Star Wars' Sith playing partisan?

With the official release of the latest Star Wars movie still a day away, the movie has already become a political football, writes the New York Times. Part of the problem is George Lucas' opening the movie in Cannes, in the country that the Times writer calls "the biggest blue state of all."

At that opening, Lucas reportedly told the audience that he had no idea when plotting the film years ago that reality--apparently a reference to current U.S. politics--would so closely track his story of a democratic republic subverted by a totalitarian government. Now movie reviews are systematically quoting Anakin Skywalker's Bush-esque line, "If you're not with me, you're my enemy."

Conservative bloggers are now blasting Lucas, even calling for boycotts. The liberal group MoveOn.org is running TV commercials this week drawing its own parallels between the movie's plot and Republicans' threat to end filibusters of Senate judicial nominations.