INDCJournal: The Real Sith

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May 18, 2005

The Real Sith

Posted by Bill

While George Lucas is busy misapplying his allegorical vision in moonbat ravings about Vietnam, Iraq and George Bush, the WaPo's Stephen Hunter presents a more appropriate perspective in a generally effusive and interesting review of Revenge of the Sith:

He's a director of action and ideas, and in Anakin he gives us a man comprising both. Anakin is the classic man who gives up freedom for security, and ends up with neither. He's all those happy good Germans of 1938 who sold out to a Leader who would protect them from Bolshevism and who served thereafter without remorse or doubt until the world collectively rubbed their noses in it. Or he's the brilliant generation of young radicals who gave it up for Stalin's golden utopia and paid no attention to the messy steps of forced starvation and internecine slaughter of millions on the road to paradise. I suppose he's any man who believes in something so hard that he gives up his soul for it, and to forget the pain of the lost soul, he squeezes the new faith even harder until he's lost in moral space.

(Emphasis mine)

Thanks, Mr. Hunter, it's so refreshing to see a mainstream pundit of any stripe point out the horrors and apologism of Communism. Perhaps you should send Lucas a copy of the WaPo clipped to a helpful historical reading list.

See also, Chrenkoff's enthusiastic leap to the dark side.

UPDATE: Then again, to temper Hunter's postive review:

Since Christensen has never come close to that level of gravitas, we're eager to see how Anakin the testy apprentice, the surly, conflicted boy, will emerge, corrupted, from the shell of his innocence.
He does and he doesn't. Anakin's journey to the Dark Side is sparked by half a dozen different motivations, none of them entirely convincing.

...

All of this is so talky and abstract, however, that Anakin's gathering storm seems hokey from the start, a function of the fact that it's simply time for him to begin getting mad. The trouble with "Revenge of the Sith" is that we're never really shown what we're told about endlessly: Anakin succumbing to the temptations of power.

Posted by Bill at May 18, 2005 08:50 AM | TrackBack (0)

Comments

Poor George. First he sold out to the merchandising, now he's sold out to the left. Unfortunately, at least one of his sellouts has blown up--even if it's gotten no further than some industry publications and the BBC. Bad choice of partners in Sony.

How not to keep customers happy.

Posted by: ubu at May 18, 2005 12:07 PM

A WaPo columnist who's comparing Hitler and Stalin? What's next, are the Red Sox going to win a World Series?

Posted by: rbj at May 18, 2005 12:35 PM

Your comment about Wash Post movie reviewer Stephen Hunter pointing out the horrors of communism is right on the money, and is characteristic of him. I read a movie review of his some 3 years ago where he did the same thing in reviewing a little-known foreign film, and I have been following his reviews ever since, both because of that, and because he is one of the best writers in the Post.

Posted by: Edward Sisson at May 18, 2005 12:56 PM

Unfortunately, while Hunter is a good writer and conversant with history, his taste in films is a different matter entirely.

I've come to the unfortunate conclusion (especially after his plaudits for "Tears of the Sun") that any movie Hunter likes, I'll probably hate, and vice versa.

Posted by: Sun-Tzu at May 18, 2005 04:36 PM

The most laughable line comes when, in a empty harangue intended to stop his slide to the dark side, Obi-Wan tells Annakin,"Only Siths believe in absolutes!",
um, you know, except for that line itself, which deals in absolutes.
Sadly, Annakin's evil is mitigated by the fact that he looks like a young Gene Simmons, so I spent much of the movie waiting for Ace Frehley to show up.

Posted by: T Marcell at May 19, 2005 02:38 PM