Tag: Star Wars

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

Lengthy entry this time, folks!

Jumping back into our exhaustive look at Attack of the Clones, when last we left our Star Warriors in action, Anakin Skywalker was going off to try and rescue his mother from the sandpeople and Obi Wan Kenobi was following leads on Geonosis, having just followed Jango Fett and his little boy Boba there.

As we left off with Anakin, we start with Obi Wan. I noted that the cut from Tatooine to Geonosis is kind of awkwardly done, and it is: it’s not clear until we look at the scene we’re watching that we’ve switched planets at all. But anyway, Obi Wan wanders into a cave which turns out to lead to a corridor through which he finds an immense automated factory, building armies of battle droids.

In the script, there’s a deleted bit that has Obi Wan picking his way along a cliff when he is attacked by a couple of local creatures (dog-sized lizards); after dispatching these with his lightsaber, he finds himself overlooking the wide plain on which a hundred Federation starships are landed. As he watches through his macrobinoculars, thousands of battle droids are boarding the ships. Would I include this? I’m tempted, but it might not really add much to the proceedings. The subsequent material establishes what’s going on in the droid foundries of Geonosis: the construction of armies for a war that hasn’t begun yet. Maybe I’d include it, maybe not. It sounds cool, at least.

Next, after seeing the droids being built, Obi Wan happens upon Count Dooku himself, walking with some of his co-conspirators. In the finished film, this is the first time we see Dooku, but remember, in my re-imagining, we’ve already seen him a couple of times via news reports that showed him inciting star systems to secession from the Republic. I like all of this scene as filmed, except for one little thing: an odd moment when the representative of the “Techno Union” has to stop mid-sentence and adjust his own volume knob. I didn’t understand what George Lucas was doing there.

As seems to be the case in nearly every scene in this movie, there’s interesting stuff in the original script that wasn’t in the movie as released. Here’s the conversation that Obi Wan overhears, with the stuff not in the movie in red:

INTERIOR: GEONOSIS, CENTRAL SQUARE – MORNING

OBI-WAN arrives at a vast expanse in the stalagmite interior. Immense pillars, soaring Gaudi-Gothic arches, vaulted roofs. The huge space is deserted – completely silent.

OBI-WAN starts to cross the square. Suddenly he hears voices.

He darts behind a pillar as POGGLE THE LESSER (Archduke of Geonosis), his aide, SUN FAC, COUNT DOOKU and NUTE GUNRAY approach, closely followed by PASSEL ARGENTE and WAT
TAMBOR. COUNT DOOKU is tall, elderly, and saturnine, with beautiful manners. OBI-WAN flattens himself against the pillar as they pass by.

COUNT DOOKU: Now, we must persuade the Commerce Guild and the Corporate Alliance to sign the treaty.

NUTE GUNRAY: What about the Senator from Naboo? Is she dead yet? I’m not signing your treaty until I have her head on my desk.

COUNT DOOKU: I am a man of my word, Viceroy.

POGGLE: With these new Battle Droids we’ve built for you, Viceroy, you’ll have the finest army in the galaxy.

They move out of earshot. OBI-WAN peers around the pillar to see them going through an archway on the far side of the courtyard. There is a flight of stairs beside it.

OBI-WAN arrives at the stairs. He sneaks up them, to arrive at a narrow gothic archway. He looks down through it.

INTERIOR: GEONOSIS, CONFERENCE ROOM – DAY

POGGLE THE LESSER and his TWO AIDES are at one end of a large round conference table.

COUNT DOOKU: Now is the time, my friends. This is the moment when you have to decide between the Republic or the Confederacy of Independent Systems.

COUNT DOOKU is at the head of the table. JANGO FETT stands behind his chair.

In addition to the original group, there are also THREE OPPOSITION SENATORS: PO NUDO, TESSEK and TOONBUCK TOORA, and a COMMERCE GUILD DIGNITARY; SHU MAI and a MEMBER of the INTERGALACTIC BANK CLAN, SAN HILL.

COUNT DOOKU: As I explained to you earlier, I’m quite convinced that ten thousand more systems will rally to our cause with your support, gentlemen. And let me remind you
of our absolute commitment to capitalism… of the lower taxes, the reduced tariffs, and the eventual abolition of all trade barriers. Signing this treaty will bring you profits beyond your wildest imagination. What we are proposing is completely free trade. (looks at Nute) Our
friends in the Trade Federation have pledged their support. When their Battle Droids are combined with yours, we shall have an army greater than anything in the galaxy, The Jedi will be overwhelmed. The Republic will agree to any demands me make.

PASSEL ARGENTE, the Corporate Alliance Representative.

PASSEL ARGENTE: I am authorized by the Corporate Alliance to sign the treaty.

COUNT DOOKU: We are most grateful for your cooperation, Chairman.

SHU MAI, the Commerce Guild Representative.

SHU MAI: The Commerce Guilds do not at this time wish to become openly involved, But we shall support you in secret – and look forward to doing business with you.

There are chuckles around the table. COUNT DOOKU smiles.

COUNT DOOKU: That is all we ask.

SAN HILL, the banker.

SAN HILL: The Intergalactic Banking Clan will support you wholeheartedly, but only in a non-exclusive arrangement.

WAT TAMBOR, the Techno Union representative.

WAT TAMBOR: The Techno Unions are at your disposal, Count.

That stuff about capitalism is pretty interesting. This could be read as George Lucas associating capitalism with evil, or a more nuanced view might suggest that it’s not unusual for capitalists to be used as tools for warmongers. “Come with us and you’ll make tons of money!” is a refrain you’ll see throughout virtually all of history.

