Sith Happens

'Join me and together we will rule the galax-ooh, are those anchovies?'

Wanted: Darth Vader

from E! Online

Darth Vader is on the lam.

Someone impersonating the Dark Lord of the Sith - i.e., a guy in a Darth Vader helmet - held up a movie theater in Springfield, Illinois, and made off with a Death Star-sized load of credits.

The Darth doppelganger, who apparently blended right in with other moviegoers attending Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith Saturday, was not armed - even with a lightsaber. Using the force - the brute kind - he pushed an employee away from the register and snashed the case.

The Vader raider then fled into some nearby woods. Police are investigating, but do not have any suspects.

In a copycat case, the Orlando Sentinel reports that a man disguised in a Dark Vader mask, Star Wars T-shirt, and black pants, robbed a pizza delivery man in Kissimmee, Florida, on Sunday night. [Dajoro Note: Actually, E!, this happened way back in October!].

According to Osceola police, someone phoned in an order with Pizza Best and delivery driver Alfred Santos took the call. Upon making the delivery, Santos told investigators that the masked man pulled out a stun gun and zapped the driver when he refused to hand over his cash.

Once again, however, the Darth disguisee managed to elude the law.



You'll Put Your Eye Out!: Are Star Wars geeks the true phantom menace?

'Lightsaber Duel,' Two Critical

from CNN

LONDON, England - Two Star Wars fans are in critical condition after apparently trying to make "lightsabers" by filling fluorescent light tubes with petrol, British media reports say.

Mark Webb, 20, and an unnamed 17-year-old girl are believed to have been filming the mock duel as they poured fuel into two glass tubes and lit it.

The pair were taken to hospital after one of the devices exploded.

A videotape was found nearby.



Drunk with power after destroying both Iraq and Alderaan, Darth Dubya reminds his enemies of the price of dissent. 'Bring it on!'

Star Wars Exerts Force in Earthly Politics

from Reuters

LOS ANGELES - A year after Michael Moore weighed into the 2004 presidential campaign with Fahrenheit 9/11, both sides of America's partisan divide are debating the political messages of a far different movie - Star Wars.

Even before it opened in theaters last week, some observers were drawing unflattering parallels between the story of interplanetary treachery in Star Wars: 'Episode III - Revenge of the Sith and the Bush administration's war on terror and its decision to invade Iraq.

Star Wars creator George Lucas has insisted that his themes of corrupted democracy and the rise of a fear-mongering tyrant were outlined decades ago, informed by Watergate and the Vietnam era, as well as Hitler's rise to power, rather than today's politics.

But that has not stopped liberals and conservatives alike from reading anti-Bush metaphors into the film and its dialogue.

Anakin Skywalker, the troubled young Jedi falling under the influence of the "dark side," warns his mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, "If you're not with me, you're my enemy" - reminding many of Bush's post-Sept. 11 declaration: "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."

Likewise singled out as a jab at Republican ambitions is the line uttered by Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman) as the galactic senate cedes power to the evil Emperor Palpatine: "This is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause."

Last week, as the film opened, the liberal advocacy group MoveOn PAC launched an ad campaign seizing on Star Wars imagery to depict Senate Republican leader Bill Frist as Darth Vader's villainous mentor, Darth Sidious, in his showdown with Democrats over judicial nominations.

For its part, the Republican National Committee shrugged off comparisons to Star Wars.

"It's an interesting cultural phenomenon, but if you look at the last few elections, the force has been with the Republicans," party spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt told Reuters. "And I would add that we're not taking our cues from Darth Vader, C-3PO or Yoda."

Nevertheless, the response of some conservatives has been so angry that one Web site called Patriotic Americans Boycotting Anti-American Hollywood recently added Lucas to its list of enemies.