Review #01 – Star Wars Trilogy (1977)
Last Update : 21-01-14
A New Hope (1977)
Star Wars is not only a brilliant fantasy fairytale. It's a legend, finding its roots in some of our most popular and cherished fictions. The movie works so well for several reasons, and they don't all have to do with the spectacular special effects. The effects are good, yes, but greater effects have been used in other movies without setting all-time box-office records. No, I think the key to Star Wars is more basic than that. The movie relies on the strength of pure narrative, in the most basic storytelling form known to man : a journey. All of the best tales we remember from our childhoods had to do with heroes setting out to travel down roads filled with danger, and hoping to find treasure or heroism at the journey's end. In Star Wars, George Lucas takes this simple and powerful framework into outer space, and that is an inspired thing to do, because we no longer have maps on Earth to warn us. George Lucas goes right ahead and shows us very nearly everything without losing precious time in tedious introductions, which is quite remarkable. We get involved quickly, because the characters are so strongly and simply drawn and have many reasons and hopes to identify with.
In his portrayal of Luke Skywalker, Mark Hamill encapsulated everything that Star Wars was meant to be and is. He brought an adventurous energy, a good spirit, charm, and a sense of emotional growth to the role — traits that were essential to conveying the story’s themes and to making Luke an iconic hero.
As he sends his heroes off to cross the universe and do battle against the Forces of the evil Empire, George Lucas gives us lots of special effects, yes – ships passing into hyperspace, alien planets, an infinity of stars – but we also get a wealth of strange living creatures, and Lucas correctly guesses that they'll be more interesting for us than all the intergalactic hardware. The most fascinating single scene, for me, was the one set in the bizarre saloon on the planet Tatooine. As that incredible collection of extraterrestrial alcoholics and bug-eyed martini drinkers lined up at the bar, and as Lucas so slyly let them exhibit characteristics that were universally human, I found myself feeling a combination of admiration and delight. Star Wars had placed me in the presence of really magical movie invention. Here, all mixed together, were whimsy and fantasy, simple wonderment and quietly sophisticated storytelling...
But the magic of Star Wars is not only dramatized by the special effects. The movie's heart and charm is in its endearingly human (and non-human) people. By the way, that's the most hideous jacket I've ever seen, but there's Luke in it so who cares ;-)
The Empire Strikes Back (1983)
The Empire Strikes Back is the most thought-provoking Star Wars. After the space opera cheerfulness of the original film, this one plunges into darkness and even despair, and surrenders more completely to the underlying mystery of the story. It is because of the emotions stirred in this one take on a mythic quality that resonates back to the first and ahead to the third. This is the heart of the Trilogy.
Once again, it is a visual extravaganza from beginning to end, one of the most visionary and inventive of all films. Entirely apart from the story and the plot, the film is worth seeing simply for its sights. Not for the scenes of space battle, which are more or less standard, but for such sights as the lumbering, elephant-like Imperial Walkers, for the asteroid monster, or the Cloud City, on its spire high in the sky, for the face of a creature named Yoda, whose expressions are as convincing as a human's, and as subtle, or for the vertiginous heights that Luke Skywalker dangles over, after nearly plunging to his death...
There is a generosity in the production design of this episode. There are not only the amazing sights there before us, but plenty more in the corners of the screen, or everywhere the camera turns. The whole world of this story has been devised and constructed in such a way that we're not particularly aware of sets or effects – there's so much of this world that it all seems seamless. Consider, for example, an early scene where an Empire probe droid is fired upon on the ice planet Hoth. It explodes. We've seen that lots of time. But then hot pieces of it shower down on the snow in the foreground, in soft, wet plops. That's the kind of detail George Lucas and his team live for.
There is another moment. Yoda has just sent Luke Skywalker into a dark part of the forest to confront his destiny. Luke says a brave farewell. There is a cut to R2-D2 whirling and beeping. And then a cut back to Yoda, whose face reflects a series of emotions : concern, sadness, a hint of pride. You know intellectually that Yoda is a creature made by Frank Oz in a Muppet shop. But Oz and Lucas were not content to make Yoda realistic. They wanted to make him a good actor, too. And they did ! In his range of wisdom and emotion, Yoda may actually give one of the best performances in the movie...