Interestingly, the promise of free trade actually has some precedent in Star Wars, in a pretty cool way. Obviously we know that Sith promises aren’t to be trusted. Maybe they’ll have “completely free trade”, maybe they won’t – but way back in A New Hope, there were some scenes famously deleted from the final cut of the film involving Luke Skywalker’s daily life on Tatooine. His buddy Biggs has come back to visit, and tells him that he’s actually going to be joining the Rebellion. One of the reasons he cites is that the Empire “is already starting to nationalize commerce in the central systems”. Maybe the promise of free trade was made, and only broken twenty years later once the Emperor felt that his power was consolidated enough? The Original Trilogy abounds in little details that suggest that the Empire isn’t the all-encompassing, all-powerful entity that some seem to assume it is.

Anyway, in this scene Obi Wan realizes that Count Dooku is not some idealistic politician leading a separatist movement; he’s a schemer who is planning a war. He hasn’t connected all the dots yet, though, and discovered that Dooku is now a Sith.

At this point we cut back to Anakin, who has found the Tusken Raider encampment. He looks over the camp from a high rise in a shot that is a direct homage to The Searchers, the obvious inspiration for this entire storyline. Anakin drops off the cliff, down to the village, in a shot that openly suggests that Anakin’s fall from grace is now in progress. Anakin makes his way through the sleepy Tusken Raider encampment until he finds the tent his mother is in. This is all done…well, I hate to say it because for the most part this part of the movie is really well-done, but this little but is done with almost no attention to detail. We don’t see Anakin actually looking for his mother in various tents; we don’t see him reaching out with The Force to see if he can sense her presence. No, Anakin just walks up to a particular tent and then uses his lightsaber to cut his way in. (Bringing up another question: why didn’t he just go in the front? Is it a tent with multiple chambers, one of which is full of Sandpeople? I’m reminded of the scene in Superman II when the supervillains make their way into the Daily Planet building by smashing their way in and leaving destruction in their wake, when lex Luthor follows them by walking through doors and commenting, “All those powers and they can’t use a doorknob.”) And it always seems weird that most times, lightsabers make that wonderful loud hum when they’re in use – except in this scene, when the blade is almost totally silent so as to avoid waking up the Sandpeople.

I don’t want to make a huge deal of all this, but again it shows what I think tends to work against George Lucas: his unflagging desire to get on with it, keep things moving, et cetera. Motion doesn’t always equal mood, but to Lucas, often it does.

But anyway, Anakin finds his mother. She’s in rough shape, tied to a beam and looking very out of it. Anakin unties her and cradles her, but it’s pretty clear on his face that he already sees that he’s too late. Hayden Christensen did a really good job with this scene, as did Pernilla August as Shmi. The little touch that stands out is when Anakin starts to say something like “Everything’s going to be all right”, but he can only stammer out the first couple of words before he stops and makes a face that shows that he knows it’s not. Shmi tries to tell him that she loves him, but she dies before she can get the words out. Anakin closes his mother’s dead eyes, and then…Anakin starts to get angry. Really angry. A slow closeup on Anakin shows his eyes burning as the music starts to get frantic. The next thing we see is Anakin in the middle of the camp, igniting his lightsaber and killing two Tuskens before they know what hits them. Another charges him and Anakin steps up and swings his lightsaber as we do a cinematic wipe to Yoda in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, where he’s meditating. We hear a voice we haven’t heard in a long time, that of Qui Gon Jinn, shouting “Anakin! Anakin! Noooo!”

I’m of two minds on this sequence. I like the way Lucas edits it and gets us out of there as we know that Anakin is going berserk and cuts to Yoda as he sense that something awful is happening, but I’m not sure if we shouldn’t have maybe seen a little more of Anakin’s actions. Not a lot, mind you – we don’t need to see a whole lot of carnage, but something to make very clear that Anakin is now channeling the Dark Side of the Force. Maybe a mass Force-choke of a bunch of Tuskens at once, or something like that.

(By the way, ever since Revenge of the Sith came out, I’ve seen lots of commentary expressing anger or dismay at George Lucas in allowing something like Anakin’s killing of the Jedi younglings to make the screen. Well, the implication is pretty strongly there from the mere existence of the younglings, and yet, some folks are shocked about it – I remember one person writing about how stunned they were that Anakin would stoop that low, and it made it “impossible to root for Anakin”. And I’m thinking, “Wow, you couldn’t possibly have missed the point more widely than that.” For one thing, we’re not watching some nice kid become a juvenile delinquent; we’re not watching the nice young boy from the next block join the Crips. We’re watching the genesis of one of the evilest individuals in Galactic history. That’s got to mean something; that’s got to imply that we’re going to see Anakin do some very dark things. And anyway, when I’ve seen comments like this, I always want to ask: “Did you even see Attack of the Clones?” I mean, it’s not like the slaying of the younglings isn’t foreshadowed about as strongly as George Lucas foreshadows anything.)

I also really wish that Lucas had retained the services of Liam Neeson for some “disembodied Jedi” acting in AotC and RotS. I’ve always wondered if Neeson was asked and refused? Anybody know?

After Yoda tells Mace Windu that he’s felt Young Skywalker’s “terrible pain”, we cut back to Geonosis, where Obi Wan is trying to make his report. He’s too far from Coruscant to contact the Jedi directly, so he tries contacting Anakin on Naboo…but Anakin isn’t there. Scanning about, Obi Wan discovers that, contrary to his orders, Anakin is on Tatooine, so he contacts him there. (Meanwhile, Obi Wan is being observed by a Geonosan. His cover is about to be blown.)

Back to Tatooine we go, where R2-D2 receives Obi Wan’s message. The timing isn’t very good, though, because right now Anakin’s returning to the Lars homestead with his mother’s dead body in his arms. Sadness pervades the homestead. (John Williams’s scoring of this entire sequence really stands out, by the way.)

