Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith was supposed to be it. The final chapter, promoted with the tagline "the saga is complete." When it was released 12 years and 5 days ago, the world understood that the time of the theatrical Star Wars episodes was over. Revenge of the Sith certainly feels like it knows it's the last theatrically released Star Wars movie. John Williams's score contains only two new leitmotivs, but brings back practically all the major ones from the previous five films, ending with the themes of Luke and Leia from A New Hope in the final scenes. The last lines are spoken by C-3PO and R2-D2 aboard Bail Organa's blockade runner, which is a nice callback to the first lines of A New Hope being spoken by the same characters in the same location. The saga truly felt "complete."
For reasons discussed in previous posts, Revenge of the Sith ended up being the final chapter for me even after George Lucas sold to Disney. Although this one received considerably more praise than the first two films, once again the spread of anonymous sources has made sure Revenge of the Sith has "fallen from grace", if you will, and is now hated by a lot of people. That's a real shame, because, much like The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, this chapter is a heartfelt and above all brutally human movie. Revenge of the Sith was the first Star Wars film I was able to see in theaters, an experience that I won't forget any time soon. Now, around this time, all the media surrounding it had come out, and I knew a lot of what would happen in the movie. But I was still so amazed by Revenge of the Sith that it quickly became not only my favorite Star Wars movie, but my favorite movie of all time, and it remains my favorite to this day. There were so many memorable moments I found just in that first viewing, and there is so much more I've come to appreciate about the movie after countless viewings.
Second memorable moment? The introduction of General Grievous. This guy was, both literally and figuratively, the most complicated character ever built. He may have a cowardly nature, but I still thought he was a complete bad-ass. It may be the sinister cough, it may be the really well done voice by Matthew Wood, it may be the four lightsabers, or it may be all of them, but General Grievous was one of the most memorable characters in a Star Wars movie for me.
And when the movie returns to Coruscant, we have another memorable phase: the tragedy of the Jedi Order. Anakin's words "The Jedi are selfless. They only care about others," are only too true. We can see that the Jedi have become so selfless throughout the Clone Wars that they not only don't care about themselves, they have also forgotten to care about each other. Let's be honest, the advice Yoda gives Anakin for solving his "premonition problem" is pretty vague, and practically impossible for a conflicted guy like Anakin to execute. Obi-Wan's words to Anakin "I am on your side, I didn't want to put you in this situation" imply that the Jedi barely took his request into consideration. What the Jedi do care about is the survival and future of the Republic, yet they fail to realize that they are the ones who need help. Their stubborn refusal to trust Anakin is a major factor in their downfall, as they become so arrogant they forget that if you don't trust someone, he has a harder time trusting you. At the end of the day, I really do pity the Jedi. Pretty much from the moment they allow Anakin onto the Council but don't make him a master, when they could have fully accepted him or fully denied him, they doom themselves through their selflessness. Instead, they drive home Anakin's feeling that he's "being excluded from the council", and essentially tell him, "You're still not one of us."
And of course, in the middle of all this, we have the internal struggle of Anakin. Despite all the protests to the contrary, I have to give Hayden Christensen a lot of praise for his performance in this movie. He's full of so many different kinds of pain, and he does an excellent job at showing us that. First, there are the nightmares. Many have said that a random bad dream was all it took for Anakin to turn to the dark side. But that's not the only reason he has for turning, although he has good reason to be worried about the nightmares. All of Anakin's dreams that the audience learns about end up coming true: in The Phantom Menace, he mentions dreaming that he was a Jedi, and he ends up becoming one, and we are clearly shown that his visions of his mother dying in Attack of the Clones also come true. It's perfectly natural for Anakin to worry over his visions of Padmé's death; she is the closest thing to family he has. But Anakin also ends up turning to the dark side because he genuinely starts to believe that the Jedi want control of the Republic. The Jedi refuse to trust him enough to tell him why they are suspicious of Palpatine and want to use him as a spy, which, for all of Palpatine's faults, is still legally considered treason, while Palpatine seems more welcoming to him than the Jedi ever have, so consequently Anakin has little trouble trusting Palpatine more and the Jedi less. He openly says he feels "excluded from the Council", and he knows that there are things going on that the Jedi won't tell him. Although it isn't the truth, it's very logical for Anakin to assume that the Jedi are plotting against the Republic, and not involving him because he trusts Palpatine. And when Anakin reports the truth about Palpatine to Mace Windu, the only sort of thanks he receives is open confirmation that Windu still doesn't trust him. And the line between what's right and what's wrong, what's treason and what's not treason, is blurred when Anakin walks in on Mace preparing to kill Palpatine instead of the arrest he promised earlier. All these factors, when thought about logically, give Anakin a very good reason to assume that the Jedi are taking over. Anakin's turn to the dark side is really a lot more complicated than the desire to prevent a random nightmare, and although all of the logic I presented could have been articulated more clearly in the movie, you can still see it if you watch closely enough.
