There's a lot of excitement in the air about the upcoming Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens. Hopefully the movie can live up to the insane expectations and nerd rage in a way that the prequel movies did not. Although seeing early reactions to the trailer does not not give me hope ("What's up with that lightsaber? It's DIFFERENT?!") Ten years ago this month, the final George Lucas Star Wars movie, Revenge of the Sith, was released and while it is widely considered the best of the prequels, I would make the unpopular argument that it is in fact the best of all six original Star Wars movies.
People often say that director George Lucas is a genius at visual storytelling. Usually this is stated in the context of his pioneering use of visual effects but he doesn't always get the credit he deserves for his wider use of visual film language-his composition, his use of intricate repeating visual motifs, his masterful pairing of imagery and music to evoke mood and story. As a writer, he is also great at telling a macro story. In their broad strokes, the movies in the prequel trilogy tell a complex and compelling tragedy of personal and organizational corruption that is far beyond anything in the original trilogy. However, in some of the specifics of cinematic storytelling-writing dialogue and directing actors-Lucas' flaws as a director and storyteller are well documented.
Honestly, I think Lucas' mind is so visually-oriented that he really doesn't give much consideration to the finer points of acting and dialogue. He probably considers them a necessary evil of narrative film making. I think that if he could have gotten away with making his movies as purely visual and musical experiences he would have.
By the time George Lucas turned his attention to Revenge of the Sith, he had already delivered the first two movies of his trilogy. People like to forget that The Phantom Menace was critically acclaimed and enjoyed upon its release but "fans" quickly turned on it (Again, "DIFFERENT!") It is a movie that despite it's frequent childish detours is complex and plot-driven. Attack of the Clones is a wildly uneven movie, featuring some of the best and very worst Star Wars sequences and burdened with the weight of a misdirected and badly-written love story.
I imagine after the mixed reception to the prior two movies, the fact that this would likely be his last Star Wars movie, and the fact that Sith would contain some of the most dramatic and important story elements of the whole saga-the fall of the Republic, Anakin's turn to the dark side and subsequent duel with Obi-Wan, the destruction of the Jedi Order, the birth of Luke and Leia, etc-Lucas felt a responsibility to deliver the what would literally be his ultimate Star Wars movie. And he largely succeeds. Not only does Revenge of the Sith contain some of the saga's best sequences but it also among the least flawed and most satisfying movies of the series-along with the universally beloved The Empire Strikes Back. In Sith, there is evidence that Lucas actually listened to some of the complaints people had about the prior two movies. You find less painful dialogue, almost no Jar-Jar, fewer distractingly-accented aliens, and only one Anakin and Padme "romance" scene.
Where I think that Revenge of the Sith beats out everyone's favorite Star Wars movie is in the fact that it not only is the culmination of an epic and deeply tragic story but also in the fact that it exceeded and expanded the parameters of what a Star Wars movie could be. Certainly it expanded the tonal and emotional palette of the Star Wars series. There are a number of sequences in the movie that are emotionally powerful and resonant, which are not qualities normally associated with Star Wars or George Lucas..
Consider the beautiful scene in which Anakin and Padme gaze out in each other's direction over the Coruscant cityscape as Anakin wrestles with whether or not to follow the Jedi to Palapaine's office. At this point Anakin has discovered that one of his mentors and closest friends is the Sith Lord that for whom the Jedi have been searching for ten years. And also the man who claims to have the power to save his wife whom Anakin fears will die in childbirth. Meanwhile Padme stares out at the Jedi Temple worried about her secret husband who has been acting edgy fearful under the stress of his responsibilities and difficult position that the Jedi have put him in. The two are looking in each other's direction but are disconnected as haunting vocal music plays in the background. This short dialogue-free scene says more about their relationship than all of their other "romantic" scenes put together. Can you imagine anything this sophisticated in any of the original trilogy movies?
Later on in the movie is a scene of Leia and Luke's birth brilliantly intercut with Anakin's tortuous transformation in Darth Vader. The Anakin sequence is powerfully composed with some unforgettable shots like the final partial glimpse of his terrified and scarred face as he is encased in the iconic mask or the chilling shot of Vader's first breath. There's nothing as powerful as this in any of the other Star Wars movies.
There are many other amazing scenes like this such as the tragic Order 66 sequence-which I believe is the first and only montage in a Star Wars movie. There's also the long-awaited battle between Anakin and Obi-Wan on the Hellish world of Mustafar which is tragic and thrilling (although marred by some dumb dialogue in typical Lucas fashion). Who can forget Palpatine's chilling speech on the Senate floor marking the foundation of the Galactic Empire.
Despite many people's dislike of the prequels, most will agree that Ian McDiarmid was amazing as Palpatine and in Sith he really gets to move to the forefront of the movie. From his Return of the Jedi-esque goading of Anakin to kill Dooku, to his mesmerizing scene telling the tale of Darth Plagueis, McDiarmid makes Palapatine a dangerous and slippery villain. I especially enjoyed his duel with Yoda in the Senate Dome, which amounts to an epic political battle for the fate of the Galaxy.
McDiarmid is good that he even makes the problematic Anakin character work better. I don't think Hayden Christiansen is a bad actor at all. I think that the writing and direction of this character really hurt his performance in Attack of the Clones, especially because so much of that movie was mired in some truly awful scenes with Natalie Portman. Anakin works a lot better in Sith because he is paired with McDiarmid for so much of the movie. While Anakin's arc is missing a few beats in my opinion, it is dramatically sound and it works if you accept that he is kind of a dumb, arrogant, psychologically damaged twenty-year old who has fallen under the spell of a master manipulator. I mean, we've all been there, right?
Where I think people really misunderstand these movies is the fact that they are essentially a three part tragedy with science fiction window dressing. Tragedy is a genre that had never really caught on in the movies but one which has a strong theatrical and literary tradition. Oedipus, MacBeth, Faust-these are all men of noble character who are betrayed by fatal character flaw often exploited by a scheming antagonist. The consequences of these heroes falls are always big and lead to some great emotional catharsis for the audience. The Star Wars prequels are clearly part of that tradition with Anakin Skywalker being an almost prototypical tragic protagonist down to his being brought down by an insurmountable character flaw. Part of the criticism of the prequels being melodramatic and overblown are due to an unfamiliarity with tragedy genre. Today's audiences are used to smaller characters making mundane discoveries in a domestic setting.
The Empire Strikes Back was the first Star Wars movie I ever saw and it is a big part of my childhood. To this day I love it and think that it is a great movie but I believe that after the dust has settled and we movie farther away from people's knee-jerk reactions to the prequel trilogy, Revenge of the Sith will be remembered as the greatest of the original six Star Wars movies. It has an epic scope, an almost Shakespearean level of tragedy, and an emotional richness that is not only rare in the series but in the sci-fi genre as a whole. Hopefully future directors of Star Wars movies will take note of how Revenge of the Sith took Star Wars on its first steps into a larger world.
Patrick Garone
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