[SPOILER!! - This blog discusses the transformation of Anakin Skywalker to Darth Vader. If you did not know that Anakin is Vader, then do not continue reading this post.]
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith started its first week with such a bang that many people thought it to be on its way to cruising into the spot of highest grossing film ever made. Then Madagascar was released the next week and caused for a lot of retractions. Having seen it recently I can verify that it is a good flick, although their various attempts at suspense are difficult to achieve since most everyone has already seen Star Wars: A New Hope (the original 1977 movie). Something that I've been waiting for is Anakin's morph into Darth Vader (along with Yoda - the coolest character in the series. . .and really, Yoda really spiked in popularity with the lightsaber scene in Episode II).
What struck me as odd in this latest installment is how Anakin is being persuaded to join "the dark side" of the force. For those who have been under a rock for the past thirty or so years, the force is a Hindu/New Agey rip-off that writer/director George Lucas put into these movies as an energy that binds all things (living/dead) together. It's totally bogus, but most sensible people just look beyond it in order to see some cool outer space effects. This force has a good side and a dark side, one which empowers and one which corrupts and destroys. The myth in all of this is that one can become more powerful by going to the dark side and the lure of power has drawn many down that path.
Anakin is definitely dealing with issues of power and responsibility in this movie. He is being lured to the dark side and struggles to make the right choices. Initially I was a bit confused about the attractiveness of the dark side. From a marketing standpoint it couldn't have a worse name. "The dark side." If they were really serious about getting folks to sign up for this, perhaps they would use more ambiguous titles. . .the cool side of the force; the deeper side of the force; the new black. . .
It seemed absurd to me that this was going on, perhaps because I have learned that evil does not usually persuade us by presenting itself as evil. I kept thinking about how Satan "masquerades as an angel of light" (2 Corinthians 11:14) and manipulates our perception of right and wrong. This outlook made the movie hard for me to accept. However, it later came to me that there was a more intrinsic message in the characterization of young Skywalker. For him to be drawn in by an evil that did not seek to hide itself meant that he had already come to struggle with his own reality. . .just like so many in our own culture. To turn this movie outward is to see something wrong within ourselves.
Our own society has come to struggle with right and wrong. The moral and ethical relativism that plagues our culture today means that we often choose evil even when it is not hiding itself. Labelled as "rebellion" or "experimentation" we allow so many of our younger generations to toy with evil, taking away its edge and making it more familiar. Let's face it. . .if we do not understand dark as an ethical descriptor, then we will have no problem exploring the dark side. But if we can regain the standards of right and wrong; light and dark; truth and lies. . .moral relativsts beware!
mmmmm, truth shall you know - set you free, it will.
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