Later on, Anakin is tinkering around in the Lars garage. It’s a garage we’ve seen before (or will see again, much later on, in A New Hope — it’s where Luke first sees the hologram of Princess Leia). In the script, there’s a brief scene between Padme and Beru in the kitchen, but it’s not in the film, and it’s nothing special, so I wouldn’t bother much with it. Instead, in the garage, Padme comes to Anakin, and Anakin isn’t doing very well at all:

INTERIOR: TATOOINE, HOMESTEAD, GARAGE – DAY

PADMÉ comes in with a tray of food. ANAKIN is standing at a workbench, repairing a part of the speeder bike.

PADMÉ: I brought you something. Are you hungry?

PADMÉ puts the tray down.

ANAKIN: The shifter broke. Life seems so much simpler when you’re fixing things. I’m good at fixing things… always was. But I couldn’t… (stops working, tears in his eyes) Why did she have to die? Why couldn’t I save her? I know I could have!

PADMÉ: Sometimes there are things no one can fix. You’re not all-powerful, Annie.

ANAKIN turns and walks away from the bench.

ANAKIN: (angry) I should be! Someday I will be… I will be the most powerful Jedi ever! I promise you, I will even learn to stop people from dying.

PADMÉ: Anakin…

ANAKIN: (furious) It’s all Obi-Wan’s fault. He’s jealous! He knows I’m already more powerful than he is. He’s holding me back!

ANAKIN hurls the wrench across the garage. It CLATTERS to the floor. He looks at his trembling hands. PADMÉ stares at him, shocked.

PADMÉ: Annie, what’s wrong?

ANAKIN: I… I killed them. I killed them all. They’re dead, every single one of them…

ANAKIN focuses on her like someone returning from far away.

ANAKIN: Not just the men, but the women and the children too. They’re like animals, and I slaughtered them like animals… I hate them!

There is silence for a moment, then ANAKIN breaks down, sobbing. PADMÉ takes him into her arms.

ANAKIN: Why do I hate them? I didn’t… I couldn’t… I couldn’t control myself. I… I don’t want to hate them… But I just can’t forgive them.

PADMÉ: To be angry is to be human.

ANAKIN: To control your anger is to be a Jedi.

PADMÉ: Ssshhh… you’re human.

ANAKIN: No, I’m a Jedi. I know I’m better than this. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!

PADMÉ: You’re like everyone else…

PADMÉ rocks him, and ANAKIN weeps.

I’ve always liked this scene a lot. Anakin pours out a lot of anger and frustration, some of it real and some of it his own imaginary baggage that nevertheless seems real to him because he’s really only a kid still, after all. He feels a desperate need to blame someone for what’s happened – himself, Obi Wan, the Sandpeople. And when he tells Padme that he killed them all, that he executed the entire encampment, he is shamed at first, and then he finds his anger again, and then almost as quickly he goes back to shame. Anakin is quick to anger and rage, quick to hatred, but he is resisting them. Not only are the seeds of his fall to the Dark Side now starting to blossom, but so are the seeds of his eventual redemption. That fascinates me.

I also note, again, that in my opinion, Hayden Christensen did a fine job in this scene. When he starts to tell Padme what he did to the Sandpeople, the look on his face isn’t even one of shame: it’s disbelief. Part of him can’t believe he just did those things last night. His disbelief becomes the shame, and then the shame the hatred. Christensen runs a fascinating emotional gambit in this scene that a lot of people like to denigrate because “Oh he’s just being a whiny teenager”, but I found it scarily convincing. And again, the music greatly helps the cause by quoting not just the Darth Vader theme, but also the Emperor’s theme (or the “Dark Side” Theme), showing how intertwined everything is becoming.

The next scene after this is another good one: Shmi’s funeral. Anakin’s farewell to his mother is very touching, particularly his vow that he “won’t fail again”. After they say their farewells to Shmi, C3PO comes bustling up to tell them that R2 has received a transmission from “an Obi Wan Kenobi”. They retransmit the signal to Coruscant, so the Jedi and the Chancellor are watching the transmission while Anakin and Padme do as well. Obi Wan has discovered the battle army being built on Geonosis and that the Trade Federation is behind the assassination attempts on Padme, but before he can say more, the hologram shows him reacting to being attacked by a destroyer droid. Mace Windu orders Anakin to stay where he is and protect the Senator, but Padme says, “Your orders are to protect me and I’m going to help Obi Wan.” So off they go.

This whole sequence works very well, except there’s one thing that’s always bugged me: Padme and Anakin jet off without so much as a word to the Lars family, taking C3PO with them! There should have been something like this:

EXTERIOR: Tatooine – Lars homestead – Day.

ANAKIN and PADME are ready to board their ship; the Lars family gathers before them.

CLIEGG: Thank you for coming, son. And for bringing Shmi home.

ANAKIN: Thank you for loving her.

The shake hands.

CLIEGG: You know, she never stopped talking about you and she never once stopped believing she’d see you again. She was proud of you. Never doubt that.

ANAKIN: I won’t.

Anakin turns to go, but Cliegg speaks again.

CLIEGG: One last thing…she said you built that protocol droid. Well, he does pretty well here, but really, we’re just moisture farmers. We don’t really need a protocol droid. You should take him. He’s yours, anyway.

ANAKIN: Thank you.

He turns to board the ship, after taking one last look around. Then he disappears onto the ship, which lifts off.

INTERIOR: Naboo ship – cockpit.

ANAKIN looks out the window as the planet surface drops away below them.

PADME: Are you all right?

ANAKIN: Fine. I just don’t think I ever want to see this planet again.

Behind them, C3PO looks around nervously.

C3PO: This is space travel? I knew I wouldn’t like it.

R2-D2 beeps in sympathy.

And that’s where we’ll stop for now. When we return, the Chancellor and the Senate have some choices to make, Obi Wan Kenobi meets Dooku for the first time, and a rescue attempt goes awry. Tune in!

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

OK, Star Warriors, we’re back into Attack of the Clones. After the Naboo sequences, which needed quite a bit of fixing, we’re into the sections of the film that I consider the strongest; thus, we should be able to quicken the pace somewhat.