The second movie's story continues the saga set up in the first film. The Death Star has been destroyed, but Vader, of course, escaped, and now commands the Empire forces in their ascendancy against the Rebels. Our heroes have a secret base on Hoth, but flee it after the Empire attack, and then the key characters split up for parallel stories. There are a couple of amusing subplots, one involving Han's easily wounded male ego, another out Vader's knack of issuing sudden and fatal demotions.
Then comes the defining moment of the series. Can there be a person alive who does not know that Luke discovers Darth Vader is his father ?
In the glory days of science fiction, critics wrote about the sense of Wonder it arouse. That's what Star Wars creates in us. Like a lot of traditional science fiction, it isn't psychologically complex or even interested in personalities. That's because the characters are not themselves – they are us. We are looking out through their eyes, as we would in more serious drama. We are on a quest, on a journey, on a mythological expedition. The story elements in the Star Wars trilogy are as deep and universal as storytelling itself.
Watching these movies, we're in a receptive state like that of a child – our eyes and ears are open, we're paying attention, and we are amazed...
The Return of the Jedi (1983)
The Return of the Jedi completes the epic cycle with the final destruction of the Empire and the inevitable faceoff between Luke Skywalker and his father. The film has a tone of its own and it's immensely funny. If A New Hope was a brash space opera and The Empire Strikes Back was a visual feast, Return of the Jedi is a riot of character invention. We get a good look at Jabba the Hutt and his court. We meet the fuzzy-wuzzy Ewoks, and we are confronted by two wonderfully loathsome creatures – the beast beneath Jabba's throne room and the desert monster made of teeth and gullet.
Secure in his lair, Jabba has Han Solo frozen in a sculpture on the wall, and eventually takes all our heroes captive. His gurgling voice is wonderfully reprehensible, and he squats beneath his cavern like a stalagmite of slime. The monster in the dungeon, made of teeth and scales, is the embodiment of disgusting aggression, and yet its death provides one of the movie's finest moments. The creature is crushed beneath a heavy door, and then we see its keeper come forward, weeping to have lost his pet while Mark Hamill catches his breath. It's a throw away moment, but typical of the film's richness. An extended sequence takes place in the desert, where Jabba's Hovercraft positions itself over the creature in the sand, some sort of large digestive system. He intends to force his captives to walk the plank, but the tables are nicely turned. I have always felt Lucas lost an opportunity here for a wonderful death scene : since Jabba obviously must die at some point, why not feed him to the sand thing? I can envision the Hutt's globular body slithering along and plopping down into the big open mouth under a pitiless sun. Whatever.
Mark Hamill's wonderful pirouette and Jedi tricks over the plank used to be one of my favourite scenes in Return of the Jedi : this is definitely a sporty and classy way of concluding aggressive negociations +++
The Ewoks are really cute and bring a kind of innocence to the Forest Moon, where the power station for the orbiting
Death Star is located.
While everyone is paying attention to Han's funny replies here, I'm watching Luke's lovely giggle in the back ;-)
Their forest provides the location for the movie's most inexplicable and funny sequences, in which characters chase one another on high-speed hover-scooters +++
As you may be aware, bad guys regularly get wiped out by running their scooters into trees. Question : Isn't a thickly forested area the wrong venue for these vehicles? How about flying above the tree tops, where there's nothing to run into ? Gosh, when you look at it in details, there are many things that really fly in the common face of logic^^
My favourite brother and sister scene, on one of the most beautiful music themes of the whole saga. I particularly enjoy the violin counterpoint +++
We also see a great deal more of Darth Vador and the Emperor, devilishly trying to turn father and son against each other. Time has come for him to get a younger apprentice than Vador. But can a man who has already lost his mother and killed his wife... also let his son die from the emperor's wrath ? There is, of course, the climactic moment when Vader reveals his real face at the end of the duel, allowing the character to become the first in movie history to be played by three actors : body by David Prowse, voice by James Earl Jones, face by Sebastian Shaw.
The ending concludes on emotional embraces between brother and sister...
... and Mark Hamill's charming yet superbly anachronistic glance towards the souls of his masters...
... and... drum roll please...
oops... a father ten years younger than him and embodied by a sexy Hayden Christensen +++
At the end of it all, after the three movies, we've taken an epic fantasy journey. Lucas has in common with all great storytellers the ability to create a complete world. These films are done so superbly that they transcend all genres and become a reverberating place in our imaginations...
