Tag: Star Wars

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Billy Dee in Three Dee!

I’m not terribly interested, one way or the other, in George Lucas’s plans to do a 3D conversion of the Star Wars movies. I dunno, just color me apathetic about the whole thing. Generally I’m not that interested in 3D to begin with, so this strikes me as more of a “novelty” project than anything else. I am amused by the upwelling of the same old chorus that pipes up every time George Lucas does anything at all that is Star Wars-related these days, the “Doesn’t he have enough of my money!” wailing from people who, if they had a wildly successful franchise of their own that made more money every time they did something with it, would do the exact same thing. I just simply plan to not give Lucas my money this time around, and not because I’m mad at him, but because I’m simply not interested in Star Wars in 3D.

(Now, if there are concurrent 2D re-releases of the films in theaters, then, Uncle George will probably get some more of my money! I’d love to see the films on the silver screen again.)

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Visiting Endor


Visiting Endor, originally uploaded by darthservo.

Wow…this is amazing. If you are anything like me and have therefore seen Return of the Jedi a whole lot of times over your years on this planet, then this spot is instantly recognizable. And it still looks the same as when Luke was shouting into his sister’s ear, “Quick, jam their comlinks! Center switch!”

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I suppose Princess Leia is Suzy Derkins?

Some Star Wars stuff:

:: Han Solo and Chewbacca done Calvin and Hobbes style:

:: I don’t remember where I got this from, so if any of you had it first (SamuraiFrog, maybe?), let me know. It’s Chewbacca as a baby:

:: I thought producer Gary Kurtz came off like a bitter old man in an interview I linked a week or so back, but that interview’s got nothing on this one. He beats his hobby horses into the ground — “George just wanted to sell toys! George doesn’t care about quality!” — along with some new ones, such as that it was a mistake for Lucas to spearhead the making of Raiders of the Lost Ark because it’s just a roller-coaster movie with no story. This interview is eight years old, but man, Kurtz does not look good here. The whole thing reads like a child’s tantrum: “I didn’t get my way! Feel sorry for me!” Well…no.

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Luke….

I’d be remiss as a Star Wars blogger if I didn’t note this item, which showed up at the Star Wars Celebration event last week. It’s a brief scene that was cut from Return of the Jedi. Darth Vader is using the Force to contact Luke Skywalker, whom we see on Tatooine, finishing up his new lightsaber. This scene was to come immediately after the opening scene in the film (where Vader arrives on the Death Star II and tells Moff Jerjerrod that he’d best get construction going faster lest he get on the Emperor’s bad side). In the finished film, the Death Star scene cuts to C-3PO and R2-D2 approaching Jabba’s palace.

I’ve known of this scene’s existence for years and wondered if it might show up someday, since the music for it was actually released in 1997 on the Special Edition of the Jedi score. It’s a cool little tidbit that I’m not sure as to the reason for its cutting, as it’s barely a minute long.

This was part of an announcement that the Star Wars films will be released on Blu-ray sometime next year. That’s pretty cool, although I don’t own a Blu-ray player and won’t buy one just for this; I won’t be getting a Blu-ray player until the current DVD player dies, mainly because I still do not see the overwhelming need for yet another digital media format. If I have Blu-ray by the time Star Wars comes out, great; if not, then I’ll wait for both.

Apparently the original releases won’t be part of the package, because they need a lot of restoration work. I’m generally fine with that. In truth, I haven’t even watched the original releases since the Special Editions came out; with a couple of small exceptions, I’m generally OK with the changes Lucas and company made in 1997. It would be nice to have the originals out for archival reasons, though. Same reason I still have my theatrical cuts of the Lord of the Rings films, even though I don’t watch them.

And of course, since this is George Lucas we’re talking about, in every forum where I’ve seen discussion of Star Wars on Blu-ray, I see the same tired old kvetching about how “There goes Fat George again, double-dipping and making his fans buy his stuff all over again.” That this is standard operating procedure for all of the movie industry is apparently no excuse when it comes to George Lucas, who literally can’t win: “Why the hell isn’t Star Wars on Blu-ray? Oh, it is? Well, thanks for the double-dip, you jerk!”

Oh well. I still love you, Uncle George!

(Oh, might as well mention this article on original Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz that I read a few days ago. Kurtz, it seems, is breaking silence, and frankly, he sounds rather like a bitter old man who is still angry that he didn’t get his way all those years ago when George Lucas didn’t want to make the version of Return of the Jedi that Kurtz did. But Geez, look at how Kurtz wanted things to go in the third film:

“We had an outline and George changed everything in it,” Kurtz said. “Instead of bittersweet and poignant he wanted a euphoric ending with everybody happy. The original idea was that they would recover [the kidnapped] Han Solo in the early part of the story and that he would then die in the middle part of the film in a raid on an Imperial base. George then decided he didn’t want any of the principals killed. By that time there were really big toy sales and that was a reason.”

The discussed ending of the film that Kurtz favored presented the rebel forces in tatters, Leia grappling with her new duties as queen and Luke walking off alone “like Clint Eastwood in the spaghetti westerns,” as Kurtz put it.

Rescue Han Solo, only to kill him forty minutes later? End with the Rebel forces in tatters? Sounds like the ending of The Empire Strikes Back to me. And frankly, Lucas’s desire for a happy and upbeat ending to Jedi shouldn’t have come as a surprise, since Lucas was giving interviews in 1977 about how a big part of why he made Star Wars: A New Hope the way he did was that he was tired of depressing, dystopic movies that dominated the early 1970s. Plus, by this time Lucas had his notions for two trilogies, one telling the tale of Luke Skywalker and the other that of Anakin, much more firmly in his mind, even if he didn’t have many details ironed out. He knew that the first trilogy would by definition end on the same note that Kurtz had wanted the second to end on, which would have seemed fairly silly.

