[do action=”sw-menu”]
Episode I, “The Phantom Menace”, is by far the best of all six George Lucas Star Wars movies because it answers many questions and introduces three of the most important characters in the original Star Wars trilogy: Darth Vader (Anakin Skywalker), Obi-wan Kenobi, and Emperor Palpatine (Darth Sidious).
Palpatine is one of the most fascinating characters in the Star Wars universe because he is only mentioned (as “the Emperor”) in the original “Star Wars” movie (renamed “Episode IV: A New Hope” upon its first theatrical re-release). The chief villains of the first movie, Darth Vader and Governor Tarkin, are pleasantly evil and calculating, so the fact they are mere servants of a greater evil makes him quite intriguing. Audiences craved to know more about the mysterious emperor.
In “The Phantom Menace”, a title which was based in part on the old weekly serial “The Phantom Empire”, Palpatine is the public face of the Planet Naboo, serving as their senator in the Galactic Republic’s Senate. But leading a double life, he is also Darth Sidious, the latest in a long line of Sith Lords who oppose the Jedi Order. The Jedi have long believed they had ended the Sith menace a thousand years earlier. They have grown complacent, even arrogant, in their control of the Force and the galaxy (on behalf of the Senate).
Whereas in the original Star Wars trilogy the Jedi Order has already been destroyed and is not truly represented in the storyline, it is a prominent character in all three of the prequel movies. The Jedi Order itself is a galactic-spanning organization that moves at its own pace and sets its own priorities. George Lucas should be commended for capturing the end times of a long evolutionary path for a very powerful organization. The Jedi are like a blend of the Illuminati and the Knights Templar of myth, but they are not guarding any great treasures from the past.
The purpose of the movie is to show how the Jedi’s mystique begins to unravel while at the same time introducing everyone (both the audience and the worlds of the galaxy) to the Skywalker family. We don’t learn anything about Shmi Skywalker except that she is a slave. She has been compared to the Virgin Mary because when Qui-Gon Jinn asks her who fathered Anakin, she replies “There is no father. I carried him. I gave birth to him. I can’t explain it.”
For all intents and purposes the saga of the Skywalker family begins with Shmi. She has no known relatives, although she obviously comes from somewhere. She is presumed to be the last of her family, born into humble circumstances for the sake of giving birth and nurturing a very important child.
The Jedi Order come across Shmi and her son Anakin by apparent accident, but Qui-Gon Jinn concludes that the Force has somehow manipulated things to ensure that he would find Anakin at the right time. Although this is a weakness in the plot it is a minor point. The story begins with Anakin’s introduction to the Jedi Order and his subsequent involvement in the war between Naboo and the Trade Federation.
Anakin is a loose cannon whose presence is unforeseen by everyone. Despite Qui-Gon’s confidence in the boy the Jedi Council underestimates Anakin’s importance and significance. His mere presence should have sounded alarm klaxons to them, since they were long aware of an ancient prophecy of someone who would “bring balance to the Force”. Recognizing Anakin’s special origin, the Council should have acknowledged that things were not as they seemed.
The rejection of Anakin and the prophecy is the first major act of arrogance by the Jedi Council but not its last. They are unwitting pawns in Palpatine’s scheme to seize the Supreme Chancellorship of the Republic. But Palpatine himself has to deal with unexpected events, such as the fact that Chancellor Valorum sends two Jedi Knights (Qui-gon Jinn and his Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi) as his ambassadors to help negotiate a peaceful end to the conflict between the Trade Federation and Naboo, and also Anakin’s entrance onto the stage of galactic politics.
By the end of the movie the audience is treated to a hint of Palpatine’s genius when, arriving as the new Supreme Chancellor, he remarks that he will keep an eye on Anakin’s career “with great interest”. The audience chuckles at this obvious foreshadowing.
The movie is simply brilliant in illustrating just how complex the plot to take over the galaxy really is. Palpatine carefully manipulates everyone to contribute something to his cause. He has influenced the Galactic Senate to tax trade routes in the outer rim of the galaxy, a situation that leads the Trade Federation to take action by threatening the peaceful planet of Naboo. His goal is to force Naboo to surrender so that he can ride a sympathy vote into the Supreme Chancellorship.
