The moment I heard that fascists in the USA were boycotting Rogue One I knew I was going to see this film. Twice. Once for me, once for the finger in their eye.
It’s a good job I did see it twice because, despite being probably the best Star Wars based film since the original trilogy, politically it’s basically a war film – nothing more, nothing less. American fascists are clearly some of the most thin skinned, easy to offend, cry babies out there. Here’s a hint, if you think a story about fighting a genocidal authoritarian state just has to be a dig at you, well, you may just be the baddies.
The controversy essentially comes from a tweet from one of the writers of the film (of course it did) rather than an in-depth textual analysis by the alt-right’s top cultural boffin. Skeletor was busy that day.
Chris Weitz tweeted “Please note that the Empire is a white supremacist (human) organization” and another writer Gary Whitta replied, “Opposed by a multi-cultural group led by brave women”. This is true, although never once articulated in eight, count them, eight movies. You’d have thought the leader of an organisation that did not hire a single woman in any visible role and no one of colour in any officer position might let the racist, misogyny slip from time to time. Are the resistance too polite to mention it, even in their stirring, send them into battle speeches? I digress.
Incidentally can we just note that the Empire’s restrictive hiring practices are clearly what lead to it consistently losing against an under-funded, ramshackle organisation. Maybe if they hired the best person for the job instead of ruling out all the amply qualified women, wookies and Whelorian snake-eaters then maybe they wouldn’t needed a Death Star to quell all those messy rebellions in the first place. Just saying.
However, we do seem to be setting the bar for “political” films pretty low if the mere presence of black people and women in lead roles constitutes some sort of ill-gotten communism. I guess it’s a symptom of our grim times, let’s move on before I begin to weep.
“So hold on,” you’re saying, “if they don’t set up a bunch of space soviets and collectivise the production of spice* then how could it possibly be a worthwhile film?” Well, I’ll tell you, because it is has a coherent story with interesting depths, believable characters and, unlike last year’s effort, it strengthens the cannon rather than apes it.
- Spoilers.
You’ve read this far, any spoilers you now read are you’re own damn fault. If you have not already seen the film I take no responsibility for your decision to read on and lessen your own experience when you do get round to it. So there.
I’ll tell you what I liked, in the order of how much I liked it.
Top, the robot K2-SO played by the awesome Alan Tudyk is wonderful and I personally would not have been sad if he’d been the lead. But there you go. When they shot him they were bad people.
Next, the theme of self sacrifice for a potentially hopeless cause was, despite my jaded palette, rather inspiring. The idea that action might be near hopeless but still necessary and the way characters gave their lives to fulfill various small parts of the plan, becoming small pieces in a greater project was pretty touching I thought.
This idea that if they did not throw themselves into the fight today they would not be able to fight tomorrow, that we do not choose the terrain on which to fight or the times in which we resist is probably the most telling political truth of our age, but the alt-right anti-justice keyboard warriors wouldn’t know this because they boycotted the film. Fools.
Trump is a half-complete Death Star waiting to be deployed against cities, nations, and planets that defy the Dark Side. We cannot wait for the final panel to be fitted before stepping up. The time is now. Sorry about that.
Lastly, a related point, they all die. Every single one of them.
This is a story of how everyone sacrificed themselves in a struggle they knew they would never see the end of because they hoped that their contribution would count. And it did. In some ways it subverts the relentless franchise-mania of our culture from within. It shows, I think, the value of self contained stories and how heroes that are consumed are a hundred times more interesting than the indestructables that are so commonplace in similar films.
* Yes. I know. I did it to annoy you. Do not write in.