I also note Kurtz’s weird belief that Lucas refused to allow main characters to be killed off because of toy merchandising. Well, Yoda dies in Jedi, and that didn’t stop Yoda figures from being made, did it? In fact, lots of movies that have action figures have figures of characters who die. This objection of Kurtz’s makes zero sense; but then, I’ve never found the whole “Lucas decided that all he cares about is making toys” argument terribly convincing.

Finally, I reject his notion that making prequels is somehow “limiting” to story, presumably because we know how it ends. So what? People didn’t flock to The Passion of the Christ out of suspense for its ending. I know how Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will end, but you’d better believe I’m seeing that movie. Knowing how a story ends is in no way an impediment to enjoying a story, or being able to tell it well. Kurtz should know that.

OK, now I’m done. Whew….)

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I’ve got a bad feeling about this

A “future history” of a reboot of Star Wars:

April 2011 – George Lucas announces plans to reboot the Star Wars franchise with a new version of A New Hope.

Lucas promises that this will be a new vision recognising the enormous strides made in technology: 3D, extensive use of synthespians and a host of old and new characters.

The Internet immediately goes into meltdown, with Twitter’s fail whale on active duty. Meanwhile new website dontrapeourchildhoodagain.com goes live with remarkable speed.

Yeah, after the initial “George Lucas sucks” stuff, the feature takes us through a timeline of the making of the Star Wars reboot, which is written by…JJ Abrams.

That’s where I start to throw up a little in my mouth. I actually wouldn’t be totally opposed to Abrams directing a Star Wars movie, but I sure as hell don’t want him writing one. Ugh!

(Of course it’s all an entertaining hypothetical exercise…but I don’t want a reboot of Star Wars any more than I want the once-conceived sequel to Casablanca.)

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Fixing the Prequels: Attack of the Clones (part 13)

part twelve
part eleven
part ten
part nine
part eight
part seven
part six
part five
part four
part three
part two
part one

OK, I’ve been long enough in returning here, so let’s go ahead and finish up with Attack of the Clones, shall we? I should be able to get through all of what’s left in a single post, because we’re up to the final act of the movie, and this is my favorite part of the film, actually. Most of this works extremely well, in my opinion, and this will mostly be more “running comment” than anything else.

Before I do, though, I should mention an interesting post over at Mightygodking.com, called “A Half-Hearted Defense of the “Star Wars” Prequels”. I find it interesting because at least some of the thought process over there (by John Seavey, the writer of the post) mirrors my own long-held thought about these much-maligned movies. He’s not willing, as I am, to openly proclaim the Prequels good movies, but that’s what I’m here for, eh? And now, back to the film:

Now, when we’d left off, Anakin and Padme’s attempt at rescuing Obi Wan had failed completely, with both being captured after some derring-do in the droid foundry. Padme confronts Dooku (in a deleted scene that I would restore), and now, it’s time for an execution. We see a giant stadium, a coliseum of sorts, which is where the Geonosians put their prisoners to death. It’s a packed house with thousands of spectators, giving us the second consecutive Star Wars film to depict a sporting event in the SW universe. Of course, this one’s a tad bloodthirsty, but so be it. The design of the arena, by the way, intentionally echoes the famed Opera House in Sydney, as AOTC was filmed in Australia (the first SW movie not filmed in England).

Before we get to the executions, though, we have Padme and Anakin being brought together so they can be wheeled out onto the execution grounds. This is where Padme finally admits her feelings for him. It’s a good scene that only feels a bit muted in the actual film because of the narrative missteps Lucas took with their romance earlier in the film, primarily in the Naboo scenes. I’d only alter the scene slightly (my additions in red:

INTERIOR: GEONOSIS, TUNNEL TO EXECUTION ARENA – DAY

In the gloomy tunnel, ANAKIN and PADMÉ are tossed into an open cart. The murmur of a vast crowd is heard offscreen. GUARDS extend their arms along the framework and tie them so that they stand facing each other. The DRIVER gets up onto his seat.

ANAKIN: I take it your negotiations didn’t go well.

PADME: We’ll try negotiating your way next time.

ANAKIN: I’m not really equipped for that right now. I broke another lightsaber.

PADME: Well, I won’t tell Obi Wan if you won’t. It can be–

ANAKIN: Our secret?

They smile.

PADME: It’s been the Trade Federation all along, by the way. Nute Gunray is here. He’s wanted me dead ever since the invasion of Naboo.

ANAKIN: Someday I’ll make him pay for that.

One of the GUARDS shouts a command, and the others get ready to move.

ANAKIN: Don’t be afraid.

PADMÉ: I’m not afraid to die. I’ve been dying a little bit each day since you came back into my life.

ANAKIN: What are you talking about?

PADMÉ: I love you.

ANAKIN: You love me? You said you couldn’t. That we were too different. That it would destroy me.

PADMÉ: I think our lives are about to be destroyed anyway. My love for you is a puzzle, Annie, for which I have no answers. I can’t control it… but now I don’t care. [This last bit is in the original script, not added by me.] I truly, deeply love you, and before we die I want you to know.

PADMÉ leans toward ANAKIN. By straining hard, it is just possible for their lips to meet. They kiss.

The DRIVER cracks his whip over the ORRAY harnessed between the shafts. The cart jerks forward. Suddenly, there is a HUGE ROAR and blinding sunlight as they emerge into the arena.