When last we left our adventurers in space, Anakin had (in my version) just thwarted another attack on Padme and made the Executive Jedi Decision to take her away from Naboo, since the assassins know she’s there. Remember, though: he hasn’t mentioned to her, yet, his fears about his mother. Plus, back on Kamino, Obi Wan has been ordered by Yoda to bring Jango Fett in for questioning.

That’s where we start: with Obi Wan on his way to arrest Jango Fett. In the film, we cut right to Obi Wan charging onto the landing platform as the Fetts are about to leave, but in the script, there’s a bit where Obi Wan goes back to the Fett’s apartment and finds the place empty and looking like the Fetts have left in a hurry. I would have left that in, but I don’t think the film suffers without it. And for all that, the fight scene between Obi Wan and Jango Fett is one of my favorite parts of the film; it’s exciting and well-staged, and I like how evenly-matched Obi Wan and Jango are, even though Jango’s is more a function of his having the niftiest utility belt since Batman and having his kid at the firing controls of his spaceship on the same platform. I can’t think of a single thing I’d change in this sequence.

What’s so nice about this is the fact that it illustrates anew that Jedi aren’t superhuman warriors who can’t be defeated. It further illustrates a fact that will later come back to haunt the Jedi badly: that while they can slice their way through armies of battle droids (unless they are undone by sheer numbers), fighting against humans is far less of a given.

After Slave I flies off, with Obi Wan’s homing beacon secure about its hull, we cut to Tatooine, where a chrome-hulled Naboo ship is landing. Anakin and Padme venture out to find Watto, in order to seek out Shmi Skywalker. When they find Watto, he’s not in his shop but just sitting in a little stall on the street of Mos Espa. He looks like hard times have befallen him. I actually like this little scene, and after a bit of consideration, I really wouldn’t change it, except for a couple of tiny things:

ANAKIN and PADMÉ get down. Sitting on a stool in front of the shop is WATTO. He is using a small electronic screwdriver on a fiddly DROID. THREE PIT DROIDS are chattering away and are trying to help him, but they seem only to make him madder.

WATTO: (yelling, in Huttese) No, not that one – that one!

ANAKIN: (in Huttese) Excuse me, Watto.

WATTO: (in Huttese) What?

ANAKIN: (in Huttese) I said excuse me.

WATTO turns to the chattering PIT DROIDS.

WATTO: (in Huttese) Shut down.

The PIT DROIDS snap into their storage position.

ANAKIN: Let me help you with that.

ANAKIN takes the fiddly piece of equipment and starts to play with it. WATTO blinks in surprise.

WATTO: (continuing, in Huttese) What? I don’t know you…What can I do for you? You look like a Jedi. Whatever it is… I didn’t do it.

WATTO drops the screwdriver and curses loudly in Huttese.

ANAKIN: I’m looking for Shmi Skywalker.

WATTO looks at him suspiciously. He stares at PADMÉ, then back to ANAKIN.

WATTO: Annie?? Little Annie?? Naaah!!

Suddenly, the fiddly piece of equipment in Anakin’s hands WHIRS into life. WATTO blinks at it.

See, in the movie, this doesn’t happen! The thing that Anakin fixes just sits there, doing nothing. It’s a very weird detail for George Lucas and company to have completely missed. Something needs to happen there! (I’m indebted to D. Trull for pointing this out.)

WATTO: You are Annie! It is you! Ya sure sprouted! Weehoo! A Jedi! Waddya know? Hey, maybe you couldda help wit some deadbeats who owe me a lot of money…

ANAKIN: My mother…

WATTO: Oh, yeah. Shmi… she’s not mine no more. I sold her.

ANAKIN: Sold her?

WATTO: Years ago. Sorry, Annie, but you know, business is business. Sold her to a moisture farmer named Lars. Least I think it was Lars. Believe it or not, I heard he freed her and married her. Can ya beat that? Always wondered where he got the money for her….

That last bit is something I threw in there, in order to highlight something that will come in to play later on.

ANAKIN: Do you know where they are?

WATTO: Long way from here… someplace over on the other side of Mos Eisley, I think…

ANAKIN: I’d like to know.

Anakin holds out a small bag of coins, which Watto takes and examines.

WATTO: Republic credits? Annie, you know these aren’t no good out here–

He stops when he sees that ANAKIN’S grim look means business, and gets the hint quickly.

WATTO: Yeah… sure… absolutely. Republic credits will be fine. Let’s go look in my records. Too bad you can’t stay, eh? I just got in a YT-1300 freighter that needs some engine work….

PADME follows as ANAKIN and WATTO go into the shop.

I have to confess that Watto has always been one of my favorite supporting characters in the Prequel Trilogy. He’s not mean or sadistic, but he’s greedy enough to make him willing to make himself a pain in the ass on occasion, even if his greed never leads him to anything more than being a dealer in junk. (Of course, those of us out there who are self-programmed to find offensive things wherever we go might see Watto’s big nose and his obvious monetary greed and assume therefore that George Lucas is making a statement about Jews. I’m not willing to see things that way and am uninterested in discussing that line of thought.)

Immediately after this, we cut to the planet Geonosis, where Slave I comes out of hyperspace and heads down toward the planet. (Geonosis is, by the way, beautiful from space: a red, ringed world.) Behind him, Obi Wan arrives in his own ship. Jango’s scanners pick up Obi Wan’s ship, and Jango decides to try to lose Obi Wan in the asteroid field (the rings). What ensues is a fairly brief action sequence that obviously has some echoes of the asteroid field chase in The Empire Strikes Back, but this one is briefer and more of a high-speed cat-and-mouse game. Also interestingly, the first two-thirds of the scene is unscored; no music at all. I wondered at this when I first saw it, until I heard the sound produced by the “seismic charges”, which are for my money one of the coolest weapons ever unleashed in Star Wars.

