My Thoughts:
There were moments that could have been really potent, except they just missed the mark. You'd be prepared for emotional impact and then -whoops!- never mind. These moments were few and far between, too. Most of the film was spent watching Sweaty Guys Swing Big Flashlights.
It could have been a good movie, except that it lacked an intelligent script and decent actors. I guess two things frustrated me the most - ridiculously long fight scenes, and the lack of character development. Everyone keeps saying Anakin is angry, or that he's struggling with the dark side, but the film did a LOUSY job of presenting this.
*Sith Lord kills Nice Jedi Knight Because Anakin has Interfered*
*Anakin gasps, "What have I done?!" and cries.*
~ Two seconds pass~
*Anakin says, "oh, golly! How can I serve you, O Sith Lord?"*
There's a story there, waiting to get out. Sad, really.
From a cultural standpoint, the film seemed to have few answers. The Jedi are the "good guys," yet Yoda dispenses poor advice (don't love your wife!) that can only lead Anakin to yet more frustration. From the movie's point of view Anakin has but two choices:
a) Have a wife, but don't care too much for her 'cuz she'll be gone some day. Be glad if she dies, you were too close to her anyway.
b) Don't ever contemplate the option of giving her up. Instead, kill dozens of innocent beings so that you can [supposedly] have her forever. You don't ever have to say goodbye.
So, actually, the Jedi do Anakin a great disservice by not providing him the answers he needs...they find weakness in his love for Padme, a love that should be used as strength.
I'm a bit more understanding of the whole Cult Thing now: it is nice to be told the beginning of a story. How did Darth Vader become Darth Vader--yeah, that's interesting. And I'd be even more interested if all those battle scenes had been cut in half length wise. But then, I'm not a member of the male species. From what I've heard from representatives of that half of humanity, long battle scenes are cool. I can only shrug my shoulders and admire (or ridicule) Padme's hairstyles.
Anakin's fall seems very abrupt, but there are a couple of reasons. One is that the Dark Side literally takes control of a person: the act of killing Mace Windu causes him to fall further into the Dark Side until it controls him and makes him act in Its own interests rather than rationally. As they said in the original trilogy, it is sometimes hard to tell if the Force controls the Jedi, or if the Jedi controls the Force. Sith think they have more control and probably have less.
ReplyDeleteThe second reason is that the Emperor is undoubtedly manipulating him with the Force. If you've ever read about "tomato staking" at atriptothewoodshed.com (strange parallel, I know), you'll see the principle. He is using every mind power he has to make Anakin do the "right" (evil) thing, even acting against rationality, and will continue to do so until Anakin is so trained that he does so on his own. The novelization of Empire Strikes Back revealed that Yoda used Force techniques to calm Luke and open his mind to the Force during his training; in this way, the experienced Jedi trains and opens the mind of the learner until he can do it on his own. Doubtless the Sith have had millenia to refine the practice of seducing a Jedi to the Dark Side, working on the technique, the dialog, and every aspect of the Force they can bring to bear. (Something I read stated that years later, when Luke attempts to recover documents from the Jedi temple, it has all been destroyed except for research about falling to the Dark Side of the Force.)
From the story point of view, it is "correct," but dramatically it feels "wrong."
Also, at this point he's taken an irreversible step solely for the false hope of saving Padme through Sith power, so he probably feels he has no choice but to follow through. He is then immediately told to basically go perform blood sacrifice in order to gain enough strength to save her, something which I did not understand upon my first viewing but picked up on on the second.
There's a story there, waiting to get out. Sad, really.
Yes, and it's probably in the novel. For folks like me, who are accustomed to reading the novelizations of movies (and who used to be accustomed to reading every Star Wars novel until there were too many), that's no problem. But there's a strong case that the movie's flawed if you have to have the novel to understand it. Of course, whether or not you have to have the novel in this case could be debated; could a person understand that Kenobi sacrificed himself in the original Star Wars without the novel, or would repeated viewings cut it? Or would that person have to wait to see the two sequels?
Some people think Star Wars fans tend to ignore the dramatic qualities of the movies because they are just looking at the story. Some have said that Lucas writes a great overall story, with poor implementation in dialog and dramatization.
Yoda dispenses poor advice (don't love your wife!)
Actually it's Buddhist advice. So, yes, it's pretty bad advice. But it's what Star Wars is built on.
There are some interesting parallels to Christianity. Jesus of course taught that we must be willing to put Him above family, even to the point of being willing to leave them if necessary. (Though whether wives are included in verses such as Mark 10:29 depends on which manuscript tradition your New Testament translation was based on.)
And there's another parallel that I'll note below.
But, yes, I fully agree that Yoda offers bad advice. In fact, I think Lucas was hinting that that was part of their downfall. By the time of Luke, Kenobi at least seems to have learned a lesson beyond what the Buddhist Jedi Order taught, telling him, "Bury your feelings for [your sister] deep down inside. They do you credit, but they could be made to serve the Emperor." And the new Jedi Order that Luke establishes does not have the same restrictions as the old. (Attack of the Clones really surprised me with the "no marriage" rule. BTW, the Jedi Council does make exceptions. If you're interested, read about that Jedi Master with the big tall pink head.)
Actually, Anakin had a third choice, the only right thing to do, and it sort of involved taking Yoda's advice.
c) Come to grips with the possibility of losing his wife. Possibly seek help through Obi-Wan (Padme was right). In so doing, he would have removed himself from the fear of losing her and never would have lost her since it was his own fall to the Dark Side that killed her! He was seeing the future that he caused. Like all good tragedy (compare the father of Oedipus), pride and the attempt to prevent a prophesied tragedy became the very thing that caused the tragedy to occur.
In some way this is a strange (and arguably corrupted) parallel to Jesus' teaching that whoever seeks to save his own life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will save it. Ironically, if Anakin had followed Yoda's immoral advice, or at least held to the standard of valuing righteousness (and the lives of thousands of innocents) above even the life of his own wife, he would never have put her in danger.
"So, actually, the Jedi do Anakin a great disservice by not providing him the answers he needs...they find weakness in his love for Padme, a love that should be used as strength."
ReplyDeleteAnakin was not supposed to have a wife!!! That was why they didn't give him "the answers he needed". To join the Jedi was to drop all emotional connections with other people. You were not supposed to have friends or family. So Anakin was told to do what he already should have been doing: his duty as a Jedi.
As for the Jedi's advice in general, it's very Buddhist, and it's obviously one of the reasons the Jedi fell. It's not supposed to be right, in the story.
Also, maybe being familiar with the Star Wars films gives it more emotional impact, but I personally cried many times watching ROTS. It was very emotional for me.
As for Anakin being shocked about causing the death of a good Jedi and then joining the Sith: he had already made the decision to join the Sith; he just hadn't carried it out. Shock did not shake his decision.
Long battle scenes: it's a Star Wars film! It's an adventure/character story. Long battle scenes are necessary to the genre. (I am not male, and find them very enjoyable. They're lightsabers, not flashlight. ;) ) Also, the final duel is not about the lightsabers, it's about the characters and their emotions.