This is a really great moment in the movie, the way the camera follows the wagon through the dark tunnel and out into the brilliant sunlit death arena, as the score swells with the film’s love theme. Love this part.

Anakin and Padme are taken to a series of stone pillars, where they are chained up beside a waiting Obi Wan. A terrific exchange between master and student happens here:

OBI-WAN: I was beginning to wonder if you had gotten my message.

ANAKIN: I retransmitted it as you requested, Master. Then we decided to come and rescue you.

OBI-WAN: Good job!

Hayden Christensen’s line delivery there is spot-on perfect: first he’s defensive (“See, I did what you told me to do!”), and then he pauses slightly before having to add the rest (“And then we did something else.”). He says that line in just the way that a student would to a teacher he’s just disappointed yet again.

Padme somehow manages to stick a piece of wire, or a lockpick, or something like that in her mouth before being chained up. This always struck me a bit curiously, but I’ll get to that in a moment. The executions begin, which involve releasing some crazed omnivores into the arena. One looks like a giant lobster, another like a cat whose head is all teeth, and the third is the love-child of a rhinocerous in heat and the Merrill-Lynch bull. Anyway, the creatures lumber toward the three captives – thus giving Anakin the traditional “bad feeling about this” – as Obi Wan tells him to be calm, use the Force, yada yada yada. Padme is already using her chain to pull herself to the top of her column, where she starts to pick her locks.

Here I’d add something:

EXTERIOR: The Archducal box

Overlooking the execution grounds, Nute Gunray becomes quite angry.

NUTE: Your guards let her bring lock picks into the execution!

POGGLE THE LESSER says something.

DOOKU: Be calm, Viceroy. The Geonosians like their executions to take a bit of time. You’re fortunate they didn’t give her a blaster.

Anyway, the executions continue, with Anakin and Obi Wan managing to free themselves, and Padme using her chain to keep the mean cat (hereafter referred to as “Bucky”) at bay, although not before Bucky manages to rake her back with his claws, drawing blood and making the Viceroy happy. Anakin uses the Force to calm the rhino-beast enough for him to actual get on its back and ride it; he thusly saves Padme by having his rhino trample Bucky. Padme jumps down onto the beast behind him, gives him a kiss, and they ride to pick up Obi Wan, who has just hit his lobster-beast with a spear, unfortunately to little effect (the look on Obi Wan’s face when the beast simply pulls the spear out and smashes it in its jaws is pretty funny).

At this point the Jedi make for an escape, but now the Geonosians decide to quit messing around and send in destroyer droids. Things look grim…and that’s when Mace Windu turns up in the Archducal box:

In the archducal box, amid the uproar, MACE WINDU ignites his lightsaber and holds it to JANGO FETT’s neck. COUNT DOOKU turns to see MACE WINDU standing behind him. COUNT DOOKU masks his surprise elegantly.

COUNT DOOKU: Master Windu, how pleasant of you to join us. You’re just in time for the moment of truth. I would think these two new boys of yours could use a little more training.

MACE WINDU: Sorry to disappoint you, Dooku. This party’s over.

MACE WINDU signals, and at strategic places around the arena there are sudden flashes of light as about ONE HUNDRED JEDI switch on their lightsabers. The crowd is suddenly silent. COUNT DOOKU’s lips curl in slight amusement.

COUNT DOOKU: (to Mace Windu) Brave, but foolish, my old Jedi friend. You’re impossibly outnumbered.

MACE WINDU: I don’t think so. The Geonosians aren’t warriors. One Jedi has to be worth a hundred Geonosians.

COUNT DOOKU looks around the great theater. His smile grows.

COUNT DOOKU: It wasn’t the Geonosians I was thinking about. How well do you think one Jedi will hold up against a thousand Battle Droids?

COUNT DOOKU signals. THOUSANDS OF DROIDS start to pour into all parts of the arena.

JANGO FETT fires his flamethrower at MACE WINDU, igniting MACE’s robe. MACE WINDU jumps into the arena. The battle begins.

Now all hell breaks loose. Jedi charge into battle against the droids, but there are just too many of them. Still, it’s a very entertaining battle sequence, especially with two of the three execution monsters still alive on the field. There’s a nice moment between Anakin and Padme:

ANAKIN: You call this ‘diplomacy’?

PADME: No, I call it aggressive negotiations.

During the battle, Jango Fett is killed by Mace Windu, C-3PO’s head and body enter the battle, only to have both fall and later be discovered by R2-D2, who will once again (for the first time, actually) fix the protocol droid. On Jango’s demise: some fans feel that it happens too quickly (something that apparently runs in the Fett family), and while I’d have liked to see him post a little bit more of a challenge to Mace Windu, I like how this demonstrates the difference in skill between Obi Wan Kenobi (who has only been a Jedi Master for ten years) and Mace Windu (whose age is indeterminate, but who has clearly not been a Padawan for quite some time). This never bothered me all that much.

Anyway, the Jedi are worn down by the relentless attack of the battle droids until they are completely surrounded. Dooku offers them a chance to surrender, but Windu replies that they won’t be held as hostages. The die is cast, and it seems that the battle is about to end in slaughter…when Master Yoda arrives with a clone army at his command to save what’s left of the Jedi attack. (I love the line “Around the survivors, a perimeter create!”) The remaining Jedi hop into the clone ships, and they all escape as a massive battle begins on the plains of Geonosis. The Separatists realize that they are now outmanned and outgunned and must make their escape.

Here’s were I’d add a small something:

INTERIOR: Clone gunship.