Moments like this are why my general response to people who utter the constant refrain of SF whiners the world over, “There’s no sound in space!”, is basically “Oh, suck it.”

(By the way, I love the way Boba Fett laughs evilly and plays “backseat driver” as his Dad tries to fight off a Jedi knight.)

Anyway, I love this action sequence, which ends quickly with Obi Wan making Jango believe he’s been blown to bits and then hiding on an asteroid as Jango goes down to the planet surface. Obi Wan follows, and I like what follows here, as Obi Wan discovers during his flyover that Jango Fett has come to a planet where a lot of Trade Federation (the bad guys from The Phantom Menace) ships are landed. Then Obi Wan lands and proceeds to explore the happenings on Geonosis on foot.

We cut back to Tatooine, where Anakin and Padme arrive at the Lars homestead to learn that Shmi Skywalker has been abducted by Sandpeople. This all works very well for me; I love how the whole scene is shot near sunset, imbuing the scene with a sense that something is ending here on Tatooine. I also like the actor who plays Cliegg Lars, Shmi’s husband; he’s got this great grizzled and weary air about him. This whole sequence plays very well, with a sense of foreboding and impending doom. This whole subplot (an homage to the classic Western The Searchers) is very well done.

Anyway, Anakin decides that he’s going after the Sandpeople who kidnapped Shmi, which leads to this brief scene of farewell between Anakin and Padme:

EXTERIOR: TATOOINE, HOMESTEAD, MOISTURE FARM – LATE DAY

ANAKIN stands looking across the desert. PADMÉ comes running out of the homestead after him. ANAKIN turns to PADMÉ.

ANAKIN: You are going to have to stay here. These are good people, Padmé. You’ll be safe.

PADMÉ: Anakin…

PADMÉ hugs him. ANAKIN walks over to OWEN’S speeder bike, which is standing close by.

ANAKIN: I won’t be long.

ANAKIN swings onto the bike. The engine fires. He takes off across the desert. PADMÉ watches him go.

Again, in the context of the actual film, this is a very nice little scene. Visually it’s inventive: Lucas doesn’t show Anakin and Padme hugging, but rather he shows only their shadows, cast by the setting suns on the side of the white-domed Lars homestead farm building, as they embrace. I do need to make a change, though, owing to the fact that in my version of the film, Anakin has never actually told Padme that he’s been dreaming about his mother.

EXTERIOR: TATOOINE, HOMESTEAD, MOISTURE FARM – LATE DAY

ANAKIN stands looking across the desert. PADMÉ comes running out of the homestead after him. ANAKIN turns to PADMÉ.

ANAKIN: You are going to have to stay here. These are good people, Padmé. You’ll be safe.

PADME: You know something like this was happening, didn’t you?

ANAKIN: I…I feared it.

PADME: You saw it, didn’t you? You saw it through the Force. Those dreams you’ve been having…that’s why you brought me here.

ANAKIN: I brought you here to protect you.

PADME: But also to protect her.

She steps closer to him and takes his hand.

PADME: You know you can trust me, Anakin. You could have told me why you wanted to come here, of all the worlds you could have taken me to. I’d have come.

ANAKIN struggles for words, but finds he has none.

ANAKIN: I have to go. While it’s still light.

PADMÉ nods and hugs him. ANAKIN walks over to OWEN’S speeder bike, which is standing close by.

ANAKIN: I won’t be long.

ANAKIN swings onto the bike. The engine fires. He takes off across the desert. PADMÉ watches him go.

PADME: May the Force be with you.

I’ve always thought that a big part of Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side stems from his desire to do the right thing coupled with his confusion about what the right thing actually is. He’s in love with Padme, but he’s not entirely trusting with her, either; he doesn’t always let her in, until things have turned disastrous in the end. It would be entirely in keeping with his character to not tell her his underlying motivation for bringing her to Tatooine.

So Anakin speeds off on the speeder bike, whipping across the sands of Tatooine in search of the sandpeople who took his mother. This is very brief in the movie: a couple of shots of Anakin on the speeder bike, then Anakin conferring with some Jawas, and then we cut back to Obi Wan. In the script, however, there’s a little more: Anakin comes across a campsite where three moisture farmers have been slaughtered by Sandpeople. Not surprisingly, I’d have left this in.

Also in the script is a brief scene where a worried Padme talks to C-3PO about her growing confusion over her feelings for Anakin. I wouldn’t restore this, actually – it’s a pretty clunkily-written scene, after all – but I would show Padme at night, gazing in the direction Anakin has gone, maybe again holding that little pendant he’d carved for her in TPM. For purposes of information, though, here’s the scene as written:

INTERIOR: TATOOINE, HOMESTEAD – GARAGE (FULL MOON) – NIGHT

PADMÉ enters the garage where C-3PO sits working.

C-3PO: Hello, Miss Padmé.

PADMÉ: Hello, Threepio.

C-3PO: You can’t sleep?

PADMÉ: No, I have too many things on my mind, I guess.

C-3PO: Are you worried about your work in the Senate?

PADMÉ: No, I’m just concerned about Anakin. I saidthings… I’m afraid I may have hurt him. I don’t know. Maybe I only hurt myself. For the first time in my life, I’m confused.

C-3PO: I’m not sure it will make you feel any better Miss Padmé, but I don’t think there’s been a time in my life when I haven’t been confused.

PADMÉ: I want him to know I care about him. I do care about him.

C-3PO: Don’t worry about Master Annie. He can take care of himself. Even in this awful place.

Yeah, not the best thing in the world. As noted, I wouldn’t have included this entire thing — a nicely shot scene with no dialogue at all would have served fine — but its existence in the original script indicates that originally, Padme’s feelings for Anakin didn’t progress as quickly as they seem to in the finished film. Again I find myself wishing that George Lucas had realized that story should determine a film’s running time, and not the other way around.

