“So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause.” When we think about politics andStar Wars, this is the line that most often comes to mind. Spoken by Senator Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman) following the congressional takeover that effectively turned Senator Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) into Emperor, putting an end to the Republic,the line reflects the character’s disillusionment with her fellow representativesand how easily they fell for the lies of a warmongering dictator. It is evoked frequently when personal freedoms are at stake, and yet, no one seems to quite care about it. More than that,they celebrate the rise of a new order that will just make everything worse for everyone.
It is easy, thus, to look at this line and see it as the peak of political criticism inStar Wars. However,George Lucas' saga has always been more political than people usually give it credit for. And, when we really examine it in the context of its time,Star Wars: Episode III - The Revenge of the Sithsure takes the cake. Padmé’s line about the death of liberty isn’t even the most politically charged in the film.That honor goes to Anakin Skywalker’s (Hayden Christensen) “If you are not with me, then you are my enemy.“The line, which serves as motivation for Obi-Wan’s (Ewan McGregor) famous remark, “Only a Sith deals in absolutes,” is a stark reflection of its time—a time in which a warmongering political leader was starting to lose favor both at home and around the world. As a matter of fact, it is almost taken word for word from said leader’s mouth. Ultimately, it is proof thatGeorge Lucas had some pretty strong beliefs concerning his country’s politicsand, perhaps most importantly, its foreign policy.
The ‘Star Wars’ Prequels Came Out at a Turning Point for the United States
Released between 1999 and 2005, theStar Warsprequels came out at a delicate moment for the United States. Two years afterThe Phantom Menacehit the theaters, an unprecedented terrorist attack killed thousands of people in the two towers World Trade Center and the Pentagon, basically twisting the world order into something completely new. At the time,then-president George W. Bush addressed the American publicand stated that “every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make.Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.”
It was a statementdesigned to silence dissent regarding the actions that he would take moving forward, like the invasion of Afghanistan, the much more controversial war on Iraq, andthe PATRIOT Act, a law that basically allowed the mass surveillance of American citizens. Bush wanted support, both in the ideological and the material sense, for what he was about to do. And initially, he did garner a lot of support. Liberty died with thunderous applause, as Padmé would say it,as international sympathy and a chauvinistic sense of patriotism took over.However, as time moved on, opposition started to rise.
Anakin Skywalker Became Darth Vader Way Earlier Than You Remember
Not that it makes a difference to the younglings…
In 2003, in between the 2002 release ofAttack of the Clonesand the 2005 release ofRevenge of the Sith, Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq—a controversial move to say the least. While the attack on Afghanistan was justified by the country serving as a hiding spot for Osama bin Laden himself,Iraq was a completely different story.Bush claimed that Saddam Hussein was building weapons of mass destruction,but said weapons were never found.Other NATO countries failed to see Iraq as a threat, and, on the global stage, things started to get ugly. At home, too,those that dared raise their voices against the absurdity of the Iraq Warwere frequently silenced. Still, from theDixie Chicksto George Lucas, there were many who had strong opinions about what Bush had been doing ever since 9/11.
‘Star Wars’ Served as a Vehicle for Lucas' Discontentment with the Bush Administration
Lucas voiced these opinions somewhat freely,comparing George W. Bush to Darth Vaderand vice president Dick Cheney to Emperor Palpatine, making quite clear who he thought was actually pulling the strings. However, he also used his main mouthpiece—the saga that he created and was still writing in the mid-2000s—to air his grievances. In that context,Anakin’s “If you are not with me, then you are my enemy” sounds a whole lot like Bush’s “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists,“a comparison thatdidn’t fly over the heads of the critics of the time. And if we remember—and, surely, we must—that Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker are the same person, well, there you have Mr. Bush, standing over the lava of Mustafar, telling a shocked Obi-Wan just how corrupted by the Dark Side he really is.
Recently, memes about howGeorge Lucas correctly predicted a descentinto fascism starting with a trade warhave become the internet’s bread and butter. After years ofcertain fans—you know the type—complaining thatStar Warshad gotten too political, there is a certain feeling of rediscovery of the political text of the franchise, especially concerning the prequels. And the truth is that George Lucas and his oeuvre have always been keenly aware of what was going on around them.The Phantom Menace,Attack of the Clones, andRevenge of the Sithmight be campy or even considered bad, butthey sure paint a very realistic portrait of a political crisis—a portrait very much inspired by the real world.