The Revenge of the Sith (2005)
After Clones Attack got so bogged down in solemnity and political theories that it played quite dreary, The Revenge of the Sith is a glorious return to the classic space opera style that launched the series. Because the story leads up to where the original Star Wars began, we get to use an immemorial phrase : This is where we came in. That Anakin Skywalker abandoned the Jedi and went over to the dark side is known to all. That his twins Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia would redeem the family name is also known. What we discover in this episode is how and why a pleasant and brave young man was transformed into a dark, cloaked figure with a fearsome black metal face...
As The Revenge of the Sith opens, Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) and his friend Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) are piloting fighter craft, staging a daring two-man raid to rescue Chancellor Palpatine (Ian Mc Diarmid) from General Grievous. In the spirit of all the Star Wars movies, this rescue sequence flies in the face of logic, since the Jedis are able to board Grievous' ship and proceed without much trouble to the observation tower, where the chancellor is being held. There is a close call in an elevator shaft, but where are the guards and the security systems? And why would a space cruiser need an observation tower, when every porthole opens on to the universe? Never mind. Back within the sphere of the Jedi Council, Anakin finds that despite his heroism, he will not yet be named a Jedi Master. The Council distrusts Palpatine and wants him to spy on him which he is very reluctant to do...
... all the more as Palpatine himself wants Anakin to spy on the Council. Whom to chose? Insidiously snaky in his persuasiveness, McDiarmid has the most complex role in the movie as he plays on Anakin's wounded ego. Anakin is tempted to go over to what is not yet clearly the Dark Side...
The way Anakin approaches his choice has a deep poignancy, especially in two scenes : the one where he embraces his destiny and is named Darth Vador for the first time. The second one is the mute scene in which he and Padmé are joined in thoughts even if there's apart. Both scenes are remarkable in direction and emotional delivery +++
In many cases the actors are being filmed in front of blue screens, with effects to be added later, and sometimes their readings are a little flat. How can you stand in front of exploding star fleets and sound as if you're talking on a cell phone at Starbucks? I'm thinking about the I want more scene for instance. The dialogue is not the point, however. Episode III has more emotion and action per square minute, I'd guess, than any of the previous five movies, and it is incredibly powerful at times. How can this, for instance...
... turn into this ?
Unfortunately, Hayden Christensen's makeup and hate look turn hollow by the end of the episode for cause of being excessive. When Anakin wipes out the Viceroy and his Council gathered on Mustafar under the orders of the Emperor, there's the feeling that deep in his soul still dwells humanity and that the most important fight happening there is inside of him... He slaughters the lot while crying and their is a strong sense of destiny and despair here. But by the beginning of his scene with Padmé and then with Obi-Wan, he has turned completely crazy and absolute, and the only regret I have is that the transition is too abrupt. Ok, if the hazel look of the Sith and tripple bags under the eyes is an answer to that question, t'isn't working I'm afraid ! George Lucas's statement about Anakin turning ugly because of his sins and then burning in Mustafar's lava as if in Hell is very interesting though. It adds a particular depth of atmosphere to an already choking setting...
I hope you will notice the clever reference to Hamlet in Padmé's burial scene. The hair and clothing were copied from the famous preraphaelite painting of Ophelia by Millais... The double reference to Goethe's Faust and Shakespeare adds to the power of the ending scenes of this particular episode, without being cliché or overwhelming +++
The special effects are also more sophisticated than in the earlier movies, of course, and tremendously effective, although special effects should be judged, not by their complexity but by the degree with which they stimulate the imagination. A climactic duel on a blazing volcanic planet is as impressive, in its line, as anything in Lord of the Rings. A word, however, about the duels fought with lightsabers. When they flashed into life with a mighty whizzing thunk in the first Star Wars movies and whooshed through their deadly parabolas, that was exciting. But the thrill is gone here. The duelists are so well-matched that saber fights go on forever before anyone is wounded, and I am still not sure how the sabers seem able to shield their bearers from attack. It rather looks like some kind of a weird and perfectly choreographed ballet fight with plain isometrics. These are all, however, more observations than criticisms. George Lucas has achieved what few artists do : he has created and populated a world of his own. His Star Wars movies are among the most influential, both technically and visually, ever made. If they can be immensely fun, drama suddenly stirs your heart to the core within a blink +++
