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.