starwars.jpg

The alt-right (or, more accurately, neo-Nazis) predictably hate Star Wars: The Last Jedi for reasons stated in my review of the film. The Last Jedi is critical of meat ideology, of male leadership and mansplaining, of casino culture of the one percent, racial uniformity, an un-examined commitment to religious ideas, and arms commerce. As if this were not enough, the film ends (not really a SPOILER) with the beginning of an interracial relationship that doesn't involve a white person and may replace the galactic love story that "Han Solo and Princess Leia (Love Theme)" immortally scored.

And so a love story involving non-whites is set to follow one that involved whites. Of course, the alt-right sees all of this as an attack on white males, and is now claiming responsibility for the low audience score the film currently has on Rotten Tomatoes (it has a very high critics score, however). But these neo-Nazi complaints and claims will have no impact on the future of this franchise because The Last Jedi has already (in under a week) made more than half a billion dollars and, according to Forbes, the magazine that speaks for and is read by money, "barring a fluke, the film should end today [December 21st] with just under $300m domestic and just over $600m worldwide."

Star Wars, like Hollywood, is a global machine. It produces images for a world market whose consumers are not racially and culturally uniform. These consumers will pay good money to see representations of themselves in a big-budget blockbuster. This business model and understanding entirely explains the undying success of The Fast and the Furious image machine. Even the Chinese film industry is beginning to awaken to this large and lucrative market, which is why The Great Wall—a film that received investments from Wanda Group and China's state-owned Film Group Corporation—had a mix of white actors (who play white characters) and Chinese actors (who play Chinese characters). It is a machine for the world market. (It also uses the prestige of an A-list Hollywood actor for image consumers in the Asian market.)

So, enough about the emasculated neo-Nazis and their blue balls. The thing we must ask is: How do we transform the revolutionary images in Stars Wars into tangible things and real-world events? As we paid millions upon millions to watch a casino of the galactic one percent exposed and destroyed, the one percent on Earth paid a whole major party to basically rob the wage-earning classes of the little they have with a tax scam. Will the images of radical social transformation be in the prison of the big screen forever? Are we condemned to pay capitalism to produce and profit from the image of liberation from capitalism every holiday? Clearly, Disney supplies us with these images because they are considered safe. The corporation is certain they will never leave this, our Plato's cave.