Star Wars, THE PHANTOM MENACE

Ask anyone who has seen the movie Star Wars, The Phantom Menace, if the story was about a TAX PROTEST! Chances are 99.999 to 1 they will look at you silly and say no. But what do they know.
The new Star Wars movie is a reflection of what the world is like today, politically and commercially, and it pulls no punches if you have a little knowledge and are watching.
Pay careful attention when the movie starts. Read the fine print scrolling off into space. You will see that the planet Naboo is surrounded by a number of military starships commanded by generals who are on a mission for the Trade Federation . This mission is to blockade the planet Naboo because the Trade Federation is attempting to collect TAXES upon certain trade items between the planets. The legal capacity to levy the tax has not been granted to the Trade Federation, a private franchise , by the Senate . The Senate has not given them permission to levy said taxes. However, the Sith Lord has ordered the military to blockade the planet Naboo anyway to compel the Planet into the tax by conquest.
Enter the Emperor. The Emperor sends two Jedi Knights, to resolve the problem. This means that the Jedi are to tell the military commanders to stop their blockade and permit trade to pass without levying the tax. The military commanders, upon reporting to the Sith Lord that two Jedi Knights have come to break the blockade, are ordered to eliminate the Jedi ship, kill the Jedi, and immeadiately attack the planet Naboo, capture the Queen of Naboo, and compel the Queen to enter into a treaty with the Trade Federation to legalize the blockade and to create a private agreement upon which the desired tax could be implemented by assent of the parties without the official blessings of the Senate. Isn't this what the public government does? Doesn't it do whatever it wants to compel you to performance "by your own consent" through getting you to "treaty" with them by getting a license or performing the task that they are pressuring you to do "with your consent or assent"? What happens if you resist, like the planet Naboo?
There is your TAX PROTEST outline in a nut shell.
The main characters in the movie are: the two Jedi Knights, Qui-Gon Jinn played in the movie by Liam Neeson, and Obi-Wan Kenobi played by Ewan McGregor; the Queen of Naboo is Queen Amidala, played by Natilie Portman; and the part of the young Anakin Skywalker is played by Jake Lloyd. Of course, young Skywalker is to grow up to become Darth Vader, an apprentice of the Sith and the dark side of the force.
The rest of the plot is simple enough. The Jedi Knights escape the attempt on their lives by the military commanders of the blockade. The Jedi Knights rescue Queen Amidala from capture during the attack by the Trade Federation's army of droids. Queen Amidala is escorted to the planet Coruscant to attempt an administrative settlement of the problem by the Senate and the Emperor. During the attempt at administrative settlement, Queen Amidala learns that the Senate is impotent at resolving any major question that would challenge the Trade Federation's actions. She tells the one friendly Senator that she perceives that the Senate has no capacity to resolve the problems for her people. She tells him that she is going home to do what she can do for her people while the Senator looks for an impossible political resolution. Read into this the following: THERE IS NO REMEDY IN THE POLITICAL ARENA. THE PROBLEM IS COMMERCIAL AND CANNOT BE RESOLVED IN THE CIVIL ARENA BY LEGISLATION.
Coruscant is the headquarters of the Emperor and the home of the Jedi Knight Council. It is the capital of the Republic. The Jedi Knights have their own Temple built in Coruscant. The Council sets policy for the Jedi Knights. Qui-Gon Jinn is a master Jedi Warrior. He is not on the Council, however, since he is a loner and not necessarily a team player. Qui-Gon Jinn is training Obi-Wan Kenobi. The Jedi are the "Republic" or the private government over seers of the "public" government. As such, the Jedi represent the moral fiduciaries of society who must setin and change anything in the "public" government which does not comport with public international law moral standards. The "public" government is run in most societies under private international law standards in which local municipal law replaces the Law of Nature and Nature's God. This private municipal law can set aside unalienable rights of Peoples and set aside the Lawful Constitutions of the nations. The Jedi Knights are the last "private" line of defense against the totalitarian rule of the Trade Federation within the Empire. The Jedi Knights are part of the "republic" which is private rights government, not public rights government.
