Home >> United States & Canada >> Media & Internet

     Email   Print 

Deconstructing Star Wars

Kyle Bristow - 10/28/2008

Ever since the middle of the 20th century, Marxists have infiltrated Hollywood to promote communist propaganda. Walt Disney and Ronald Reagan, who at the time was the head of the Screen Actors Guild, both testified to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) that the threat of communism in America’s film industry was a serious one. Adolphe Mejou, an actor who was a member of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals—an anti-communist organization—cooperated with HUAC and went as far on one occasion to proclaim, “I am a witch hunter if witches are communists. I am a Red-baiter. I would like to see them all back in Russia.” Mejou never got his wish that communists would be kicked out of the film industry and repatriated to Russia, because during the height of the Cold War, George Lucas knowingly or unknowingly produced the greatest communist propaganda film series ever to date: Star Wars.

Is this extreme to suggest? Consider the facts. The Galactic Empire advocated order and comprised of only white, English-speaking males. The Rebel Alliance advocated “Permanent Revolution”—a theory invented by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels to describe the strategy of the revolutionaries to continue to struggle and wage war without compromise—and was comprised of various ragtag, multicultural, multiracial, and multi-specie individuals who rebelled against everything the Empire represented.

If one compares the themes of Star Wars and the themes of Marx’s Communist Manifesto, they will realize that both have themes which run parallel. In Marx’s manifesto, he writes that a goal of the communists is the “Abolition of the family!” When Darth Vader told Luke Skywalker that he was his father in the fifth episode of Star Wars, Luke screamed “No!” before jumping to what could have been his death. The institution of the family, when it comes to Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, is mocked in the movie.

In the fifth episode of Star Wars, after Vader hacked off Luke’s hand with his lightsaber, Vader said to Luke:

“Luke, you do not yet realize your importance. You have only begun to discover your power. Join me, and I will complete your training. With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict and bring order to the galaxy.”

Since order and the end of “destructive conflict” are antithetical to Marx’s “Permanent Revolution,” Luke turns down Vader’s request to bring about peace.

The “bad guys” in the film, those who the audience is trained to abhor, represent the good of Western society, which communists desire to overthrow. In the third episode, when Anakin Skywalker slays the leaders of the separatist movement, the Emperor says to him, “It is finished then. You have restored peace and justice to the galaxy. In the very same episode, when Obi-Wan Kenobi confronts Anakin Skywalker, Skywalker says to him, “Don't lecture me, Obi-Wan. I see through the lies of the Jedi. I do not fear the dark side as you do. I have brought peace, freedom, justice, and security to my new Empire.” Only communist propaganda seeks to slander notions of peace, freedom, justice, security, and order, which are traits of Western society.

In Marx’s manifesto, he also writes that a goal of the communists is to “abolish countries and nationality.” Nationalism is reproached in Star Wars films, because the “good guys” take no pride in their culture, heritage, race, civilization, or even specie. Consider the fact that the “good guys” think nothing of allying with species including those that crawled out of a swamp (Gungans in the first episode) or spear-chucking savages who swing like monkeys from tree-to-tree (Ewoks in the sixth episode). The “bad guys”—the Empire—seem to only allow white males in their military, and the only time the Empire allowed non-humans to aid their cause was in the fifth episode when non-human bounty hunters were tasked with hunting down Han Solo and his ship. When the Empire used these non-human mercenaries, one Imperial officer described the bounty hunters as “scum” in a conversation with a fellow officer. Lucas presents the “bad guys” as being racist and bigoted white males, while the “good guys” represent the utopia that could be possible if diversity is embraced and tradition is done away with.

The multicultural, multiracial, multi-specie contingent of the Rebel Alliance could very well be a metaphor for the International Brigade of the Spanish Civil War, which was a unit of communists from various countries that fought Francisco Franco and those who defended true freedom. Lucas is glorifying this communist mob by presenting the diversity-loving Rebel Alliance as being on the good side of the conflict.

During the 1960s, leftists in the United States and Europe protested nuclear weapons, and it has been revealed in recent years that the Soviet Union funded many of these movements in Western countries. In Star Wars, a subliminal condemnation of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction is evident when the Death Star in the fourth episode blows up Princess Leia’s planet. Before the planet is blown to smithereens, she begs the Imperial officers to not destroy it by asserting that the planet is innocent and “peace-loving.” Princess Leia—as evidenced by her exploits in the last three episodes of Star Wars—is arguably a terrorist. The viewers of the movie are remorseful when the “innocent” planet is destroyed; however, if it were known that terrorist Osama bin Laden was being hidden in a country knowingly by that country’s government, one would be hard-pressed to find an American who would not support the blowing of that country into smithereens. Lucas uses emotion, rather than rational thought, to encourage the viewers of his films to side with the communist cause.

Are the “good guys” not terrorists? Lucas glorifies their activities which include sabotage (in the fourth episode Obi-Wan Kenobi sabotages a tractor beam, and in the sixth episode Han Solo sabotages a shield generator), assassinations (in the sixth episode Princess Leia assassinates Jabba the Hutt, and throughout the Star Wars films, Jedi Knights hunt down evildoers in a way that can only be a metaphor for the KGB hunting down anti-communists), and suicide-attacks (in the sixth episode a Rebel fighter pilot crashes his spacecraft into the bridge of an Imperial starship, which caused it to crash into the Death Star and blow up). Fear, which is also used by terrorists to get what they want, was used by Princess Leia in the sixth episode when she walked into Jabba the Hutt’s palace and threatened him with a grenade. Even the Rebel bases on the forest planet in the fourth episode and on the ice planet in the fifth episode very well could serve as a metaphor for communist Che Guevara’s camps as he waged guerrilla war throughout Central America as he did all he could do to spread communism in the Western hemisphere. The “good guys” in the film most certainly were terrorists.