The gunship is flying in formation with others toward the battle forming where the clone ships are landing. In the distance, Federation ships are starting to lift off. The ship rocks under fire from Geonosian cannons.

ANAKIN is kneeling beside PADME, tending to the wounds on her back from her cat-monster.

ANAKIN: There’s some dirt in here. Hold still..

She winces as ANAKIN cleans the wounds.

PADME: That stings!

ANAKIN: Sorry.

PADME: It’s all right. And I think I agree with you now.

ANAKIN: About what?

PADME: I don’t like sand, either.

He looks at her and sees the familiar mischievous gleam in her eye. Both laugh.

See, that’s why I wouldn’t remove the much-derided “I don’t like sand” line from earlier in the film: because it illustrates something important, and because it can be revisited later on as a source of humor once our characters have been through a lot.

So anyway, plowing through a lot, there’s a massive battle taking place. I’ve seen some commenters on the film complain that in an era of massive space fleets engaging in battles in space, a ground battle seems a bit odd, but I’m fine with it. Why? Well, I could cook up some kind of science-fictional justification, but suffice it to say that…I just think the battle looks really cool, with armies of Jedi and clones charging against armies of droids, and the shots toward the end of the battle when there’s so much dust in the air that the blaster fire makes the whole thing seem hellish, and at one point we can’t even really tell where the clones are and where the Separatist droids are. Almost like Lucas is visually blurring the lines between the Separatists and the future storm troopers of the Empire!

Count Dooku escapes to his private hangar, where he’s about to leave the planet on his ship, but Obi Wan and Anakin give pursuit, which almost comes to disaster when their gunship is hit and Padme falls out. I’ve always liked the moment when Obi Wan has to remind Anakin of where his priorities should lie, especially with Anakin having to push down his passions once more. They reach Dooku’s hangar, where Anakin can no longer restrain himself, charging in to fight Dooku, who flicks him aside with The Force. And then the real battle begins, with Dooku first besting Obi Wan, then besting Anakin (cutting his arm off in the process), and confronting Yoda.

The only thing I would change in any of this is to lengthen it a bit, especially the fight between Obi Wan and Dooku, and between Yoda and Dooku. The Yoda moment is a blast – when I first saw the film, the entire theater erupted into cheers when Yoda came out to confront Dooku, and again when he drew his lightsaber – but it’s over very quickly, isn’t it? Still, it’s interesting that Yoda allows Dooku to escape, preferring instead to save Obi Wan and Anakin from the giant falling object that Dooku had thrown at them. I seem to recall that Yoda later counsels Anakin to set aside his attachments to those he loves, and that Luke Skywalker should sacrifice Han and Leia “if he honors what they fight for”.

I’ve always admired how the duels in the hangar are shot. It’s a dark set to begin with, but then Anakin begins cutting the cables to the lights to darken it even further, to the point where there’s a fairly surreal bit of dueling in which we only see the faces of Anakin and Dooku, illuminating by their flashing lightsaber blades. AOTC, and the Prequel Trilogy in general, never gets enough credit for some of the sheer invention and imagination in the visuals that George Lucas creates.

So the battle ends with the Separatists getting routed, but with Dooku escaping. (And with Anakin jumping up from having his arm chopped off – yeah, he should show a little more trauma there, shouldn’t he?)

Dooku flies to Coruscant, where he meets with Darth Sidious to report that the war has begun. We have a couple of wrap-up scenes now. Obi Wan reports to Mace Windu and Yoda, expressing relief that without the clones, the Battle of Geonosis would not have been a victory. Yoda points out that it was only one battle, and that the larger war has begun. Illustrating his point, we cut to thousands upon thousands of clone troopers in formation, boarding their ships to head off to war, as Chancellor Palpatine and his highest advisers look on (including Bail Organa, who lightly pounds the railing with his fist in apparent frustration that the war he’d hoped to prevent has come to pass). As the armies mobilize, we hear, for the first time in the Prequel Trilogy, a full-throated statement of the Imperial March, making clear that this moment is when the Republic is irreversibly on the path to Empire. It’s a chilling and amazing moment.

And finally we cut back to the lake retreat on Naboo, where, in a scene with no dialogue (John Williams’s love theme is now blasting away) Anakin, who was supposed to just be taking Padme back to her home planet, is secretly marrying her. This, we all know, is not the best idea either has ever had. Their wedding guests are C-3PO and R2-D2 (which makes AOTC the only film in the Prequel Trilogy to have the two droids present in the final shot). It looks like a beautiful ceremony, even if we know it’s pretty much going to result in utter disaster for the entire Galaxy.

And with that, I bring my version of Attack of the Clones to a finish. Next up, obviously, we’ll be fixing Revenge of the Sith, which I’ve already been thinking a lot about. Until then, Excelsior!

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Striking Back

So, thirty years have passed since the release of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. Wow, I guess. As luck would have it, I watched the film not too long ago — a couple of months, probably — and it still holds up extremely well. This is unsurprising, of course; the film is a bona fide classic.

I’ve read some tributes here and there around the Interweb and around Blogistan specifically, and I’ve found myself of mixed mind about the good words being said about the movie, mainly because a very large portion of comment seems to be of the “Wow, remember thirty years ago when Star Wars didn’t suck?” variety. I’m saddened by that, but hey, nothing I can do about it, either. It gets tiring, though — it seems that every event or happening or milestone that returns Star Wars to public consciousness is followed by the usual “George Lucas is the richest hack in history” comment. Oh well. Par for the course. Put it this way: I’m not much looking forward to 2013’s 30th anniversary of Return of the Jedi.

