star
wars
episode III:
revenge of the sith |
director/screenwriter
George Lucas
producer
Rick McCallum
cinematographer
David Tattersall
music
John Williams
editors
Roger Barton
Ben Burtt
cast
Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi)
Natalie Portman (Padmé)
Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker)
Ian McDiarmid (Palpatine)
Samuel L. Jackson (Mace Windu)
Jimmy Smits (Senator Bail Organa)
Frank Oz (Yoda)
Anthony Daniels (C-3PO)
Christopher Lee (Count Dooku)
Kenny Baker (R2-D2)
Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca)
Matthew Wood (General Grievous)
James Earl Jones (voice, Darth Vader)
mpaa rating: PG-13
running
time: 146m
u.s.
release: 5/19/05
video
availability: TBA
official
website
see also:
- star
wars episode I:
the phantom menace
- star
wars episode II:
attack of the clones
- star
wars episode IV:
a new hope
- star
wars episode V:
the empire strikes back
- star
wars episode VI:
return of the jedi
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And so it ends where it began.
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is meant to
close the loop, to explain how a once-virtuous and powerful Jedi
Knight named Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) became the
heavy-breathing, basso-profundo Darth Vader, destroyer of worlds.
Does it? Structurally, it does practically nothing else; both
rushed and overlong, the movie is as packed as were the theaters
playing it last weekend. Emotionally, though, George Lucas' latest
folly reads at zero. Anakin's turn towards the Dark Side of the
Force is supposed to be driven by fear and loathing, but since
the character is so amateurishly written and played, he's little
but a cautionary stick figure. The effect, not only of this film
but of the previous two, has been to rob one of cinema's most
iconic villains of his mystery.
Sith,
like Lucas' other effects-laden returns to the lucrative Star
Wars well, is a pinwheel in frantic motion, except for the
dialogue scenes, which stop everything dead. And those are the
scenes meant to give this saga thematic weight and resonance,
to create a plausible path from light to darkness for a young,
impulsive hero terrified of losing his pregnant wife Padmé
(Natalie Portman). It's pretty clear that Anakin's mind is being
controlled by a two-faced agent of the Sith -- the anti-Jedis
who are seduced by the forcible aspect of the Force. That would
explain some of Anakin's behavior, but it works only on paper.
Given a hundred years of cinema language with which to make us
feel Anakin's turn, to make us experience his dread and
suffering, Lucas decides instead to play in the sandbox of the
future. He gives us lots of twinkly CGI light shows, most of
which are so cluttered and hyper-edited we don't know where to
look.
The story of Sith really
should've been spread out over the previous two movies; we didn't
need to pick up Anakin as an insufferable little boy winning
pod races. Most of the point of these three prequels is shoehorned
into this last film, yet often Lucas even loses the basic thread.
Time better spent fleshing out Anakin's character is frittered
away on gee-whiz fight scenes -- Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor)
against the new character General Grievous, a clanking, wheezing
precursor of Vader -- and fan-pleasing excursions to the planet
of the Wookiees, just so Lucas can bring Chewbacca back again.
I'm not saying the movie needed to enter the brooding territory
of Ingmar Bergman (though that might've been interesting); The
Empire Strikes Back managed shifts in tone and consciousness
without sacrificing popcorn thrills. Maybe Lucas needs
all these fancy distractions so that he won't have to look too
closely at the Vader-as-Lucas subtext that, by this point in
the saga, is all but unavoidable.
Fans will project 28 years
of their own longings onto the finale, which pits Obi-Wan against
his former apprentice Anakin on a planet seemingly made of lava.
But even here, Lucas succumbs to effects addiction and robs the
duel of any humanity. The sight of a lava-ravaged Anakin, flesh
ruined and soul consumed by rage, may produce a slight frisson
-- you're watching the birth of a monster. (One wonders, though,
why Obi-Wan wouldn't have simply mercy-killed him, rather than
leaving him to die in agony -- or, as it turns out, to be rescued
and given the familiar black metal raiment of Vader.) But perhaps
all of this should have remained in the imaginations of the fans,
who probably wouldn't have dreamed up such ghastly dialogue,
or such annoyances as Jar Jar Binks (who, thankfully, is reduced
to a two-shot, no-lines cameo here).
I couldn't spot him, but Lucas
is rumored to be in the movie himself, as a character named Baron
Papanoida. Father of the nerds? Paranoid pap? It's no small irony
that a California geek who probably got stuffed into his share
of lockers now commands the biggest franchise in the galaxy.
Sith, which broke all kinds of box-office records,
confirms his grip on the dreams of people worldwide. I suppose
I can be forgiven for hoping that this final panel of the saga
represents the release of Emperor Papanoida's grip, and that we
can return to movies that don't have to be blockbusters, adventures
that don't have to be aggressively hectic, and fantasies that
don't have to be seemingly written for, and by, slow children.
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