Revisiting “Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith” (2005)
Why The Culminating Star Wars Prequel Is A Galaxy Brain Masterpiece
Is this film, to put it mildly, rushed? Yes. Absolutely. But twenty years on, I think we don’t give George Lucas enough credit for landing the emotions of this prequel trilogy as much as he did. I will always wish this film had a better director, but as a writer, Lucas truly makes an epic SPACE OPERA out of his genre-defining series.
He could have easily been satisfied to merely connect dots and set up stuff we’d like in later movies, but I so appreciate now how these films, especially this one, are just bursting with ideas. It’s so bursting with ideas that it’s downright inelegant at pretty much every step of the way. But if the other two prequel movies got bogged down in its warring tones to the point of lifelessness, this film is bursting with tragedy at every step of the way. Actions that perhaps don’t hold up on scrutiny in the moment, but still reverberate across time and space.
In the course of this movie alone, the Anakin and Obi-Wan relationship is tragic. Anakin’s relationship with Padme and his unborn children is tragic. The Jedi’s perhaps deserved fall of grace is tragic. Every single character in this movie comes to the realization that their realities are very different than their worldview, and they are all woefully unprepared for the consequences to come.
The whole cognitive dissonance about this movie was always that taken in the moment, Anakin’s fall to the dark side of going zero to one hundred of wanting to save his wife, to killing children, to killing his wife doesn’t make that much sense. But in a galaxy brain way, it does make sense, in that since we met Anakin, almost every single step has been a failing of him. In that, this kid just wants to protect the ones that he loves, but at every fucking turn the Jedi are so up their ass that compassion is a path to the dark side, that they rebuff him, keep him at a distance, take advantage of him when it’s convenient, and tell him, ‘Well, have you tried NOT having attachments?’
Anakin gets the one moment of unexpected appreciation from Obi-Wan before he’s separated in this movie, and other than his pre-existing relationship with Padme, the only person that comes to Anakin’s aid when he calls out in this movie, happens when he’s roasting on Mustafar, when Palpatine feels his pain. Anakin went to Yoda, and was ignored. He went to Mace, who doesn’t trust him. He’s finding himself increasingly isolated, and the culmination of that is just being pushed over the edge in the worst direction possible, which feeds into the cycle of destruction.
I think the clouded morality and deeply cynical tone of the movie is also not only reflective of the 00s and the then already-controversial Iraq War, but where politics and the world was heading in its widespread decent in fascism. When it originally came out in 1977, “Star Wars: A New Hope” was seen as mere escapism with clear black and white morality, as opposed to the largely cynical 1970s culture in a post-Watergate world.
Of course, being a classic intellectual hippie, George Lucas has always infused his work with political themes. “THX138” is classic dystopian fiction in the same vein as George Orwell’s “1984.” Even “American Graffiti,” which most consider a nostalgic come of age film, is actually about what Lucas perceives as the death of American innocence in the lead-up to Vietnam. As simple as the original “Star Wars” trilogy was in its morality, there is clear allusions to Nixon, Vietnam, etc.
Fast-forward to the end of the twentieth century, and the world is ostensibly in a much different place politically, being relatively optimistic in the golden age of the 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union. But Lucas, knowing from history, knows that this peace won’t last long, as it’s bad for business. He knows the military-industrial complex will soon create the justification of their own existence, as they had none since the end of the Cold War.
He also sees the world’s increasing slide into authoritarianism and power shifting from the collective to the individual. Think about it, if America is so dysfunctional as a Democracy, where it’s increasingly hard to reach an agreement, that we begin sliding more into fascism as an easier and potentially more effective path, think about how hard it is to govern an entire galaxy, or whatever?
The answer that Lucas comes to is it is impossible. The Republic is largely ineffective by the time “The Phantom Menace” happens. It cannot govern on such a large scale, and a lot of people are falling through the cracks while the Senate debates, and Jedi are dispatched to moderate disputes and skirmishes. It’s in this state of ineffectiveness that Lucas sees the move to authoritarianism coming, not as a broad political movement, but in a slow boiling until we find ourselves handing over so much power that we find ourselves under an autocratic Empire, as the galaxy is in the original trilogy. All of this is why the film has felt relevant for so much of the last decade as we’ve seen America on a similar slide, and moments like the “So this is how Liberty dies” moment taking a constant and frightening relevancy the past decade.
By the way, this film, even in all its inelegance, just looks better by the year considering how fucking empty most blockbusters and the “Star Wars” franchise mostly can be nowadays. “Rise of Skywalker” doesn’t even make the attempt at an idea! It’s all empty calories and nostalgia porn, save for the occasional “Andor” and such, which is actually made by creatives, who like Lucas, actually put thought into making these things, and are working out real-world problems and ideas on this grand galactic canvas.
But hey, I’m starting to get back into Star Wars fully by listening to the “A More Civilized Age” podcast, which is taking the fully academic deconstruction of Star Wars that I’ve always wanted, which includes these prequel movies, then the “Clone Wars” animated show, “Andor,” and now “Star Wars Rebels.” It’s honestly been such an informative blast so far.
4.5/5 Stars
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
Currently Ranked:
#6/#12 in “Star Wars, Ranked”
#1 in “My 10 Favorite Films of 2005”