Empire came out when I was just eight years old, living in Hillsboro, OR. I didn’t see it for a few weeks after it came out, and yet, in those pre-Interweb days, I was able to go see the sequel to Star Wars three or four weeks after its release with zero idea of its story, other than what I’d seen in the TV commercials and such. I knew there was a snowy planet where the Rebels were fighting these big metal dinosaurs, I knew that there was a space chase through some asteroids, and I knew that there was a new character played by some guy named Billy Dee. That’s about it. I certainly had no idea that there was a Jedi master named Yoda, and I was actually surprised when the goofy little green guy in the swamp turned out to be Yoda. I was horribly dismayed when Han Solo got put into carbon freeze, but I thought, “Hey, no prob, they’ll save him before the movie ends.” Yeah…my first ever experience with a cliffhanger.

And I had no idea whatsoever that Darth Vader might be Luke Skywalker’s father.

How was this possible? Well, again, it was pre-Interweb, and pre-cable teevee, and all the rest of that. Also, I was lucky that my school district at the time let out for summer vacation in the first days of June, so Empire had been out for all of two weeks before I lost most contact with my schoolmates, most of whom hadn’t yet seen the movie either. So there was nobody to spoil the thing for me. I went into that movie almost completely blind. Empire was the last Star Wars film I was able to do that with.

Empire is, of course, now nearly universally hailed as the best of all Star Wars movies. There’s a lot to that, to be honest; the film earns its reputation with a superb script, amazingly paced and shot action sequences, a darker turn of events, and what may well be the best music John Williams has ever written. When pressed, I will almost always name A New Hope as my personal favorite Star Wars film, but the pro-Empire arguments are compelling.

Empire‘s beloved status really only started to grow after Return of the Jedi came out three years later. I don’t think it’s so much because Jedi was a bad film, as much as Empire‘s nature — being the middle act of a three-act story — meant that it could only really be appreciated once all the acts were out there, and the middle act’s true function and relation to the rest of the story could be judged. If I preferred Empire when I was a kid, it was mainly because it was shinier and newer than the older, more familiar film.

Here, in tribute, are my two favorite tracks from the entire brilliant score to The Empire Strikes Back. Empire was the first record album I ever bought with my own money. I didn’t even have my own record player at the time, and I had to listen to it in my parents’ bedroom when I wanted to hear it. I’d later get a record player that Christmas (it also had an 8-track tape player!), and Empire was the first thing I played on it. I played that album (a 2-LP set) to death over the next few years, wearing out the gatefold record jacket and putting numerous pops and scratches into the LP’s grooves themselves. Back then, John Williams would arrange his albums to make a “better listening experience”, which meant that tracks were not arranged on the album in the order they were heard in the film and that tracks from entirely different parts of the film were sometimes combined into a single track on the album. I played that album so much that even now, when I listen to subsequent remasterings of the Empire score, with all the tracks in film order, my brain still expects the original album order, with its tracks bearing titles like “The Heroics of Luke and Han”.

The first track is my favorite action cue from the score. Many fans would cite “The Asteroid Field” as theirs, but for me, it’s “The Clash of Lightsabers” all the way. This track underscores the second part of Luke’s duel with Vader, after they’ve moved from the carbon freezing chamber to a mechanical anteroom where Vader starts using the Force to hurl machine parts at Luke. It begins mysteriously and becomes more and more ominous as Vader toys with Luke; the music howls when the big window behind Luke is shattered and the wind begins to pour through the room, sweeping Luke out into the shaft, where he manages to catch onto the gantry and pull himself to safety. Then we cut (at the 1:38 mark) to Leia, Chewie, Lando and the droids as they work their way back to the Millennium Falcon. Lando’s theme (at the 2:00 mark) plays as he announces the evacuation of Cloud City. The rest of the track builds and builds (love the great brass bit starting at 2:36) which ends in first triumph as R2-D2 opens the door to the landing platform, and then the desperate version of the film’s Love Theme as the heroes race for their ship and freedom. This is one of my favorite action cues in all film music.

Second is from earlier in the film, on Dagobah: “Yoda and the Force”. This scene is, for me, the philosophical and emotional heart of just about all of Star Wars, when Yoda takes advantage of the sinking of Luke’s X-wing into the swamp to try to get through to Luke as to what it truly means to feel the Force. It’s a wonderful cue, from the meditative string writing to the noble statement of Yoda’s Theme as he lifts the ship from the water.

Happy birthday, Empire. You’ve never looked better.

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Fixing the Prequels: Attack of the Clones (part 12)

part eleven
part ten
part nine
part eight
part seven
part six
part five
part four
part three
part two
part one

And after a brief layoff, we’re back and exploring Attack of the Clones. First, though, something interesting, in the form of something that I never thought I’d see happen: in comments to one of the Fixing the Prequels: The Phantom Menace posts (specifically), I was taken to task not by someone incredulously asking how I can possibly profess to like the Prequel Trilogy, but by someone who doesn’t think I like it enough.

The reader, whose blog is called “Felice’s Log” even though her Blogger profile says “Juanita”, says this:

Do you honestly think you can “FIX” the Prequel Trilogy? Do you honestly think you’re a better writer than George Lucas?

God! The arrogance of all this!

This is definitely the first time I’ve ever found someone who holds the Prequels more dearly than I do. It’s an odd feeling.

