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The journey into the story of how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader comes to its end with this movie. It was better than “Attack of the Clones” but not nearly as good as “The Phantom Menace”. And box office receipts prove that audiences loved the first movie of the trilogy more than either of the other two. George Lucas wrote and directed this movie but many people feel he let them down for a variety of reasons. Did he respond too much to the criticisms directed at him over “The Phantom Menace” and “Attack of the Clones”? Had he lost his touch? Did he allow his ego to take control? Was the story just not compelling enough?
In some ways “Revenge of the Sith” does the job just right, such as the moment where Anakin kills Count Dooku. The Dark Side of the Force is tugging at Anakin’s sleeve but he is still not ready to commit to it. Palpatine has arranged his own kidnapping and imprisonment just so that he and Anakin can share this pivotal confrontation with each other.
It is a chilling scene that plays out exactly the way Palpatine hoped his confrontation with Luke Skywalker would in “The Return of the Jedi”. Just as Darth Vader lay wounded and immobilized on the floor before the Emperor, Count Dooku is defeated by Anakin, losing both his hands in the process. Only in the final moment of defeat does Palpatine reveal that he has no use for a defeated apprentice. He only wants to work with the strongest Force user he can find.
“The Revenge of the Sith” takes all the foreshadowing of the two previous movies and magnifies, elevates it, creating a sense of continuity with “Star Wars: Episode IV, A New Hope” just like the old weekly movie serials did in the 1930s and 1940s. This is a remarkable achievement given that 28 years had passed since the release of the original “Star Wars” movie.
Other elements of “Revenge of the Sith” work less well. The developing relationship between Palpatine and Anakin stumbles through some clumsy scenes. How could Anakin’s suspicions not be raised by Palpatine’s order to kill Dooku? Or was he unaware that Palpatine was manipulating him? Of course, fans know from sources outside the movie that Palpatine had been cultivating his relationship with Anakin for many years. The Chancellor had established powerful bonds of trust with Anakin, and the movie does a poor job of conveying those bonds of trust.
When you stop to think about it, Anakin’s eventual conversion to the Dark Side is not a spur-of-the-moment decision. He has made a choice to support the man whom he thought was his friend and mentor for over a decade. But the way the Star Wars movies jump around the time line makes it really hard to show how these close, intense mentor-student relationships form.
In fact, we barely have a sense of the strong bond between Obi-Wan and Anakin. They met when Obi-Wan was still a Padawan learner apprenticed to Qui-Gon Jinn. They worked together for over a decade until Anakin became a full Jedi Knight himself. But whereas Obi-Wan was promoted to the Council, Anakin was never assigned a Padawan (in the movies — his character received an apprentice in the Clone Wars television show). The relationship between Anakin and Obi-Wan is thin but not shallow, whereas his relationship with Palpatine is patchy. There are parts missing from the story that weaken several of the scenes in the movie.
Anakin’s relationship with Padme works better than in “Attack of the Clones” in part because Lucas doesn’t have to explain anything about how they fall in love. Maybe George Lucas is just not very good at writing love stories. He is better at writing about family drama. And now that Anakin and Padme are married they can explore drama. But their drama is not the normal “how do I live with this person” struggle. Their struggle is about living with the secret of their marriage. Again, Lucas could use something to form a stronger bond between the two and implies that it is there but he does not show that bond very well.
Part of the problem is that he has to pay attention to the Clone Wars, too. After all, the galaxy is in a life-or-death struggle and thousands of worlds are being ripped apart by droid armies. How does one find time to fit all of that into a 2-hour movie? It’s impossible.
Some of the complaints directed at Lucas should really be retracted because he chose to tell the story of the characters in a war, not the story of a war. Star Wars is not about the rise and fall of the Galactic Empire, it’s about the rise, fall, and redemption of the Skywalker family (and on a secondary level of the Jedi Order).
There isn’t much redemption in “The Revenge of the Sith”. The nearest we come to seeing any redemption is when Mace Windu single-handedly defeats Palpatine in a light-saber duel, a remarkable feat considering that Palpatine had just dispatched three Jedi Masters with as many strokes. Windu has been blinded by Palpatine’s manipulations for years and in his final moment he is able to see clearly what must be done: the most dangerous Sith Lord in history must be killed.
Unfortunately that redemption comes too late for Windu and the Jedi Order. Because of Anakin’s treason the Jedi and the Republic are swept away and the galaxy is thrown into darkness. We actually see the seeds of the rebellion forming as Senator Bail Organa (formerly Bail Antilles) rescues Yoda and Padme (in two separate scenes), whisking them off to the far corners of the galaxy.
Meanwhile, two last highly anticipated scenes await: Obi-Wan’s confrontation with Anakin (now Darth Vader) and Anakin’s transformation into the “more machine than man” cyborg that is familiar to fans of the original trilogy. Obi-Wan overtakes Anakin on the planet Mustafar, where Palpatine has sent Anakin to kill the leaders of the Separatist movement. There Obi-Wan makes a final attempt to persuade Anakin to abandon the dark path he has taken. Padme, caught in the middle, is injured by an enraged Anakin.
From this point forward Padme’s fate is sealed, but she reveals that she has a little talent for using the Force (something everyone suspected given her many talents) because she “feels” the good that is still in Anakin. This is a clumsy plot device but it foreshadows Luke Skywalker’s determination to save Darth Vader once he accepts the truth of their relationship.
Obi-Wan’s battle with Anakin creates the monster that fans know as “the real Darth Vader” but it also foreshadows their final duel on the Death Star many years later, where he says: “I’ve been waiting for you, Obi-Wan. We meet again, at last. The circle is now complete. When I left you, I was but the learner; now *I* am the master.”
Unfortunately the foreshadowing changes the meaning of this scene. In the original movie Obi-Wan made it sound like Darth Vader had immediately left his old master while still a pupil, but in retrospect the story is ambiguous enough to work with the fuller “Episode III” story.
The brutal elements mixed with the political machinations in this episode make it less satisfying than “The Return of the Jedi” was, but then we have to allow for the fact that this is really just the third of six chapters to the story. Nothing should really be resolved for the good guys; in fact, they have to be beaten down before they can come back.
But in this case the “good guys” are the Skywalker family, not the galaxy. The galaxy will always have a mix of good and evil, altruism and ambition. The Skywalker family, which began with a pureness of heart, has lost its way and is scattered. The story that the audience must follow is the story of the Skywalkers. Episode IV picks up with a new generation, “A New Hope”, as Luke Skywalker is drawn back into the great conflicts of the galaxy and begins to learn that he is so much more than a moisture farmer.
But what is poetic about the ending of “Revenge of the Sith” is that it brings the audience back to Tatooine. Everything begins and ends on Tatooine in the Star Wars universe. It is surprising that fandom has not elevated the planet to a mystical center of the Force, because it was on Tatooine that Anakin Skywalker was conceived, it was on Tatooine that he and Luke were nurtured, and it is on Tatooine that fateful events bring the Skywalkers into the deep affairs of the greater galaxy.
Trailer for “Star Wars: Episode III, Revenge of the Sith”
Deleted Scenes for “Star Wars: Episode III, Revenge of the Sith”
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