By Tangi Quemener
Los Angeles - A powerful leader moves to suspend civil liberties to defend the republic during a time of war. The subject of political debate in Washington? No, it's the new Star Wars movie.
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge Of The Sith has barely hit screens, but political activists are already drawing heated comparisons between Darth Vader's battle in a galaxy far, far away and President George Bush's war on terror.
George Lucas's sixth and final offering in the classic film series is stirring up a hornet's nest of controversy in the United States, whether or not the director intended to bring modern politics into his sci-fi allegory.
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'If you're not with me, you're my enemy' "If you're not with me, you're my enemy," Anakin Skywalker, who goes to the "dark side" as the evil Lord Darth Vader, tells his onetime mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi in one scene in the film that raked in a record $50-million on its opening day in North America on Thursday.
The phrase eerily echoes Bush's warning to the world following the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on US targets: "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."
In another scene that has annoyed conservative groups and delighted liberals, Chancellor Palpatine exploits war fears to consolidate his power and turn the Republic into an empire ruled by him alone.
Senator Padme Amidala, played by Natalie Portman, watches the scene, played out during a legislative session, and says with disdain: "This is how liberty dies: with thundering applause."
Some liberals are comparing Palpatine's actions to those of Bush in persuading US legislators to adopt the Patriot Act that critics say imposed limits on civil liberties in the name of the war on terror after September 11.
'Our country is at war and Lucas spouts off this junk?' And the conservative group Pabaah is calling for a boycott of the film that it has branded unpatriotic.
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