One last quibble: in the film, we cut from Anakin conferring with the Jawas back to Obi Wan on Geonosis. The problem here is that the Tatooine landscape and the Geonosis landscapes are pretty similar, so it takes a few seconds before we realize we’re looking at Obi Wan and not Anakin (he’s shown from a distance). I think that cutting back there after showing a worried Padme would help the transition a bit, making it less confusing.

And that’s where we’ll leave things for this time. Next time, the Sandpeople discover that if you kidnap a human woman, you’d best make sure her son isn’t a Jedi Knight with a hair-trigger temper. Ah, the wisdom of Star Wars!

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part eight
part seven
part six
part five
part four
part three
part two
part one

Wow! Two of these posts in the same month! Will wonders never cease!

So, having addressed what I feel to be the most damaging scene in the Prequel Trilogy in the preceding post, we’ll address what I consider to be the biggest missed opportunity in the Prequel Trilogy in this post. As much as I love Attack of the Clones — and really, I love it, it’s a terrific movie and I’ll have words with anyone who says otherwise – George Lucas just didn’t get the Naboo scenes right, and they drag down everything else that happens.

But first, after Padme and Anakin’s fireside chat, we cut back to Obi Wan on Kamino, where he checks in with the Jedi Council (actually, just Yoda and Mace Windu):

INTERIOR: TIPOCA CITY, CORRIDOR – DAY

OBI-WAN stands with TAUN WE just inside the open door.

LAMA SU: Tell your Council the first battalions are ready. And remind them that if they need more troops, we will need time to grow them.

OBI-WAN: I won’t forget. And thank you.

TAUN WE: Thank you.

EXTERIOR: TIPOCA CITY, KAMINO LANDING PLATFORM (RAINSTORM) – LATE DAY

OBI-WAN comes out from the tower into the driving rain. The door closes behind him. He pulls his robe around him and stands braced against the gale. OBI-WAN glances back toward the closed door, confirming that LAMA SU has left.

Below, a huge wave crashes against the stilts. Spray flies high and whips across the platform to where OBI-WAN is standing. He walks over to his Starfighter, looks to see if anyone is watching, then addresses ARFOUR.

OBI-WAN: Arfour.

EXTERIOR: TIPOCA CITY LANDING PLATFORM, JEDI FIGHTER (RAINSTORM) – LATE DAY

The R4-P17, OBI-WAN’S Astro-Droid, who is still sitting on top of OBI-WAN’S Starfighter, switches on and BEEPS.

OBI-WAN: Arfour, relay this, “scramble code five,” to Courscant: care of “the old folks home.”

ARFOUR BEEPS and WHISTLES. The panels light up inside the cockpit. A transmitter disc emerges from the top of the Starfighter and the message is transmitted.

INTERIOR: JEDI TEMPLE, YODA’S QUARTERS – LATE AFTERNOON

YODA sits with MACE WINDU. between the two Jedi, a hologram of OBI-WAN speaks.

OBI-WAN: (V.O.) I have successfully made contact with the Prime Minister of Kamino. They are using a bounty hunter named Jango Fett to create a clone army. I have a strong feeling that this bounty hunter is the assassin we’re looking for.

MACE WINDU: Do you think these cloners are involved in the plot to assassinate Senator Amidala?

OBI-WAN: (V.O.) No, Master. There appears to be no motive.

YODA: Do not assume anything, Obi-Wan. Clear, your mind must be if you are to discover the real villains behind the plot.

OBI-WAN: (V.O.) Yes, Master. They say a Master Sifo-Dyas placed the order for a clone army at the request of the Senate almost ten years ago. I was under the impression he was killed before that. Did the Council ever authorize the creation of a clone army?

MACE WINDU: No. Whoever placed that order did not have the authorization of the Jedi Council.

YODA: Into custody, take this Jango Fett. Bring him here. Question him, we will.

OBI-WAN: (V.O.) Yes, Master. I will report back when I have him.

The hologram of OBI-WAN fades.

YODA: Blind we are, if creation of this clone army we could not see.

MACE WINDU: I think it is time to inform the Senate that our ability to use the Force has diminished.

YODA: Only the Dark Lords of the Sith know of our weakness. If informed the Senate is, multiply our adversaries will.

I wouldn’t change any of this. The Kamino sequences are extremely well done; as has been so often the case in this series, I keep finding things that are well done in this trilogy of movies that most people have derided as wall-to-wall suck. Oh well.

I like that the mystery apparently shows no sign of being solved at this point; in investigating an assassination attempt on Padme, Obi Wan has happened on something much larger. I like how Yoda and Mace Windu are now suspecting that something very grim is going on, and that it’s something they’ve failed to sense. The implication that the Jedi have been so successful for “over a thousand generations” by virtue of their ability to sense what the servants of the Dark Side were up to is a big one, as is their suspicion that those days are at an end. This scene lays it out clearly: the Jedi are on the wane, and they are nowhere near their top form anymore. One snarky complaint about the Prequel Trilogy I often hear goes like this: “Jeez, the Jedi sure get their butts kicked! How can these be the cream of the Jedi crop?” Obviously, they aren’t. It amazes me how often George Lucas’s critics manage to completely miss the point.

By the way, I love that Obi Wan’s coded reference to the Jedi Council is “the old folks’ home”. The Prequel Trilogy is full of little details like that which are awesome; it’s almost as if George Lucas thrives on the small details and thus sometimes loses sight of the entire thing.

Anyhow, just after this, we cut back to Naboo. Anakin is trying to sleep, and having some difficulty: we see him writhing about in bed, moaning a lot, before he suddenly wakes up. Clearly he’s having a nightmare, although the way the scene is filmed, well…let’s just say that it’s shot in such a way as to allow the more juvenile members of the audience to jeer the screen as though Anakin is doing something else in bed. By himself.

Yeah.