Another metaphor for communism I noticed in Star Wars occurs in the very last scene of the sixth episode. On the forest planet, after the Rebels blew up the Death Star, they had a party that could be a metaphor for one of Joe Stalin’s infamous vodka-sloshing parties. In this scene, the communist Rebels celebrate their victory over the supposed “bad guys” who were led by the most evil person in the galaxy: The Emperor, who was an old, white man. I think that it is not a stretch to propose that the Emperor could have been a metaphor for the American Founding Fathers, who the Left seeks to defame as being nothing more than “old, white, dead guys” rather than the learned, brave men that they were.

It is asinine to believe that Star Wars is communist propaganda, and the preceding argument is nothing more than an example of the absurdity of deconstruction. Jacques Derrida, a socialist French philosopher, invented deconstruction in the late 1960s, which is a method of analyzing texts based on the belief that language is inherently unstable and that the reader, rather than the author or creator of it, is central in determining its meaning. Bill Crouse, in an article entitled “Deconstructionism: The Postmodern Cult of Hermes” (7/7/03) on the website of Christian Information Ministries defines deconstruction as:

“[A] powerful postmodern movement currently in vogue on major college campuses and among the intellectual elite. Its influence permeates every area of our culture. This movement has given rise to . . . political correctness, re-imaging, multiculturalism, and culture wars. It has become a hammer for smashing traditional values.”

Unless George Lucas himself truly intended Star Wars to be communist propaganda, it is ridiculous for one to believe it to be. Deconstruction, which can be done by anyone—for there is no correct way to deconstruct something—is moronic in that farfetched conclusions can be reached. For example, one could have said that Star Wars is not a metaphor for the struggle of Western civilization versus communism, but freedom versus Nazism.

The all-white Empire could represent the Übermensch of Nazi Germany; the Emperor, who led the Empire, could be a metaphor for Hitler; Darth Vader could be a metaphor for Adolf Hitler’s right-hand man, Rudolf Hess; when the Imperial officer referred to Han Solo as “Rebel scum” in the sixth episode, it could be a metaphor for the view Nazis had of Untermensch; and when the Imperial officer on the Death Star in the fourth episode referred to Han Solo’s hairy sidekick Chewbacca as a “thing,” one could interpret this to be a metaphor for Nazi bigotry and racism.

Another person could interpret Star Wars as being a metaphor for the American Revolution. The Rebel Alliance could be a metaphor for the American colonies; the Galactic Empire could be a metaphor for the British Empire; the Emperor could be a metaphor for the King of England; Admiral Ackbar’s alien ships in the sixth episode could serve as a metaphor for the French Navy which aided the American Revolution; Han Solo and the Rebels on the forest planet in the sixth episode could serve as a metaphor for Francis “Swamp Fox” Marion and his guerrilla fighters; the ice planet battle in the fifth episode could be a metaphor for all the battles American militias fought, even though they were horribly outnumbered; Han Solo’s condemnation of Princess Leia’s nobility in the fourth episode by referring to her dryly as “Her Royal Highness” could be a metaphor for the American rejection of the British aristocracy; the massive fleet of the Empire could serve as a metaphor for the huge British Navy; and Darth Vader’s threat to “leave a garrison behind” to Lando Calrissian in the fifth episode could be a metaphor for British colonization.

If Star Wars is not a critique of Nazism, a metaphor for the American Revolution, or an apology for communism through deconstruction, one could make the case that the film series is a metaphor for the struggle between Christianity and the pagan-controlled Roman Empire. While the Empire is atheistic (a high-ranking Imperial officer even says to Darth Vader in the fourth episode that he is all that is left of the ancient religion called “The Force”), the Rebel Alliance is extremely religious (as evidenced by the fact that they are always saying “May the Force be with you” to one another); the secret Rebel bases on the ice planet and forest planet in the fifth and fourth movies, respectively, could serve as a metaphor for the catacombs that Christians hid in during the times of the Roman Empire; the Emperor could be a metaphor for Satan; Darth Vader could be a metaphor for a minion of Satan, perhaps the pagan Roman Emperor Diocletian, who hunted down Christians and slaughtered them; and Luke Skywalker could be a metaphor for St. Michael the Archangel, who, in the Book of Revelations, is presented as the leader of an army of angels from Heaven who will overthrow Satan and his minions in a great battle.

Star Wars cannot be a pro-communism, anti-Nazi movie series that serves as a metaphor for the Christian struggle with pagan Rome and as a metaphor for the American Revolution, all at the same time. If I have accomplished anything with this essay, it is my hope to have made a mockery of deconstruction, which serves as nothing more than a tool employed by Marxists to attack Western culture.

And for the record, when interviewed by CNN on May 16, 2008 (“Lucas on Iraq war, 'Star Wars'” on the CNN website), George Lucas claims that Star Wars could serve as a metaphor for the American invasion of Iraq. Lucas must be a visionary in that he made a movie thirty years ago to serve as a metaphor for a war which had not yet occurred.