This is where the objective part of the review comes in. I understand that the rough cut of Revenge of the Sith was 4 hours long, and there was some significant work to be done in the editing room. Much like the episode I have yet to review, this one does suffer from feeling rushed, given that it's supposed to be the final chapter and tie up all the loose ends. I wish the subplot involving Padmé, Bail, and Mon Mothma sewing the seeds of the Rebellion wasn't deleted, but the film still works well enough without it. I also feel Lucas could have shown Anakin's distrust of the Jedi a little more clearly. What's in the film is done well enough though, especially with Mace justifying the murder of Palpatine with the same words Palpatine used to justify Anakin's murder of Count Dooku. Because of these flaws, I'd be hard-pressed to call Revenge of the Sith the best directed Star Wars episode, but I think it's in close contention for the best, as it still has its highlights in that field. The lighting choices are the most obvious example. In three separate conversations between Anakin and Obi-Wan on Coruscant, Obi-Wan is standing in sunlight while Anakin is in a more shaded part of the room. The fact that this lighting isn't natural due to the mostly CG environments makes this touch extra impressive. Revenge of the Sith also features, in my personal opinion, the best shot scene in the saga: Anakin and Palpatine's discussion about good and evil, eventually leading to the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise, in the opera house. Lucas uses multiple angles and shows individual close-ups on both characters at critical moments in this scene, making it one of the most compelling ones to rewatch.
While we're on the subject of Palpatine, Darth Sidious is just wonderfully wicked in Revenge of the Sith; his disguise as a kindly old chancellor is played so well, he knows exactly what to say to turn Anakin towards his side, and boy, is his enthusiasm at finally slaying Jedi chilling. Although Sidious is pure evil, I have to admire his extreme patience in his slow but very effective plot to destroy the Jedi Order. Once he gets those nasty scars on his face, he becomes so sinister in his orders to Anakin and his declaration of the Empire. He's a guy who has so much fun in doing what he does: being a very sneaky and cold villain. I love him, purely because he's so good at being so evil, and the fact that Ian McDiarmid wasn't nominated for Best Supporting Actor still boggles my mind.
While I'm at it, I'm even more shocked that Revenge of the Sith was the only Star Wars movie not to be nominated for Best Visual Effects. If all of the other five are worthy of this nomination, then Revenge of the Sith must be. The visuals are downright breathtaking in this movie; from the detailed opening space battle to the amazing shots of Coruscant by night to the lava world of Mustafar, so much work and attention to detail was put into the design of this movie, and although they were (unfairly) not nominated for it, all visual artists who worked on Revenge of the Sith can be justifiably proud of their work.
And of course, we have the fight scenes. Five lightsaber battles in one movie, all with really good choreography, make for some great emotion and entertainment. Anakin's rematch with Count Dooku at the beginning is an important step towards his dark destiny; Dooku's taunt "I sense great fear in you, Skywalker, you have hate, you have anger, but you don't use them," persuades Anakin to use those feelings as a weapon and ultimately commit his first cold-blooded murder. Obi-Wan's fight with Grievous is pretty cool, and it's very fun to see the resourcefulness of both combatants after they lose their primary weapons. Sidious's battles against Mace Windu and Yoda are both great; the dark lord's intense desire for more Jedi blood is clearly present in both fights, and the unfortunate realization Yoda comes to that he just doesn't have what it takes to beat the "next generation" of the Sith is tragic.
But one battle gets its own paragraph. Seeing Anakin and Obi-Wan lay it down with each other after so many years spent fighting alongside one another is certainly exciting, as each can all but predict what the other will do, but it's also very sad. You can see both of them struggling with the other's betrayal, real or perceived, and my favorite piece of Star Wars music ever, played over this fight, adds to the very personal nature of the battle. We see Obi-Wan struggling with his failure to understand Anakin's pain and be there for him when he needed to be, and we see Anakin's will to sever all ties to his Jedi past. The fight itself is beyond unpredictable, the lava effects are top-notch, and all of this adds up to my favorite scene in a Star Wars movie, ever.
Revenge of the Sith has an impressive score that contains a lot of familiar motifs from the other five films, and a lot of dramatic tracks rich with choir vocals. All pluses in my opinion. And the ending is very well done. Certainly there is a tragic tone as Padmé does indeed die in childbirth and Anakin is forced to fully embrace the dark side as the last remnants of his old family vanish, but the film's final, nonverbal scenes raise a glimmer of hope for the future. While only one Jedi lives, the Order survives. As the familiar themes of Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia are heard during their delivery to their guardians, the audience knows that they will ultimately set things right, and we now can fully appreciate why the original film is now called A New Hope.
Since its release in 2005, Revenge of the Sith has been my personal favorite film, even if I think two other episodes have a slight leg up on it in terms of direction. It was as fitting an end to a saga as I could have hoped for. In fact, the reason why I was initially reluctant to see Episode VII when it was announced was because Revenge of the Sith provided such good closure, especially with its ending. As I have discussed previously, later events turned me away from the sequel trilogy for good.
But I still have to go back in time and talk about the final film of the original trilogy, and the chronological way the saga ended for me. Stay tuned tomorrow for my final review...
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