Anyway, here’s where Lucas made the mistake of showing Anakin having a nightmare about his mother without actually showing the nightmare. After Anakin awakens, we fade to a gorgeous Naboo sunrise (really, the shot of the sun-dappled waters of the lake is one of the most beautiful shots in the entire Star Wars saga), and Anakin standing on a veranda, watching it:

EXTERIOR: NABOO LAKE RETREAT, LODGE, BALCONY OVERLOOKING
GARDENS – MORNING

ANAKIN is on the balcony overlooking the gardens. After a moment, PAMDÉ comes onto the balcony behind him. She sees he is meditating and turns to go.

ANAKIN: (eyes closed) Don’t go.

PAMDÉ: I don’t want to disturb you.

ANAKIN: Your presence is soothing.

Brief pause.

PADMÉ: You had a nightmare again last night.

ANAKIN: Jedi don’t have nightmares.

PADMÉ: I heard you.

ANAKIN opens his eyes and looks at her.

ANAKIN: I saw my mother. I saw her as clearly as I see you now. She is suffering, Padmé. They’re killing her! She is in pain… I know I’m disobeying my mandate to protect you, Senator. I know I will be punished and possibly thrown out of the Jedi Order, but I have to go. I have to help her! I’m sorry, Padmé. I don’t have a choice.

PADMÉ: I’ll go with you. That way you can continue to protect me, and you won’t be disobeying your mandate.

ANAKIN: What about Master Obi-wan?

PADMÉ smiles and takes his hand.

PADMÉ: I guess we won’t tell him, will we?

This scene starts out really well, as shot: the gorgeous sunrise, the way Anakin is standing on the veranda, with his hands behind his back, suggestive (and therefore foreshadowing) of the shots in the Original Trilogy of Darth Vader standing on the bridge of his Star Destroyer, and the awkwardness between Anakin and Padme after the conversation the night before. I also like what Lucas is trying to do here: he’s setting up another of the many parallels between Anakin’s experiences and the later experiences of his son, Luke. Remember in The Empire Strikes Back, how Luke is tormented by visions of his friends suffering, so he abandons his Jedi duties to go after them, with disastrous consequences? Anakin is doing the same thing here, and the consequences will be even more far-reaching.

And yet, I’d replace the scene entirely. Bummer. Why? Because, while I think the scene is nice and gets some things done nicely, those things can be done better in another way, and some other things that need to get done can get done.

In previous installments, I’ve argued that Padme’s feelings for Anakin come to the fore a little too quickly in the film, and that they need something to help them along. In the great movie traditions, what drives film romance is often shared adversity. So I’d use this part of the film to give Anakin and Padme some adversity to share, in the form of something I’ve thought the film needed ever since I first saw it: a third assassination attempt on Padme. So here’s how I would rewrite this entire sequence:

INTERIOR: Naboo – Lake retreat – bedroom – night.

ANAKIN is sleeping restlessly. He is tossing about and moaning.

ANAKIN: Mom…no…Mom, look out!

ZOOM IN on ANAKIN as we FADE TO a series of confusing shots: SHMI SKYWALKER standing in the Tatooine desert, holding out her arms to ANAKIN; ANAKIN trying to reach her but not being close enough; SHMI being set upon by shadowy attackers and carried off; SHMI and ANAKIN screaming.

ANAKIN snaps awake. He is sweating heavily.

ANAKIN: No!

His shout is loud enough to awaken ARTOO, who whistles with concern as ANAKIN rubs his eyes and swings his legs out of bed. He gets up, pulls on a robe, and exits the room. ARTOO follows.

EXTERIOR: Naboo – Lake retreat – balcony – night.

ANAKIN emerges from the house onto the balcony and gazes at the moonlight upon the lake. Then he glances down and sees the boats tied at the pier.

INTERIOR: Naboo – Lake retreat – Padme’s bedroom.

PADME is awake as well. She is sitting in an armchair, sipping a cup of tea and looking at some holographic photos of her life, from the time of the occupation ten years earlier. She glances at the table beside her, and we see what she is looking at: the little wooden pendant that ANAKIN had carved for her ten years before. She sighs, and then gets up and exits.

EXTERIOR: Naboo – Lake retreat – beach – night.

PADME is walking along the beach, a short distance away from the villa. She comes to a particular spot, where she removes her robe, revealing a beautiful but discrete bathing suit underneath. She wades out into the water and then starts swimming toward the small island she’d indicated earlier.

EXTERIOR: Naboo – Lake retreat – island – night.

PADME swims onto the shore of the island and walks up onto the grass, and then onto the knoll where the small island’s highest point is. She gasps: ANAKIN is sitting there, gazing out at the water. She starts to say something, and then doesn’t; she turns to go back when ANAKIN speaks.

ANAKIN: Don’t go.

PADME: I didn’t realize you were here.

ANAKIN: I wanted to see this island. You talked about it the other day.

PADME: You said you don’t like to swim.

ANAKIN points to where he beached the boat.

PADME: Oh.

She comes to his side and sits down in the grass.

PADME: I don’t remember it being this cold up here when I was young.

ANAKIN: Most planets feel cold to me. It took a long time after I left home to get used to that. Sometimes I miss Tatooine. I guess that seems weird to you…you saw my planet….

PADME: It’s normal to miss home, no matter where that is.

ANAKIN: I guess.

A silence. Away to the north, the surface of the lake is dotted with golden lights.

PADME: Anakin, I shouldn’t have been so harsh with you before.

ANAKIN: You were right. It’s time I stopped dreaming about you.

Something in his voice makes PADME look a bit sad. There is another silence. PADME points to the northern end of the lake.

PADME: Those lights, out there? Those are Gungan fishers. As it gets close to dawn, they come up from their cities, near the surface, to catch the lampfish that gather at the top of the lake. Now they’re moving back north and deeper into the water. They’ll get dimmer and dimmer until they’re all gone. Tomorrow they’ll do it again.

They watch the lights for a few moments.

ANAKIN: It’s beautiful. But…

PADME: But what?

