Stationary Bandit

Understanding the Movies Blues

Govindini Murty, an actress, has hit the nail on the head.

Hollywood's box office has hit the skids, and the entertainment media are in overdrive trying to explain why. The most obvious explanation for box office malaise is consistently overlooked: Hollywood's ruling liberal elites keep going out of their way to offend half their audience.

Constant gibes about Republicans, Christians, conservatives and the military litter today's movies and award show presentations like so many pieces of trash on theater floors.

Why would people spend money to here the same old song and dance?  What Hollywood needs are new ideas and new perspectives.  Ms. Murty poignantly asks, "Wouldn't it be smart, then, to let some new ideas in from the right, and give everybody a real choice again at the box office?"  For some reason, Hollywood ignores this possibility.

Stunning

Darth Vader on the National Cathedral

Here is the proof.

NY Times Review of 'Revenge of the Sith'

Not suprisingly, it views the movie through the lens of the current political climate.

"Revenge of the Sith" is about how a republic dismantles its own democratic principles, about how politics becomes militarized, about how a Manichaean ideology undermines the rational exercise of power. Mr. Lucas is clearly jabbing his light saber in the direction of some real-world political leaders. At one point, Darth Vader, already deep in the thrall of the dark side and echoing the words of George W. Bush, hisses at Obi-Wan, "If you're not with me, you're my enemy." Obi-Wan's response is likely to surface as a bumper sticker during the next election campaign: "Only a Sith thinks in absolutes." You may applaud this editorializing, or you may find it overwrought, but give Mr. Lucas his due. For decades he has been blamed (unjustly) for helping to lead American movies away from their early-70's engagement with political matters, and he deserves credit for trying to bring them back.

The reviewer seems to forget how the situation emerged that leads to Anakin Skywalker's transformation: a republic disintegrates in response to a secessionist movement that has a hierarchial view of society.  Hmmm... This does not sound like the present situation to me.  But what could it be?

Here is the entire review. 

Thoughts on Revenge of the Sith

I just finished reading the Revenge of the Sith.  If the movie is half as exciting as the book, it will be outstanding. 

My favorite line from the book: "So this is how liberty dies — to thunderous applause."

A few people have suggested that the movie has a number of anti-Bush moments.  I find this line of reasoning a bit silly since the basic storyline precedes the Bush Presidency.  I think a better comparison would be to the President who used emergency powers to end a separatist movement.