We only learn later, outside the movie, that Palpatine has begun making other preparations around this time. But within “The Phantom Menace” we see glimpses of his true nature here and there, such as when he half-heartedly attempts to dissuade Queen Padme Amidala from returning to Naboo. As soon as he is alone he orders the Trade Federation to kill her and sends his apprentice, Darth Maul to see that the job is done.
As Palpatine copes with the changing situation and comes up with alternative plan after alternative plan he manages to avoid drawing attention to himself. And George Lucas manages to keep the audience obsessing over Jar Jar Binks, the non-human character who introduces the audience to an entire race of non-humans who play an important role in the unfolding events.
And let’s face it: Jar Jar Binks is one of the most annoying characters in cinematic history but there can be no Star Wars without Jar Jar Binks. Too many fans fail to appreciate just how vital a role he has in this story. George Lucas is on record as saying that Star Wars is a soap opera, a family saga. But it’s also the story of a huge galactic culture that must incorporate many different types of species, including some not nearly as advanced as the humans who seem to dominate the galaxy.
Lucas had already tried to showcase a “less advanced” species in the Ewoks but there were several problems with the Ewoks, including the fact that they were isolated. The Ewoks (which replaced the Wookies in the Star Wars tale) were not just primitive, they were outsiders. In fact in the original Star Wars movies we never see any alien species in their own homes that are directly subjugated by the Empire until the third movie, and then we’re only shown Ewoks. You could argue that we also saw Jabba the Hutt in his fortress but there was no impact of Imperial oppression there.
There are many non-human species in the Star Wars galaxy but the only attempt to show them at home during the original trilogy years was the dreadful holiday special, where we saw a mix of live action and animation about Wookies and the main Star Wars characters (Note: the Jawas in their Sand Crawler may also count, but did they all live in Sand Crawlers?). None of these early attempts to take the audience “inside” a non-human species’ culture succeeded, whereas we were able to follow the Gungans into one of their underwater cities, into their hidden refuge, and finally into battle.
The difference between Jar Jar Binks (and the Gungans) and all other non-human species in the Star Wars movies is like night and day. Even when we get back to the Wookies in “Revenge of the Sith”, we still don’t see their culture. It’s just a bunch of Wookies clashing with droid armies. Jar Jar may not talk the way you want a dashing, intelligent swashbuckling hero to talk but he represents a vital stratum in the Star Wars galaxy, non-human characters who don’t act like us.
The truth is indisputable: You cannot have the Star Wars galaxy without some non-human species that just irritate the heck out of the viewing audience. How else can you integrate racial diversity into your story? And the fact that Gungans were almost universally reviled by Star Wars fans drives home George Lucas’ point: that the Galactic Republic, led by humans, was not the enlightened society it pretended to be.
There are still racial divisions in the Republic, divisions made worse by the Empire, and which are integral to the backdrop for the family drama that plays out in this universe. Anakin Skywalker cannot be a hero just for the humans. He also has to be a hero for all the non-humans, and that includes the annoying Jawas, Ewoks, Gungans, and other minor species that may or may not be as advanced and capable of building a technological civilization as the humans.
Even Watto, the Tiderian who cannot be manipulated by Jedi mind tricks, irritates some members of the audience. He is often characterized as a stereotyped “Arab merchant”, the implication being that he is dishonest, even though he is never shown to have cheated anyone. If anything, Watto seems to be one of the few honest creatures living on Tatooine. He owns slaves and gambles but he shows affection to Anakin and deals honestly with Qui-Gon Jinn. The only time Watto tries to back out of a deal it is because he feels cheated (and in a way he was cheated because Qui-Gon Jinn withheld information from Watto that might have influenced how he decided to participate in or bet on the pod race).
“The Phantom Menace” introduces many concepts about race into the Star Wars universe that were only touched upon in the first three movies. There is a clear division of status between humans and non-humans that predates the fascist Empire. Palpatine did not make that division, he simply exploited it.