ANAKIN: Why are three of those lights coming this way?

He points. Three of the golden lights are, indeed, moving toward them.

ANAKIN: Come on. Those aren’t Gungans.

They get up and run down to the boat. PADME jumps in while ANAKIN shoves it into the water and climbs in and starts to fumble with the engine.

PADME: I’m sure it’s nothing.

ANAKIN: That’s not what the Force is telling me.

He gets the engine started and points the nose of the boat back at the villa. They can now hear three ENGINES whining behind them.

ANAKIN: Do the Gungans use craft with engines to go fishing?

PADME: No.

The boat moves slowly across the water. ANAKIN looks back and sees three WATER SPEEDERS bearing down on them.

ANAKIN: We’re not going to make it back to the villa. Hold on.

He yanks the rudder and aims the boat right at the beach. Seconds later they run aground and ANAKIN and PADME leap out.

ANAKIN: Run!

But it’s too late. The speeders run aground around them, and the three ASSASSINS on them leap out onto the shore, firing blasters at their feet to stop them. ANAKIN and PADME come to a stop. They are surrounded by human ASSASSINS who level blasters at them.

ASSASSIN #1: You were hard to find, My Lady.

ANAKIN: Who are you? Who hired you to–

ASSASSIN #1: Shut up, Jedi. Your Council should have known better than to send a Youngling to do a man’s job. You couldn’t even remember to put on your lightsaber.

ANAKIN glances down at his belt. His lightsaber isn’t there. A look of intense anger is coming over his face.

ASSASSIN #1: You Jedi are getting worse and worse. “Guardians of Peace and Justice!” You can’t even stop the Republic from falling apart.

There is a sudden WHISTLING sound. Everyone turns to see ARTOO rolling out of the grass onto the rocky beach.

ASSASSIN #1: An astrodroid?

ANAKIN: He’s no astrodroid. Now, Artoo!

ARTOO snaps open one of his compartments and extends a probe that emits a crackling burst of electricity that SHOCKS one of the ASSASSINS, who leaps back in pain. In that instant, ANAKIN thrusts out his hand and uses the Force to RIP the blaster out of the ASSASSIN’s hand. The weapon flies to him, and he quickly blasts the first two ASSASSINS. Then he whirls about to face ASSASSIN #1, who has already grabbed PADME from behind and is holding his own weapon to her head. He is holding her by hair hair, pulled back tightly.

ASSASSIN #1: Ahh ahh, Jedi. That will be enough. Thanks for doing that, by the way. Now I don’t have to kill them myself.

PADME: Killing me won’t stop opposition to the Separatist movement.

ASSASSIN #1: Senator, what makes you think I care about your politics? This is just a job. Now, Jedi, you just stand there while I take the Senator away. I promise that when I kill her, I’ll make it fast and painless. She won’t feel a…a….

A strange look comes over the ASSASSIN’s face. ANAKIN is staring at him, hard, his jaw clenched. We hear the low RUMBLE of the Force being used. The ASSASSIN opens his mouth and his eyes grow wide. Suddenly he can’t breathe. He involuntarily releases PADME, who falls to the ground, and reaches for his throat, which is being constricted by something invisible. ANAKIN’s eyes are blazing with rage. The ASSASSIN is choking to death. With his dying gasp he lifts his blaster and tries to aim it, but ANAKIN Force-grabs it from his hand as well. The ASSASSIN falls to his knees, still clawing at his throat. PADME watches as ANAKIN comes forward and, standing over him, makes full eye contact with the ASSASSIN as he finally falls over dead. ANAKIN suddenly HOWLS with rage and kicks the corpse.

PADME: Anakin! Anakin, it’s over.

She rushes to his side and puts her hand on his shoulders, trying to calm him in his rage. Finally he snaps out of it, a little. He stumbles away and rubs his forehead as if what’s happened has caused him physical pain.

PADME: Anakin?

ANAKIN: That…didn’t feel…I’ve never done that before…using the Force shouldn’t feel like that….

Finally he looks at Padme, and gets some control over himself again.

ANAKIN: Pack your things, Senator. We can’t stay here.

PADME: I’ll talk to the Queen. There is a place in the mountains —

ANAKIN: No. Ask the Queen for a ship. We’re leaving Naboo.

PADME: (growing stubborn) Anakin, you can’t command me.

ANAKIN: I was charged with your protection, My Lady. Whoever wants you killed just found you, and they’ll find you again. I listened to you before and they almost murdered you at the secret place “you know very well”. We can not stay here.

PADME: Then where will we go?

ANAKIN thinks for a moment. He suddenly has another flash of memory from his dream: he sees SHMI again, smiling before being taken away. He looks at PADME.

ANAKIN: We’ll go to Tatooine. Can you get us a ship?

PADME is a bit taken aback at his intensity. She nods.

ANAKIN: Good. You’ll be safer there, My Lady.

He turns and starts walking back toward the villa, with ARTOO rolling along behind him.

ANAKIN: Artoo, don’t ever let me go anywhere without my lightsaber again.

ARTOO whistles. PADME glances one more time at the dead assassins on her family’s ancestral beach, and hastens to follow.

Another attack would have helped matter so much, I can’t fathom why George Lucas didn’t think of it. I think it would save the whole Naboo sequence of AOTC from feeling like the “Romancey” part of the movie; it would add some more tension and nuance to a part of the film that’s pretty tension-free; and it would start to move Anakin in our minds toward a more adult view. He’s not just a child or a teenager. By giving Padme a new way to start seeing Anakin, it would give us a new way to see him.

And of course, shouldn’t we see the first time Anakin uses the Force to strangle someone? His first hint of using the Dark Side of the Force? Why not?

That’s a good place to stop for now. Next time, we’re done with Naboo and we’re almost done with Kamino as well, which means we’ll go to Tatooine and to Geonosis. Stay tuned!

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