is darker than any of its predecessors, showing Anakin Skywalker's descent into Hell (almost literally, in the fires of a volcanic planet.) The birth of Luke and Leia could add a different emotional dimension.

How well this theme is expressed remains, like the film itself, to be seen. Will anyone now want to hear the film's message? In America, the audience seems split between angry triumphalism and forlorn, global-cooked dread. It's the rapture red staters versus the apocalyptic blues.

Perhaps the biblical imagery of hellfire will attract the religious right, suspicious of the New Age pantheistic/Buddhist sound of the Force. But even Lucas will probably not be surprised if this essentially moral message is lost or, as in the Reagan '80s, co-opted.