In George Lucas's latest contribution to the Star Wars saga, the ultimate prequel, we learn the origins of Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, and the roles of Obiwan Kenobe, the little green pointy eared troll whose name will come to me, and what this almost 30-year-old argosy is supposed to represent.
We see personal transformation, corruption, betrayal, the breakdown of personal relationships, life, death, birth, and the fight for the republic, democracy, power and empire, a form or manifestation of power. All in one movie, along with a lot of Lightsaber fighting. Sometimes you can only tell who the bad guy is by the color of his bright sword.
The Manichean duality in this film is between the forces of good and evil as represented by the Sith (bad) and the Jedi (good).
There is one great line in the movie, toward the end, when the good guy says to the bad guy who used to be a good guy and his friend:
"Only the Sith deal in absolutes."
I heard that and damn near fell out of my seat.
It seemed to be a commentary on the religious right, or any of the extreme right, in the current culture war. Revenge of the Sith was finally viewable as a current day reality play, and why else would Mr. Lucas spen his life doing it up the way he has.
Incidentally, I've read that he plays a cameo role in the movie. See if you can spot him. I thought I did and would like to compare notes.
My son, Rick asked, as the movie ended and the credits were rolling, what I thought of it: "Only the Sith deal in absolutes, " I replied, and he got a kick outta that.
See, even in Star Wars, we deal in Conlaw, and what would you have expected. Sci-Fi has always been an otherworldly form for commenting on down to earth matters, hasn't it?
Conlaw, it's all around you.