Taking this at face value (and I see little reason to do otherwise), well, obviously no, I can’t fix the PT, because the PT is done. It’s there. George Lucas has made the movies and is now doing other stuff. Still Star Wars, but other stuff. As for me being a better writer, well…maybe I am, maybe I’m not. George Lucas is the one sitting on an enormous pile of money by virtue of his having created something that is one of the great cultural touchstones of the last fifty years; I’m a blogger who does this as a hobby. But hey, maybe I’m a late bloomer! Maybe my own cultural touchstone project is still to come!

But seriously, I hope that Juanita/Felice reads a little deeper into this series of posts and into some of the many other posts I’ve written on the subject of Star Wars over the years of this blog. I yield to no one in my respect and admiration for George Lucas and what he has created over the years, even before Star Wars — American Graffiti is also a long-time favorite movie of mine. But such admiration surely need not preclude me from admitting that the Prequel Trilogy, as good as I believe it to be, simply isn’t perfect. It’s got problems. Some of the problems are bigger than others, even if I don’t think any of them are fatal problems which completely undermine his story. I don’t find the acting across-the-board awful; I don’t find Jar Jar Binks distracting to the point of loathing; I don’t find the dialogue uniformly bad. I’m not one of those people who sneers “I was bored during the opening crawl of TPM when it started talking about taxes and stuff!”

But the films are flawed, in my opinion. There are spots throughout the PT where Lucas doesn’t step soundly, and this series of posts is my examination of all such spots. But this exercise isn’t simply about that, however; this is, I hope it will be obvious when one reads the posts, certainly not a long-form critique of everything wrong and horrible and awful with TPM or AOTC. For that, you can go to YouTube and watch that guy who did those long “reviews” of both films*. For all my focus on the flaws that I perceive in the PT, this series is also about its strengths. I go out of my way to point out all of the places where I think Lucas gets things mostly, or even completely, right, and I’ve always felt that the moments of “rightness” far outnumber the moments that are less than perfect.

I remember back in 1999, when I realized that the prevailing opinion on TPM was turning out to be negative, and how quickly that negative view seemed to strengthen and intensify. Reading commentary on that film back then, it was almost as if every person felt the need to out-do the previous person in saying how bad the movie was. Every time I see any of the Prequels mentioned on just about any website that gets any kind of traffic at all, the result is the same: a chorus of voices, unanimously united in their abject hatred of the movie in question and the Prequels in general. And these discussions always veer into people saying mean things about George Lucas and keeping the happy myths going, such as the old canard that “Star Wars is best when Lucas doesn’t have much to do with it”, on the basis of The Empire Strikes Back and yet somehow ignoring Return of the Jedi (which was written again by Lawrence Kasdan and directed by Richard Marquand, and not Lucas).

These posts are part of a long effort of mine to establish somewhere online the notion that the Prequel Trilogy is not a disaster from pillar to post, and that there is, in fact, a great deal in the PT to love. By highlighting a number of problem areas and showing – or attempting to show, at least – how most of those problems could be solved by either re-writing existing scenes or creating some new ones, I hope to illustrate also the parts of these films that work quite well indeed. And there are a lot of those.

I’d finally point out, before getting back into AOTC, that George Lucas has always himself maintained that the writing is his least favorite part of filmmaking. All of the movies which are credited with Lucas as the writer saw uncredited script doctoring to some degree: Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz helped out with A New Hope; Carrie Fisher pitched in on TPM; and Tom Stoppard reportedly helped out with RotS. Lucas has always held up writing as his area of weakness – even if I don’t think he’s that bad a writer, he is clunky at times.

So that’s what we’re all about here. And with that, back to Attack of the Clones!

(But first, Felice/Juanita is running a pretty interesting blog herself — lots of in-depth reviews of movies and teevee shows there. Check it out.)

When last we left, Anakin and Padme were leaving Tatooine in direct defiance of the Jedi Council’s orders for them to stay right there, and heading to Geonosis to attempt to help Obi Wan. Meanwhile, back on Coruscant, the government is now very nervous at the evidence Obi Wan has presented that the Separatist movement is preparing for war. The scene, with material not actually in the film in red:

INTERIOR: CORUSCANT, CHANCELLOR’S OFFICE – DAY

BAIL ORGANA: The Commerce Guilds are preparing for war…there can be no doubt of that.

PALPATINE: Count Dooku must have made a treaty with them.

BAIL ORGANA: We must stop them before they’re ready.

JAR JAR: Exsueeze me, yousa honorable Supreme Chancellor, Sir. Maybe dissen Jedi stoppen the rebel army.

PALPATINE: Master Yoda, how many Jedi are available to go to Geonosis?

YODA: Throughout the galaxy, thousands of Jedi there are. To send on a special mission, only two hundred are available.

BAIL ORGANA: With all due respect for the Jedi Order, that doesn’t sound like enough.

YODA: Through negotiation the Jedi maintains peace. To start a war, we do not intend.

ASK AAK: The debate is over! Now we need that clone army…

BAIL ORGANA: Unfortunately, the debate is not over. The Senate will never approve the use of the clones before the separatists attack.

MAS AMEDDA: This is a crisis! The Senate must vote the Chancellor emergency powers! He could then approve the use of the clones.

PALPATINE: But what Senator would have the courage to propose such a radical amendment?

MAS AMEDDA: If only Senator Amidala were here.

JAR JAR steps forward from the back of the group.

JAR JAR: Mesa mosto Supreme Chancellor… Mesa gusto pallos. Mesa proud to proposing the motion to give yousa Honor emergency powers.

