There wasn’t much more (screencap with deleted tweet restored)–he ends it by saying he was “being ironic” (???). There’s some nice sources for what George Lucas was thinking as he wrote the script to refute the idea that he came up with that interpretation later, though (images of text–will provide transcripts).
First image (handwritten draft notes from George Lucas predating the filming of Star Wars)
Second thoughts about Plot
1. Utapau Wasteland - Starkiller (Mifune)—a cross between Yojimbo and Seven Samurai
[…]
The Empire is like America ten years from now; after Nixonian gangsters assassinated the Emperor and were elected to power in a rigged election; created civil disorder by instigating race riots, aiding rebel groups, and allowing the crime rate to rise to the point where a “total control” police state was welcomed by the people. Then the people were exploited with high taxes, utility and transport costs.
Gangsters[:] a cartel made up of power companies, transport companies, & crime organizations. Other companies had to pay bribes to stay in business.
They increased the crime rate by slowing down the system of justice and punishment.
Second image (excerpt from The Making of Star Wars, which is also the source of the first image)
In enlarging the treatment to what became a nearly two-hundred-page rough draft, Lucas was continually aided by the transference of his Apocalypse Now ideas to the fantasy realm. Some of his notes scribbled on yellow legal pads are: “Theme: Aquilae is a small independent country like North Vietnam threatened by a neighbor or provincial rebellion, instigated by gangsters aided by empire. Fight to get rightful planet back. Half of system has been lost to gangsters … The empire is like America ten years from now, after gangsters assassinated the Emperor and were elevated to power in a rigged election … We are at a turning point: fascism or revolution.”
edit: in hindsight I should have picked a Twitter handle that doesn’t exist for the deleted tweet, but it seems to be a long abandoned account anyway so oh well
don’t make the series which literally had a movie about a trade embargo political
also I do agree that it is political to have black and queer representation but it is equally political to not
I need more of that thread lmao holy shit
I haven’t seen the rest of the thread but I assume it consists of this lib being painfully brought to the water and then stubbornly refusing to drink.
There wasn’t much more (screencap with deleted tweet restored)–he ends it by saying he was “being ironic” (???). There’s some nice sources for what George Lucas was thinking as he wrote the script to refute the idea that he came up with that interpretation later, though (images of text–will provide transcripts).
First image (handwritten draft notes from George Lucas predating the filming of Star Wars)
Second image (excerpt from The Making of Star Wars, which is also the source of the first image)
edit: in hindsight I should have picked a Twitter handle that doesn’t exist for the deleted tweet, but it seems to be a long abandoned account anyway so oh well
The original premise for the empire was literally “what if fascism, but it started in the US with Richard Nixon?”
That doesn’t sound right