Further to Rusty's message, any Star Wars geek knows that, the Star Wars movies paint a picture of an Empire that generally tolerates capitalism. Though the Emperor rules the political sphere with an iron fist, the details of day-to-day commerce seem to generally be left to the free market. The cantina at Mos Eisely (which may or may not have had another name, depending on who you ask) is a good example. The Imperials know generally what's going on there, but elect, for whatever reason, to look elsewhere. Same with the Jawas. Only the Maker knows what sort of illicit "free enterprise" those little bastards were up to. In Empire Strikes Back, when Lando's arguing with Vader in the Cloud City, Vader threatens him with a permanent garrison--implying that the Empire hadn't taken much of an interest in what was going on Bespin at that time, although it certainly could, if Calrissian wanted to push it. At any rate, geeks like me who pay attention to the underlying economic messages running through popular culture get the idea that the Empire is a fascist system--that is, "fascist" in the economic sense.

The missing Anchorhead conversation is an unfortunate omission. Star Wars as a movie about a fight over autoritarian central planning is even cooler than Star Wars as a movie about a fight against a bunch of white British guys and their planet-killing spaceship. Some war films, but definitely a minority, set forth an actual reason for the conflict between the two sides. Braveheart's a good example. The English were worth fighting against because otherwise they'd take your stuff and rape your wife. Continuing the general "anti-English" theme, Star Wars sets forth a titanic struggle between some hard-ass white British guys and everybody else, but it never goes much further than that. Taken at face value, the message of Star Wars might be "watch out for white British guys--and if you get the chance, you should definitely blow up their planet-killing spaceship." For better or worse, this message just doesn't have much general applicability at this point in history. Personally, I'd much more enjoy a movie about a struggle against authoritarian central planning.

Posted by: Ragnar at 11:58 AM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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