The Last Jedi Review

Today, Denise and I took our nephew, Daniel, to see the Last Jedi. 

I was overcome with sadness as I walked out of the theater.

My heart hurt. I couldn’t talk. I didn’t want to talk. 

I went up to my room to be alone, 

to erase the lessons of the movie, 

to smudge, and to heal from the visual trauma.
I thought about the lessons that this movie teaches: 

An eye for an eye. 

Violence is appropriate to fight the enemy. 

Might is right. 

Selling weapons will make you rich. 

Slavery is OK, or at least acceptable if you are rich.  
Star Wars, The Last Jedi made me sad. PTSD sadness took hold. It hurts.

This movie showed me is that people don’t evolve. 

I don’t believe that. 

I look at our own evolution in during my 68 years of life. 

The Civil Rights act was not law when I was born. It was illegal, in most states, for people to marry outside of their race. It was illegal to be gay. There were no environmental laws. I remember my lungs hurting from playing outside in the smog. I never saw a person of color as a store manager. 

Our evolution may seem slow, but it has moved very fast. And I see it moving faster. 

Make no mistake. What our children repeatedly watch (what we watch repeatedly) teaches them what is acceptable.
The movie glorifies the war efforts of the “resistance” but does not show the pain and suffering that war causes. 

During Viet Nam I saw children get blown up. They died. Their parents and siblings grieve. I grieve with them. How can I not grieve with them?