Without any help from the Senate and the Public side of government, Queen Amidala is dependent upon non-public sources to help her free her people captured by the military for the Trade Federation. [Note: that it is the "Trade Federation" and not the "Trade Confederation" that we are dealing with here. If it were a Confederation, like the United States of America started out as a Confederation of States and not a Federation of States as it is today with the Federal Government instead of the Confederal Government, then the government would protect private rights under public law. Instead as a Federation, it protects public rights under private laws for the benefit of the debt creditors- the Trade Federation.] Queen Amidala makes a treaty with a race of amphibians that have long lived on her planet. This amphibious race is called the Gungans. Jar-Jar Binks is one of the Gungans who helps Queen Amidala and the Jedi Knights for most of the adventure. Isn't it interesting that the amphibians (who are "admiralty" like water/land creatures) must come to the rescue of the land creatures- the People of Naboo, in order to get a remedy to restore the land creatures back to their unalienable rights under their government. Could it just be that the remedy to restore natural Law rights must come through the admiralty proceedings and treaties? When Queen Amidala bowed down to the Gungan leader (a process of symbolically accepting admiralty remedy) then the race of Gungans, living under admiralty assisted Queen Amidala to free her people.
The prime minister of Naboo, when captured by the generals for the Trade Federation says: "We are a democracy. The people have spoken." The prime minister implied that the generals had no right to capture the planet. But he was wrong. Being a democracy, the planet was under a military government by definition. The Nabooians had a female ruler democratically elected. A democracy is a military government by private municipal law. The female gender shows that the government was the tail and not the head. It is not a republic. That is why the planet Naboo was taken over by the Trade Federation substituting one military government for another. Naboo most likely had a commercial debt to the Trade Federation which was to be serviced by the taxes that the Trade Federation wanted to levy upon the trade conducted between Naboo and the rest of the Galaxy under control of the Republic. This is an exact similarity of political/commercial rule and control that exists on planet earth today between the nations of the world under the United Nations charter structure. George Lucas is trying to tell you something.
Since Episode One is supposed to be about the origins of Anakin Skywalker, I suppose that several comments are due concerning his part in the film. 
Anakin Skywalker tests very high for genetic traits that indicate one who is very capable of becoming a Jedi Knight. Qui-Gon Jinn states to Anakin's mother, "If Anakin had lived on the planets controlled by the Republic, his genetic traits would have been discovered early by the Republic." However, Anakin lived on the planet Tatooine, a desert planet on the outskirts of the Galaxy. There are already facts emerging in the movie to indicate that Anakin is not well suited to become a member of the Republic Jedi Knights. Remember, in a Republic, it will last only as long as the People in the Republic have a good moral character and a disposition to implement the Laws of Nature and Nature's God and to keep the public government in check. Yoda, on the Jedi Council of the private Republic, tells Qui-Gon Jinn that Anakin does not have the mental predisposition for being a strong moral force to maintain the role of a Jedi Republic Knight fighter. Notwithstanding, Qui-Gon Jinn gets permission to privately train Anakin outside the official channels of the Jedi Council.
Anakin Skywalker's mother, Shmi Skywalker, tells Qui-Gon Jinn that Anakin had no father. She carried him without benefit of a father and he was born. There are many religious groups that are protesting this alleged reference to the virgin birth of Christ. They loose the point. Having no father is like having no inheritance. Legally, this means that his existence is as a "phantom". He does not exist in civil law forum. There is no inheritance of rights to go with his character. This is another way of saying that Anakin has no "civil" disposition to fight with the Republic Jedi Warriors. He has no character and standing. In contradistinction, Christ never claimed that he had no father. His father is in heaven. It is Satan who has no father. So it is with Anakin who has no foundation (father) in the Law to stand as a true member of the Republic.
No matter what you have heard about the "bad acting", this movie is a very significant statement on the life and times in our society dealing with civil and commercial problems and solutions. The acting appears "dead" because so much of the movie is digitally created. The actors were performing in not in a "living" event. The majority of the characters were artificial. They were artistically sculptured into the movie by computers. How is a living being supposed to relate in a "living" manner with the dead? This is the problem that George Lucas must now overcome. The same scenario is true of the other pre-Summer special effects movie, The Mummy. But the special effects are awesome. If you "get" the story, it is even better.