George Lucas is not a subtle storyteller. He named evil mooks of the Sith Empire "Stormtroopers." He made the non-Sith, especially Tarkin, walking Nazi stereotypes. He has them build, not one, but two giant planet-killing spaceships that are totally not metaphors for atomic warfare. No wonder The Empire Strikes Back made #10 of the Hollywood Reporter's 40 best anti-fascist movies. I’d have a hard time picking one Star Wars movie on such a list.
Of all Star Wars media, The Empire Strikes Back really shows the full weight of the evil empire crushing a tiny rebellion. This also shows Darth Vader at his most frightening: Obi-Wan Kenobi dead at his hands while he batters the last Jedi-in-training like a punching bag. Because this movie isn’t just about a massive empire and a tiny rebellion, it shows that conflict writ small in Anakin and Luke. In a demanding, brick-wall father and a son who wants something better. Darth Vader’s brutality towards his children is reflective of the brutality the Sith Empire has to the galaxy’s people.
Yet not everyone agrees that The Empire Strikes Back earned its spot on the list. A Forward.com article points out all the ways the original trilogy and Star Wars in general misses the mark when it comes to Fascist Germany IN SPACE!
Sure, Darth Vader ruins Princess Leia’s life. A New Hope starts with Jawas and the Lars family being brutally burnt to death. Yet Darth Vader never shows up at someone's door because their grandmother on their father's side was half-Twi'lek. The Empire is shown primarily targeting the rebellion instead of groups of innocent people used as scapegoats like real evil Empires do. Shocking as it may seem, real people were crueler than the Sith shown here.
Revenge of the Sith does a better job of showcasing an evil empire's typical persecution and scapegoating by persecuting the Jedi down to the last baby. The Jedi are also very Jewish-coded and the most diverse group shown in the trilogies. However, the Empire's persecution of the Jedi isn't a perfect analogy because the Jedi, as a minority stand-in, suffer from the same problem as X-Men as a minority stand-in: their powers. No real-world minority can threaten an evil empire through their existence as the Jedi Order can.
I do think both articles have a point. Star Wars, as befitting a dramatic space opera, does a better job with the big evil empire gestures than it does showing the daily oppression, propaganda, or petty hatred that brings people like Palpatine into power and keeps him there. Yet unlike many other movies, Star Wars shows these big conflicts in miniature through Anakin Skywalker and later his son. Ultimately Darth Vader tells Luke to be the child he wants or die.
Doesn’t that get to the heart of evil? Darth Vader's brutality towards his family is what builds the foundation of the evil empire - and his one act of selflessness toward Luke is what breaks it.