Another of the strengths of “The Phantom Menace” is that it features much better acting and directing than “Attack of the Clones” and “Revenge of the Sith”. Jake Lloyd may have been too young to reprise his role as Anakin Skywalker but he was a delightful choice for young Anakin. He was animated, spirited, and engaging. The Gungans and Neimoidians, although regarded by many critics as based on racist stereotypes, could never be pigeonholed into any “correct” classification. People argued about which ethnic groups they were supposed to represent, including Jews, Arabs, Chinese, Jamaicans, Germans, and many others. The fact there is no clear identification between these aliens and real human ethnic groups proves that the stereotypes were non-existent.
But if George Lucas wanted to illustrate the faults of social intolerance he failed to get his point across because his aliens were too sophisticated for the audience, not too simplified. He dressed up contemporary problems in a fantasy setting so fantastic people were not moved by it the way they should have been. And yet whenever Lucas tried to respond to fan criticisms (such as toning down Jar Jar Binks’ role in the next movie) he weakened the story. Instead of allowing fan criticisms to shape the sequels Lucas should have stayed the course and told the story he wanted to tell, even to the point of including Hayden Christensen.
Ultimately Star Wars works best when it is just being Star Wars and not trying to please everyone. “The Phantom Menace”, created after a 16-year hiatus, is a refreshing interlude in a cloudy film franchise that often rumbles with the thunder of fan fury over changes Lucas makes to the movies (such as having Greedo fire first instead of Han, who originally responded to Greedo’s stated intention to kill him by killing Greedo first). “The Phantom Menace” is the only movie since “Star Wars” (not “Episode IV”) that is pure Lucasian story-telling. There is little to no interference from the fans and any studio interference is muted by the entire experience.
Better yet, in “The Phantom Menace” Lucas was finally able to show off parts of his imaginary universe that were simply beyond the technologies of the 1970s and 1980s. Even “Episode VI: The Return of the Jedi” fails to capture the broad canvas of Lucas’ imagination because so many of the special effects were limited to spaceships and explosions. In “The Phantom Menace” you get a real sense of how each world works, and one of the best sequences is the series of scenes on Coruscant where the Jedi Council deliberates throughout the day. You see the changing position of the sun over the planet in the windows behind the council members. There is no comparable sequence of scenes in any science fiction movie made to date.
“The Phantom Menace” elevates the background details to unbelievable heights only surpassed by “Avatar”. The meticulous attention to detail opens up the world of the Star Wars universe to audiences in ways no other medium can, and in ways no other movie has. There is a sense of “ordinary” running across all the planets in “The Phantom Menace” (Naboo, Coruscant, Tatooine) that is missing from the other movies. Lucas was only able to show “this is what we’re fighting for” in “The Phantom Menace”, the good in society despite its flaws, the ordinary peoples and creatures who inhabit all the worlds affected by the conflict between the Jedi and the Sith.
And there is one final point to make about “The Phantom Menace”: it revealed for the first and only time what the Jedi were like during the Republic’s heyday. “The Phantom Menace” represents the last normal intervention of the Jedi Order in the affairs of the galaxy. After this movie they march toward their doom at the end of the Clone-Droid Wars. They are no longer Jedi, they are soldiers and generals. In “The Phantom Menace” we get to see the Jedi just being Jedi. Qui-Gon Jinn is teaching his apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi, subtle lessons for which Yoda has no time when he is teaching Luke Skywalker. The sense of just how much knowledge and experience is lost with the Jedi Order is deepened when Qui-Gon goes before the Council to argue that Anakin be admitted to their Order.
The Jedi are not in survival or revenge mode. They are not fighting a war or rebelling against the Empire. Only in “The Phantom Menace” can we see the Jedi on top all the way through the film. By the end of “Attack of the Clones” the Jedi are no longer able to maintain order in the galaxy. They must now draw in reinforcements. “The Phantom Menace” creates a powerful snapshot of a Galactic Republic that has problems but still functions as a Republic, even though Palpatine is manipulating events. It takes time for even the greatest of all the Sith Lords to transform the Republic into an Empire.
Trailer for “Star Wars: Episode I, The Phantom Menace”
Deleted Scenes from “Star Wars: Episode I, The Phantom Menace”
[do action=”sw-amazon”]