This is a good scene. I do wish some of the stuff about the limitations of the Jedi had remained in the finished film; maybe not specific numbers, but something like that to highlight the fact that the Jedi are simply not able to fight a Galaxy-spanning conflict. I do appreciate how, in the final film, Jar Jar’s last line is left out, and we just see him standing there, thinking on what’s just been said, instead of him stepping up and pledging to be the guy who basically introduces legislation to start the Republic on its final road to ruin. (I always thought that was a neat conclusion for Jar Jar’s character arc, by the way.)

One other thing I always loved about this scene is that even though the script indicates it takes place during the daytime, in the final film it’s set in early evening, when night is falling over the Capital part of Coruscant. The final debate over what to do about the clone army is underscored by being set at night; we are literally watching the darkness fall over the Republic. George Lucas has always done a good job with his progressions of color schemes through his films; note how in ANH the prevailing colors go from the bright desert yellows and oranges early on to more silvers and grays and blacks as the final confrontation with the technocratic Empire looms, and how after an hour or so of that, we get a brilliant dose of green when we finally meet the Rebellion. Or how, in TESB, the action on Bespin takes but a single entire day – dusk as the Millennium Falcon arrives on Cloud City, dawn the next morning as Leia is fretting over where C-3PO has disappeared to, mid-day as Luke is arriving and as Han is being frozen, and dusk again as Luke is being nearly destroyed by Vader.

Anyway, after this scene we cut to Geonosis and what is one of the best scenes in any Star Wars movie, a near miracle of a scene, considering George Lucas’s utter inability as a director. (Yes, that last is sarcastic.) Count Dooku visits a captive Obi Wan Kenobi:

INTERIOR: GEONOSIS, PRISON CELL – DAY

COUNT DOOKU walks into the cell holding OBI-WAN. OBI-WAN is suspended in a force field, turning slowly as blue electric bolts restrain him. COUNT DOOKU circles OBI-WAN as they talk.

OBI-WAN: Traitor!

COUNT DOOKU: Hello, my friend. This is a mistake. A terrible mistake. They’ve gone too far. This is madness.

OBI-WAN: I thought you were the leader here, Dooku.

COUNT DOOKU: This had nothing to do with me, I assure you. I promise you I will petition immediately to have you set free.

OBI-WAN: Well, I hope it doesn’t take too long. I have work to do.

COUNT DOOKU: May I ask why a Jedi Knight is all the way out here on Geonosis?

OBI-WAN: I’ve been tracking a bounty hunter named Jango Fett. Do you know him?

COUNT DOOKU: There are no bounty hunters here that I’m aware of. Geonosians don’t trust them.

OBI-WAN: Well, who can blame them. But he is here, I can assure you.

COUNT DOOKU: It’s a great pity that our paths have never crossed before, Obi-Wan. Qui-Gon always spoke very highly of you. I wish he were still alive. I could use his help right now.

OBI-WAN: Qui-Gon Jinn would never join you.

COUNT DOOKU: Don’t be so sure, my young Jedi. You forget that he was once my apprentice just as you were once his. He knew all about the corruption in the Senate, but he would never have gone along with it if he had known the truth as I have.

OBI-WAN: The truth?

COUNT DOOKU: The truth. What if I told you that the Republic was now under the control of the Dark Lords of the Sith?

OBI-WAN: No, that’s not possible. The Jedi would be aware of it.

COUNT DOOKU: The dark side of the Force has clouded their vision, my friend. Hundreds of Senators are now under the influence of a Sith Lord called Darth Sidious.

OBI-WAN: I don’t believe you.

COUNT DOOKU: The Viceroy of the Trade Federation was once in league with this Darth Sidious. But he was betrayed ten years ago by the Dark Lord. He came to me for help. He told me everything. The Jedi Council would not believe him. I tried many times to warn them but they wouldn’t listen to me. Once they sensed the Dark Lord’s presence, it would then be too late. You must join me, Obi-Wan, and together we will destroy the Sith.

OBI-WAN: I will never join you, Dooku.

COUNT DOOKU turns to leave.

COUNT DOOKU: It may be difficult to secure your release.

What’s so great about this scene? Well, for one thing, it’s just two good actors talking to one another. I’m of the opinion that there’s far more of that to be found in the Prequels than most seem to believe, but that’s neither here nor there. The scene is even better because in a short time it establishes a lot of ground. We learn something about Qui Gon Jinn that we hadn’t known, a possible source of some of his rebelliousness, if his own teacher was a Jedi who eventually left the order entirely. And how fascinating that the first time any of the Jedi learn that a Sith Lord is behind the political machinations in the Republic is from the lips of that very Sith Lord’s apprentice. Seriously, what a masterstroke that was: Obi Wan is actually hearing the truth, but because he knows the man he is talking to is a villain, he disbelieves it.

I also love how Lucas returns to a small thread that was mentioned originally in The Empire Strikes Back, in the way that Dooku (whom we later learn is actually “Darth Tyrannus”) tries to tempt Kenobi into joining him. It seems that one of the problems with the Sith lies in the way that apprentices are always planning to topple their masters, and it’s cool how Palpatine deals with this by always seeming to have his next apprentice either lined up or on the way; he treats his apprentices as disposable, so that they can never really get moving on their own schemes to topple him.

Next we go back to Coruscant, where in a night-time session, the Senate is taking up the matter of what to do about the immediate threat of the Separatist army. As Mace Windu and Yoda look on, Senator Jar Jar Binks is rising to the occasion and offering legislation to give “emergency powers” to the Chancellor, who immediately pledges to build “a grand army of the Republic” to deal with the Separatists. The road to war is now paved. Yoda and Windu agree that Windu will go to Geonosis, while Yoda plans to travel to Kamino to see the army for himself.

