Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
June 11th, 2005
There it is again! Another kick of childish excitement as I settle back
into my seat and pop in a minstrel. Then the lights dim, the curtains
open, and for the last meaningful time I hear the Fox fanfare reverberate. "A
long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…"
I loved the start. The expected pan shot from the star-field, the muffled
drum beat, the solitary cruiser echoing the start of A New Hope, the
scale as we follow the Jedi fighters screaming across it’s hull,
and then the vertiginous reveal as we drop over the edge into a raging
battle. Wow. In fact, apart from the occasional brow-furrowing lapse
in physics (The ship’s in orbit George, the contents won’t slosh about
even if it starts to list) I thought that the whole opening reel was
good. But I can’t suspend my critical faculties completely. I did have
some problems, and these were with the movie’s emotional engine. [spoilers
follow]
We knew Anakin was going to turn to the Dark Side, the anticipation
was simply in finding out how. It turns out that it’s all down to a vision
he has of Padmé, his secret wife, dieing in childbirth. Palpatine
exploits this by telling him that the Dark Side has the power to prevent
this death, and so when Palpatine is about to die at the hands of Jedi-badass
Mace Windu, Anakin has to intervene.
This is the fulcrum of the movie. Anakin de-limbs Mace and ensures Palpatine’s
victory. This seems pretty evil, but it’s really not: He believes
a summary execution would be wrong under the Jedi code and that Palpatine
is the only way he can save Padmé. He’s driven by moral
correctness and compassion, not evil. In light of this, his immediate
fealty to the Dark side just seems a bit inconsistent, especially when
5 minutes later he’s killing padawans and Jedi, left, right and
centre.
The movie attempts to explain this in terms of Anakin remaining loyal
to the Republic and thinking that he’s doing the right thing – during
their climactic duel he tells Obi-Wan that from his point of view the
usurping Jedi are evil. But it’s not quite enough for me, it’s
not quite credible.
Oh well, I’m not complaining. At it’s best the film is satisfyingly
powerful. The sequence before Anakin’s turn is more emotive than anything
we’ve seen so far: Padmé gets up and looks from her apartment
towards the Jedi Temple. Anakin, in the council chamber, gets up and
looks back. It is sunset. The cuts stretch out, the music suspends the
moment. A tear rolls down his cheek …and off he goes. He’s doing
it for love. Not exactly sophisticated, but brave for Star Wars.
And when Order 66 goes
out and we witness the cold-blooded killings of the Jedi, their confusion
and incomprehension is terrible. It’s these glimpses of the wider
story, the wider universe that have made Star Wars such a rich place
for me.
And so, as I shuffle into the bright lobby with everyone else I’m feeling
quite melancholy. I enjoyed it, it was good, but that’s by the by. It’s
over now. No more Star Wars movies to look forward to.
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