Revenge of the Sith still owns me
Oct. 11th, 2006 10:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieAll of a sudden, I have a mad urge to rewatch Revenge of the Sith and bits from Attack of the Clones. Shall I give in to it?
Oh yes I shall.
RotS is actually one of my all time favorite movies and the only one of SW ones that goes on that list (I've enjoyed the rest, with the possible exception of TPM, but it's not the same). It's also, even if you don't like scifi, or think Star Wars is overrated, or get hives at the word "Jedi" a really genuinely good one. And it's also one of the rare movies that has the courage to be bleak. Not in the falsely "we are all sad and grubby but life-affirming" kind of way that some movies that generally come out around the Fall season are, but in a Greek tragedy sense: you are watching a flawed but good protagonist brought down by his flaws. And as a nifty extra, a whole civilization crumbles.
Actually, even the fact that PT is made now when flashier tech is available than OT, which was made thirty ears later even though it's set in the future, is in keeping with everything. The glorious golden world of PT is gone, wiped out, never to be rebuilt again, no matter what will come after.
Whatever you may think of Anakin in the first two movies (I like him fine but I know MMV), in the third, he comes across as this incredibly larger than life character, in a way neither Han nor Luke were. Not that they weren't great characters in their own right, but Luke is a beginner, learning as he goes, and for most of the OT, he is just developing. And Han is awesome and all, but he is a grubby, cynical, street-smart type of hero. Not like Anakin, with that awesome power, and complete mess inside his head, a perfect golden knight gone horrifically wrong under pressures not of his making.
The thing is, RotS is so grim and yet I love it. Maybe because it really makes me feel. That scene of Anakin on his knees to Palpatine, grovelling, is sort of encapsulation in miniature of everything I love about RotS: it's painful and you cringe for him and you want to look away, but you can't and you are mesmerized and you must keep watching.
I was too old when I first saw the OT to really get emotionally invested. I enjoyed it, cheered the heroes etc etc. But I never got that breathless lump in throat, this denial that there is other reality outside, this being caught in the hyperreality of the movie world. (I've enjoyed Attack of the Clones, but once again, it was enjoyment, not obsessive giddiness). And of course I knew how it ended, too. But with RotS, it's precisely knowing how it ends, that gives the movie its power. It's interesting how Lucas made the fact that everyone knows the ending (the boat sinks! Romeo and Juliet kill themselves! Darth Vader is Luke's father Anakin!) actually make the movie, as opposed to have people lose interest because you know the ending, duh. And RotS is the one where I did get caught up in the hyper-reality. I remember walking outside the theater that first night and needing to take a breath because I'd forgotten about the real world for a moment.
It's weird, because with PT, I realized by favorite character in SW is Darth Vader and that's a rather startling change in perspective. But now I can never watch OT and see Vader stride around all evil and people-choking without feeling horribly sorry for Anakin trapped inside while still appalled at his actions of course.
Oh yes I shall.
RotS is actually one of my all time favorite movies and the only one of SW ones that goes on that list (I've enjoyed the rest, with the possible exception of TPM, but it's not the same). It's also, even if you don't like scifi, or think Star Wars is overrated, or get hives at the word "Jedi" a really genuinely good one. And it's also one of the rare movies that has the courage to be bleak. Not in the falsely "we are all sad and grubby but life-affirming" kind of way that some movies that generally come out around the Fall season are, but in a Greek tragedy sense: you are watching a flawed but good protagonist brought down by his flaws. And as a nifty extra, a whole civilization crumbles.
Actually, even the fact that PT is made now when flashier tech is available than OT, which was made thirty ears later even though it's set in the future, is in keeping with everything. The glorious golden world of PT is gone, wiped out, never to be rebuilt again, no matter what will come after.
Whatever you may think of Anakin in the first two movies (I like him fine but I know MMV), in the third, he comes across as this incredibly larger than life character, in a way neither Han nor Luke were. Not that they weren't great characters in their own right, but Luke is a beginner, learning as he goes, and for most of the OT, he is just developing. And Han is awesome and all, but he is a grubby, cynical, street-smart type of hero. Not like Anakin, with that awesome power, and complete mess inside his head, a perfect golden knight gone horrifically wrong under pressures not of his making.
The thing is, RotS is so grim and yet I love it. Maybe because it really makes me feel. That scene of Anakin on his knees to Palpatine, grovelling, is sort of encapsulation in miniature of everything I love about RotS: it's painful and you cringe for him and you want to look away, but you can't and you are mesmerized and you must keep watching.
I was too old when I first saw the OT to really get emotionally invested. I enjoyed it, cheered the heroes etc etc. But I never got that breathless lump in throat, this denial that there is other reality outside, this being caught in the hyperreality of the movie world. (I've enjoyed Attack of the Clones, but once again, it was enjoyment, not obsessive giddiness). And of course I knew how it ended, too. But with RotS, it's precisely knowing how it ends, that gives the movie its power. It's interesting how Lucas made the fact that everyone knows the ending (the boat sinks! Romeo and Juliet kill themselves! Darth Vader is Luke's father Anakin!) actually make the movie, as opposed to have people lose interest because you know the ending, duh. And RotS is the one where I did get caught up in the hyper-reality. I remember walking outside the theater that first night and needing to take a breath because I'd forgotten about the real world for a moment.
It's weird, because with PT, I realized by favorite character in SW is Darth Vader and that's a rather startling change in perspective. But now I can never watch OT and see Vader stride around all evil and people-choking without feeling horribly sorry for Anakin trapped inside while still appalled at his actions of course.
