When A New Hope, the first episode of Star Wars to be produced came out, I was one of those people who saw it in first run.  I was so impressed I had to see it several times.  It was obvious that George Lucas had a good story, and the film version was well produced, unlike most film adaptations of books.  The fact that Lucas wrote the book and produced the movie certainly had something to do with it.  When Lord of the Rings was made into a film the relative faithfulness to the book certainly also contributed to its success, which should be a lesson to the film industry. 

I didn’t get to see Episode III, Revenge of the Sith in the theater.  I wanted to, but things were just too busy, and I was less impressed by Episodes I and II than I was with IV through VI, so it wasn’t a matter of priority.  I was also put off a bit by the title.  I knew that Episode VI had originally been titled Revenge of the Jedi, but the title had been changed, even though it would have been correct.  Here, it was dead wrong; there had been nothing for the Sith to take vengeance over.  “Rise of the Sith” would have been better. 

Recently I purchased the DVD of Episode III so I could finish the entire series.  In checking out the contents I noticed and subsequently watched the extra feature on “The Chosen One,” dealing with Darth Vader as a classic sin and redemption figure.  The concept was somewhat fascinating, as it introduced politics into the mix, made Anakin Skywalker the victim of the manipulating Chancellor Palpatine, and eventually required Anakin as Vader (in Return of the Jedi) to choose between his son and the evil Emperor -- who had finally shown his true colors by declaring that Vader was expendable if Luke would kill him and take his place. 

The crossover into human politics is striking because Anakin, in his journey to becoming Vader, is made to believe that he is doing the right thing, is distracted by the apparent trust that the Chancellor puts in him, combined with honors, and the distrust of everyone else who sees what he is becoming.  He was, in short, the Emperor’s “useful idiot,” just as much at Darth Maul, Count Duku and the other Sith disciples were.  The difference was that he survived, and continued to serve the one who had turned him to the dark, when what he really wanted was to prevent harm to those he cared about, bring peace, and so on.  It is the same thing with modern liberalism. 

In Revenge of the Sith Anakin thought he was supporting the republic.  In the end he found out that in truth he was helping to destroy the republic, but then it was too late.  His desire to save Padme from death in fact led to her dying because she would not live after he had abandoned her for the Dark Side.  When the Emperor said Anakin killed her he was right, but he lied about how.  Anakin’s misguided efforts to save her by joining the Dark Side were what caused her death.  He could just as easily have saved her by trusting her and the Jedi. 

In truth, Anakin wanted to achieve good results; all the time we see him wanting to fix things, eliminate injustices, and save the ones he loved, but his actions didn’t work for two reasons.  First, some things just could not be fixed.  He could not save his mother from death at the hands of the sand people, and killing them did not bring her back.  Second, in the later stages where he fell under the influence of Palpatine, the path he was following was corrupted.  He did not know it at the time, and could not discover it because he allowed himself to be blinded by devotion to idealism. 

Today we see many politicians and officials saying, “give me a little more power and everything will be all right.”  When this happens we must ask the question:  Are they truly interested in solving the problem, or are they only interested in power?  Today many politicians and other “leaders” are only interested in power, as was Palpatine.  Like Bill Clinton, Palpatine used anyone he could, and didn’t care one iota about any of them.  When they were of no further use he threw them away and replaced them.  It is likely that that activists for positive-sounding social causes understand the same thing.  Whether their tools do also is another matter.  Just ask Norma McCorvey.  The result is an “end justifies the means” mentality and course of action.  What Palpatine wanted was ultimate power.  He says as much during the combat sequence just before killing Mace Windu. 

There is one other area where Lucas may have added a small piece of the puzzle, in the film’s dialogue.  It is where one of the Jedi states that only Sith deal in absolutes.  This is slightly troublesome, as conservative Americans have come to know that there are absolutes of good and evil in the world, and they must be recognized as such when they appear.  The Emperor was such an absolute.  Vader eventually proves he was not.  At the same time, conservatives understand that the world is not perfect.  This is perhaps an essential part of the Jedi philosophy; understanding that you cannot have perfect results, living with imperfection, bearing up under adverse conditions without taking off on emotional tangents, and keeping peace with yourself and the world around you is essentially a conservative principle.  Modern Liberalism goes in the other direction by demanding perfection, and requiring that its proponents be given absolute power to achieve it, regardless of the past track record of such attempts, and throwing temper tantrums when they don’t get their way. 

While Revenge of the Sith does show itself to be a science fiction version of the classic sin and redemption story, it could also be an illustrated guide on how the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and how there are always people waiting to make use of those good intentions by turn them to something evil.  Others ignore the truth, seek to use more of the same failed policies to solve ongoing problems, and demand that troublemakers be understood and appeased.  Palpatine stands as the absolute example of the user, manipulating the well-intentioned Anakin to further his designs, then later keeping Darth Vader in thrall by enforcing the belief that he had nowhere else to turn.  It is the same with the social underclass that Democratic politicians depend on.  Using them to get elected, keeping them down, throwing them welfare bones now and again, and telling them that they cannot care for themselves, obtain jobs, and have self respect; their only hope is to stay on the welfare plantation. 

When Vader found he had a son, he first attempted to bring Luke with him to strike down the Emperor and replace him.  It didn’t work.  When Luke refused to kill Vader it finally severed the link between Vader and the Emperor.  One might say that Luke made the ultimate sacrifice, by risking death and in so doing allowed his father to experience redemption.  He becomes, in effect a Christ figure who leads an evildoer away by showing love. 

Admittedly, much of the Star Wars saga if fluff.  Back when A New Hope was released some critics called it a space opera, albeit an entertaining and well produced one.  But taken beyond the fluff, the annoyance of Jar Jar Binks, and Hayden Christensen’s wooden acting, the totality of Star Wars provides several excellent lessons.  Unfortunately, it seems that they are rarely up for examination in the public forum, even when their author attempts to call attention to them. 

Steven Laib is a practicing attorney.

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