After this scene, we cut to Anakin and Padme arriving on Geonosis. After making their landing, they make their way through a back entrance into the droid factory. This leads to a very frenetic action sequence as they make their way through the factory assembly lines, with robotic machines whipping this way and that, giant buckets of ore being filled and dumped in the forges, and entire armies of droids being built.

I’ve thought about this quite a bit, and I honestly wouldn’t change any of it, save one thing: I never much liked the way C-3PO falls into the arms of a flying droid. I have no problem with him ending up on the assembly line himself, with his head replaced with that of a battle droid and a battle droid’s head replaced with C-3PO’s, but the way this unfolds is treated a bit too comically for my tastes. I’d cut out some of his one-liners through there – “It’s a nightmare!”, foremost – but other than that, I’m fine with the whole thing. R2-D2’s flying never bothered me, either. I know that a lot of Star Wars fans kvetched a lot over this, on the basis that he was never shown flying around in the Original Trilogy, but then, there weren’t any scenarios in the Original Trilogy that I can remember in which R2 flying would have been desirable, and having an astrodroid able to fly for short periods of time is fine with me. If your ship is damaged and drifting in space and your astromech droid can’t reach the thing that needs fixing from his assigned spot, then being able to propel himself in space a bit would be really useful, right?

So I’d tone down the C-3PO-related comedy in this sequence a bit, and if possible, have Anakin trying to get to Padme, instead of just trying to survive the assembly line. The way the sequence ends, with Anakin’s lightsaber being destroyed and his sheepish line, “Ohhh, not again. Obi Wan’s gonna kill me” is really good. I like that a lot.

In the film, at this point we cut to the great Arena on Geonosis where the executions of Obi Wan, Anakin and Padme are to be carried out. There was a scene filmed to take place before this, however, and the scene was cut due to the ever-present concerns about running time. It’s a good scene, though – well-written, and it shows Padme’s attempts to use diplomacy to defuse a bad situation as she meets with Count Dooku:

INTERIOR: GEONOSIS, CONFERENCE ROOM – DAY

COUNT DOOKU sits at a large conference table with PADMÉ on the far side. ANAKIN stands behind her with FOUR GEONOSIANS GUARDS standing behind him. JANGO FETT stands behind COUNT DOOKU, and SIX GEONOSIAN GUARDS stand behind him.

PADMÉ: You are holding a Jedi Knight, Obi-Wan Kenobi. I am formally requesting you turn him over to me, now.

COUNT DOOKU: He has been convicted of espionage, Senator, and will be executed. In just a few hours, I believe.

COUNT DOOKU smiles.

PADMÉ: He is an officer of the Republic. You can’t do that.

COUNT DOOKU: We don’t recognize the Republic here, Senator. But if Naboo were to join our Alliance, I could easily hear your plea for clemency.

PADMÉ: And if I don’t join your rebellion, I assume this Jedi with me will also die?

COUNT DOOKU: I don’t wish to make you to join our cause against your will, Senator, but you are a rational, honest representative of your people and I assume you want to do what’s in their best interest. Aren’t they fed up with the corruption, the bureaucrats, the hypocrisy of it all? Aren’t you? Be honest, Senator.

PADMÉ: The ideals are still alive, Count, even if the institution is failing.

COUNT DOOKU: You believe in the same ideals we believe in! The same ideals we are striving to make prominent.

PADMÉ: If what you say is true, you should stay in the Republic and help Chancellor Palpatine put things right.

COUNT DOOKU: The Chancellor means well, M’Lady, but he is incompetent. He has promised to cut the bureaucracy, but the bureaucrats are stronger than ever, no? The Republic cannot be fixed, M’Lady. It is time to start over. The democratic process in the Republic is a sham, no? A shell game played on the voters. The time will come when that cult of greed, called the Republic, will lose even the pretext of democracy and freedom.

PADMÉ: I cannot believe that. I know of your treaties with the Trade Federation, the Commerce Guilds, and the others, Count. What is happening here is not government that has been bought out by business… it’s business becoming government! I will not forsake all I have honored and worked for and betray the Republic.

COUNT DOOKU: Then you will betray your Jedi friends? Without your cooperation I can do nothing to stop their execution.

PADMÉ: And what about me? Am I to be executed also?

DOOKU: I wouldn’t think of such an offense. But, there are individuals who have a strong interest in your demise, M’Lady. It has nothing to do with politics, I’m afraid. It’s purely personal, and they have already paid great sums to have you assassinated. I’m sure they will push hard to have you included in the executions. I’m sorry but if you are not going to cooperate, I must turn you over to the Geonosians for justice. Without your cooperation, I’ve done all I can for you.

JANGO FETT: Take them away.

Yes, I would have included this scene. I like how it draws the political lines a bit more sharply and shows more of the roots of the conflict that is about to engulf the Galaxy. I especially like that Dooku calls Palpatine “incomptent” – does Dooku know that his master, Darth Sidious, actually is Palpatine? That’s an interesting question.

I’ll stop there for now. I’m not sure, but I may well finish up Attack of the Clones next time out – seriously, I have very few quibbles with the movie after the Naboo sequence, and what I’m doing here is more fleshing out bits of the film that I really like a lot. We’ll see what happens then. Tune in!

* On the new 90-minute review of AOTC, I watched about five minutes of it and stopped there, once I realized again that this fellow was saying things I’ve heard before and disagreed with before, many times in this space. I’ve got better things to do with my time than listen anew to the same old criticisms. As soon as he brought up the “Lucas made Return of the Jedi so he could sell Ewok toys” notion, I knew what was to come and shut the thing off.

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