CANNES -- Star Wars is a wakeup call to Americans about the erosion of democratic freedoms under George W. Bush, filmmaker George Lucas says.Lucas, responding to a question from The Sun at a Cannes Film Festival press conference on Sunday, said he first wrote the framework of Star Wars in 1971 when reacting to then-U.S. president Richard Nixon and the on-going events of the Vietnam War. But the story still has relevance today, he said, and is part of a pattern he has noticed in his readings of history.I didnt think it was going to get quite this close, he said of the parallels between the Nixon era and the Bush presidency, which has been sacrificing freedoms in the interests of national security. It is just one of those re-occurring things. I hope this doesnt come true in our country.Maybe the film will awaken people to the situation of how dangerous it is ... The parallels between what we did in Vietnam and what we are doing now in Iraq are unbelievable.In the latest film, the Palpatine character takes over as ruler of the universe with the co-operation of the other politicians.Because this is the back story (of the Star Wars saga), one of the main features of the back story was to tell how the Republic became the Empire, Lucas said. At the time I did that, it was during the Vietnam War and the Nixon era. The issue was: How does a democracy turn itself over to a dictator? Not how does a dictator take over but how does a democracy and Senate give it away?Lucas cited the Roman Empire in the wake of Caesars death, France after the Revolution and Germany with the rise of Hitler as historical examples of countries giving themselves over to dictators. They all seem to happen in the same way with the same issues: Threats from the outside; they need more control; and a democratic body not being able to function properly because everybodys squabbling.Lucas earned applause for his comments and then joined his actors Hayden Christensen, Natalie Portman, Samuel L. Jackson, Ian McDiarmid and Anthony Daniels in a free-wheeling discussion of Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith, which made its world premiere out of competition. This was before they all scuttled off to the Queen Elizabeth II cruise ship, where the Cannes brass presented Lucas with an awkwardly named honour called the trophy of the festival.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Nov 2013 13:18:00 +0000