Friday, May 20

all the way in

In the last 6 months, I've gone from casual star wars appreciator, and someone who would openly mock the insanely faithful, to being well on the road to the fanatical about it. It's been a pretty cool trip, I must say. And I definitely get how rewarding it can be to be on the inside of the phenomenon, even if I myself am not really there yet. Because it's impossible to tell how episode III would have played for me if I hadn't been keeping myself abreast of things the way I have the last couple of months.

Celebration let me in on the joy of the thing. The way people feel about the saga, the way they "own" it in their hearts. Like it or not, anything in this age of disjointed experience that lets the collective experience of that happen is a good thing. There's a warmth and generosity amongst fans who just want to love this thing no matter what, because after all it is star wars, and life would be a lot less cool without it.

Watching episodes one and two, and before that 4,5 and 6 let me see things a little more clearly, forgive some things I thought flawed, and reevaluate some of the flaws into strengths. The main thing I thought, and it's confirmed now with Sith, is that 1,2 and 3 function way way way better when viewed as one six hour movie than they do as separate 2 hour ones. Phantom Menace is slow, but act one of a lot of stuff is slow. Clones can seem disjointed and more than a little confusing (which side are the clone troopers on, exactly? Sifo Dyas? whuh?) but the second act of a complex political story should obfuscate and play with audience expectations. Sith proves to not just colour and enhance the original trilogy; it improves and grows the scope of the prequel trilogy, too. It really plays like a cohesive and brilliantly structured piece.

Seeing the entire run of Clone Wars, the animated micro series that fills in some of the gaps between 2 and 3 probably helped as well. As much as I think the movies should play completely on their own apart from all the spin-off storytelling that's out there, it's extremely helpful to know exactly what has been happening in the days leading up to the opening battle in Sith. I spent no time at all grounding myself in the story; I was right in there, completely engaged from the get go.

All three prequels lack what we have come to expect in our spoon fed dramatic environs; namely, the scene where either the good guy or the bad guy lay out the entire plot for the audience so that they can understand exactly what they hope will happen. For a movie trilogy about which the biggest complaint seems to be too much exposition, this is an omission which borders on the brilliant. Lots of characters explain things that are happening, but they aren't always telling the truth and so the audience does have to work to see what is happening around us.

I made a bold statement when the screening was over, and I'm repeating it here: Episode III is my favorite movie, not just of the prequels, but of the entire series. That's right, more than Empire, more than Star Wars, more than Jedi. More than anything, Sith feels like the most Star Wars that a star wars movie could be. The purest distillation of what Lucas seems to want the the whole story to be. The only time since they came out that I felt the way I did when I was 13 and watching Return of the Jedi for the first time. For any movie to cut through 20+ years of the aging process and make me feel that way again, it has to be the best one for me.

Movies are a complex alchemy when it comes to an individual's verdict. Did I, by steeping myself in the lore a little more than I normally would basically force myself to like episode 3? Maybe, but all that familiarity could have just as easily bred contempt if things hadn't gone the way I'd wanted them to. Who knows? I do know that I'm a lot happier loving the movie than I would be if I hated it. To paraphrase Norman Vincent Peale, it really sucks to hate stuff. Liking stuff is better, and I really liked Revenge of the Sith.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Alls I can say is, I can only hope that my own bloggy response to Sith is as exceptionally well-written as yours was. Bravo! For your favourite film in the saga, you've written your best blog post yet.
- Tederick

4:17 PM  

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