The Force Awakens: To George Lucas, with Love

the force awakens star wars the force awakens
Written by Cole Smithey

As the trailer for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” opens, it’s clear that war is in the air. Why not give your kids a front seat to it all? And a couple of Cokes? Thanks, George.

cole-smitheyaNewDomain — “Who are you?”

“I’m no one,” responds a woman, the one we see walking across the desert sand, accompanied by a “new” android, this time with a ball-rolling body. Cool.

We hear a disembodied male voice. “I was raised to do one thing. I’ve got nothing to fight for.”

The man who just spoke appears, looking out across a vast desert, holding a coat in his hand. The heroic black bodybuilder does indeed have the physique of a soldier.

I’m watching the trailer for “Star Wars; The Force Awakens” — again. As ever, war is imminent.

Already, we see a continuing Hollywood trend whereby kids — this is a children’s movie after all — are indoctrinated toward a wartime mentality that has infected American society. It’s a wartime mentality that continues to be supervised by a militarized junta that came into place after Bush stole the 2000 presidential election from Gore.

The tragedy we now call 9/11 ushered in a power and money-grab like no other before it. It continues to feed on any scrap or tendril of monetary value it can suck from its citizens, with all your data included.

Anyway, we already know from the trailer that we’re in for some pro-war propaganda, which may or may not be anywhere near as scathing and derisively sarcastic as Paul Verhoeven’s classic example of war satire “Starship Troopers.”

Darth breathily speaks, “Nothing will stand in our way.”

That sounds familiar; wonder where I’ve heard that kind of talk before.

Revenge is in the air. “I will finish what you started.” We see Darth’s grotesquely deformed face, absent now of eyes.

A woman’s voice announces, “There were stories about what happened.”

We see low altitude air battles between familiar spaceships.

Harrison Ford, framed in a lushly lit fantasy vision of glories past, chimes in, “It’s true, all of it.”

‘THIS CHRISTMAS’ flashes on the screen. I’d rather see Tarantino’s “Hateful 8” rather than suffer through what is certain to be a picture, which however competently written and executed, remains a pro-war propaganda product to be consumed like so much ritual medicine by an American public struggling with its own wartime reality of daily mass shootings, and a police force on schedule to kill over 1,100 citizens this year.”

“A dark side. A Jedi. They’re real. The Force. It’s calling to you. Just let it in.”

Wow.

Damn if that doesn’t sound like an offer you can’t refuse. And I do mean that in the “Godfather” sense. “Let it in,” is just creepy.

Do you have to be entered?

Will it hurt?

Get ready. Get ready for “Star Wars.”

The title says it all. So come get you and your family a dose of revved-up fantasy war violence in the irresistible context of a coming-of-age story, amid possible global annihilation. Be sure and buy lots of popcorn and Cokes, too. And remember: George Lucas loves you very, very, very much.

For aNewDomain, I’m Cole Smithey.

Watch the “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”  trailer below.