Of Star Wars and Culture Wars

Those who have remarked the backlash against the Disney-era Star Wars saga--and certainly its more political component, which has been the object of most of the attention--have noted the irony that the original films were left-wing, and that to a degree far beyond what would be acceptable in a Hollywood blockbuster today, the Star Wars movies included. (One should recall that the Emperor was inspired by the vision of a dictatorial Nixon presiding over an America gone fascist, Alderaan North Vietnam.) But the right enjoyed them anyway, happily embracing the movie, so that when Edward Kennedy criticized the Strategic Defense Initiative as a "Star Wars" fantasy, Richard Perle, then Assistant Defense Secretary for Global Strategic Affairs, reportedly suggested that, like an improv performer following their partner's lead, they "just go with it."

One reason, I suppose, was that the particular leftishness of the movie was not so conspicuous--radical, admittedly, but elusive. By contrast the politics against which so many have reacted in recent years—above, identity politics-minded "representation"--have been in their very nature conspicuous, being "in your face" the whole idea, with predictable results.

But it also seems to me a matter of the public hyper-consciousness of the associated politics that feeds on itself--encouraged by the way the mainstream's political battles have changed, while also encouraging those changes.

In short, the movies changed, but so did the audience--and the latter factor of no small importance.