Jimmy Carter Watched Star Wars (1977) Three Times While He Was President

Reader, it’s not every week that we lose a century-old American icon. So I’d like to pay tribute to President Jimmy Carter.

Jimmy was many things. An election winner. An election loser. A humble peanut farmer. A Nobel Peace Prize recipient. A loving husband to his wife Rosalynn for more than seven decades. A devoted humanitarian who cared more about people than politics. Even a Sunday school teacher in his twilight years. In fact, my mother and I took a trip to the small Georgia town of Plains in November of 2018 to hear Jimmy preach and meet the Carters afterward, something she’d been wanting to do for years.¹ It was a wonderful life experience, despite having to wake up at 3:00 a.m. to get in line for a seat.

But Jimmy Carter was also a cinephile.

Every U.S. President engages in some semblance of active appreciation for the arts, however they define the term. But Jimmy was different. Jimmy had taste. And thanks to this incredible work of investigative journalism by Gizmodo writer Matt Novak, we know that Jimmy screened more than 400 films during his one term at the White House, often joined by his family and friends or even his staff.

And he was watching the good stuff, too. Instant classics like Rocky, Alien, Jaws.² Deeper cuts like Paper Moon, The Misfits, Being There. Even films like Apocalypse Now months before their theatrical release. (Francis Ford Coppola himself was in attendance for that one.) Yes, Jimmy had the benefit of being in our country’s highest office when American cinema was at its peak, but he also screened plenty of classics like Citizen Kane, Frankenstein, and Strangers On a Train. The man simply loved movies.

He knew that we can learn valuable lessons from movies too. Roger Ebert once said that “the movies are like a machine that generates empathy,” and very few public figures have held more empathy than Jimmy. With that in mind, I think he would agree—as we all do—that no film in the history of the medium is more educational than Star Wars.

Jimmy clearly loved Star Wars. He watched it three times within its first year of release, in fact.³ As far as I can tell, it’s the only film he watched more than twice during this time.⁴ The first screening was June 17th, soon after the film opened in theaters. He watched it again a few weeks later as part of a July 3rd triple feature with The Late Show and The Littlest Horse Thieves. He even met Mark Hamill that November. (And yes, he did screen The Empire Strikes Back just a few days after it was released.)

But his third viewing was the most fascinating. As Novak wrote, “Carter watched Star Wars with Anwar Sadat, the President of Egypt, on February 4th, 1978 at Camp David. That meeting was actually a secret strategy session for peace in the Middle East that would pave the way for the historic Camp David Accords in September of 1978 between Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.” What a remarkable thing. Can you imagine, I don’t know, Barack Obama watching Avatar with Kim Jong Il?

So why did Jimmy screen Star Wars for Sadat? Why did he believe it would be a valuable experience, one conducive to international peace negotiations? In a weird way, it makes sense.

For one thing, it’s right there in the title. Star Wars drops viewers right into an ongoing intergalactic conflict. Given that it’s a film for all ages, this war among the stars is watered down a bit, distilled conveniently into “good guys” and “bad guys” archetypes. But the acts of military aggression are recognizable to the people of Earth. For example, midway through the film, Death Star commander Grand Moff Tarkin makes a vulgar display of power in front of Princess Leia by blowing up her entire home planet of Alderaan. Her protests—“Alderaan is peaceful! We have no weapons!”—don’t help one bit as she watches her world disappear in seconds. It’s easy to imagine Leia’s pain as she endures such a loss.

There’s also the resonance of the central characters. Luke Skywalker winds up a hero by the end of the film, but he begins his journey at the bottom. When we first meet him, he’s living on the desert planet of Tatooine with his aunt and uncle, both of whom are moisture farmers. (I bet Jimmy appreciated that detail.) Likewise, Han Solo and Chewbacca are working-class citizens when Luke and his mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi hire the pair to pilot them to safety. Sure, Obi-Wan is a former Jedi Master and Leia is a princess, but they consistently work to promote peace rather than acting in their own interests.

Alright, alright, maybe we should take a step back. After all, we’re talking about two Presidents here. They knew plenty about international relations. Star Wars didn’t actually teach those men a single thing, even if they enjoyed it.

But maybe it was the right film to set the tone for the negotiations that would come. A large slice of popcorn entertainment that happened to be packed with themes that were relevant to their goals. Maybe it even greased the tracks for some small talk that helped them bond. I can just imagine Jimmy saying something like “Hey Mr. Sadat, did you know they shot those desert planet scenes in Tunisia?⁵ That’s right down the road from you, ain’t it?”

We may never know everything that was discussed when these two world leaders enjoyed a sci-fi blockbuster together. But I’ll tell you this much. Only Jimmy Carter would’ve thought to do something like that. And only Jimmy Carter could’ve pulled it off.

Star Wars is now streaming on Disney+, and it is available to rent elsewhere.

1. Mama and Jimmy have the same birthday, in fact. They’re kindred spirits in lots of ways.

2. Speaking of Jaws, I couldn’t believe it when I saw Orca, a film that I wrote about and then screened on VHS at the Sidewalk Cinema, on this list. Jimmy was just like us for real.

3. I know some Star Wars superfans who watched the newer films (or even the prequels) three or more times during their theatrical runs. And you probably do too. But I think we would all agree that those people are not fit to be President.

4. One of the films that Jimmy watched twice is the sex comedy 10 anchored by the lovely Bo Derek. The second time he watched it, he screened it for members of his staff. The very next day, as Novak points out in his article, Jimmy watched a film called Jesus with his wife.

5. Picture Jimmy Carter saying “Tatooine” and tell me it doesn’t make you smile.