The Mystic Chords of Memory

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith – The Mystic Chords of Memory
by Dileep Rao

The latest chapter of the Star Wars extravaganza has finally hit theatres. Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith is a vastly superior outing to both 1999's Phantom Menace and 2002's Attack of the Clones. In every way, this film outstrips its prequel predecessors and in some ways all of the films in the series. Visually, there is nothing with which to compare this film. The effects are of an entire order of magnitude superior to anything that has been put on film. Sometimes the digital effects seem to surpass what film has thus far been able to provide. Perhaps this was the grail on which Lucas was so fixated for six years that he let writing, acting and tone fall away in his first two films.

Sith largely doesn't suffer form its predecessor's ungainly and stilted story. It simply has too much to do for us to slow to those films' ponderous and stultifying pace. The film opens on what will become a classic set piece with Obi Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and Annakin Skywalker (Hayden Christiansen) on a mission to rescue a kidnapped Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid, the best actor in the series overall). Just how internecine the plots are and how they unfold is harrowing and handled well, as it's not the main focus of the story. Instead, the mechanism by which these plots unfold and the Republic gives way to the Empire is examined in the turning of Annakin Skywalker to the dark side of the force. I'm giving nothing away here, this is why we all go to see the film, to see his descent into becoming Darth Vader. That descent is one of truly apocalyptic myth-making. There are some fine exchanges during what is otherwise fairly undistinguished dialogue. Palpatine speaks carefully and with terrifying seduction to an Annakin who has hardly the skills to cope with such manipulation.

The fault for the fall of Darth Vader is Annakin's, and Lucas makes this clear. But many things also failed him for his seduction to become complete. The Jedi failed to support him and counsel him effectively, to hear his fear and to bend their arrogant pride, so they lost the Jedi they believed would be their 'chosen one.' Prideful and stupid. The Republic, as Padme (Natali Portman) observes, applauds its own destruction as it's reconstituted as the Empire. In this, and in Annakin's later statement in his duel with Obi Wan (the now famous "If you're not with me, then you are my Enemy"), many conservatives have seen stinging rebukes of their hero, George W. Bush. This should be frightening to conservatives and
liberals alike. Lucas has not made an overtly political film here. He has cast an arc in which the Republic faded to Empire, a despot created a monster and that monster has run amok through negligence of those who call themselves good. If the right see their hero mocked or identifiable, we should all be running for the exits. Obi Wan's retort is telling "Only a Sith thinks in absolutes."

Along the way, new characters appear such as the mostly machine General Grievous who seems to be a tubercloid or suffering from asthma perhaps. Why with all the technology at their disposal in this advanced world, they can't get the breathing right is baffling. Chewbacca and other wookies make a series of appearances which are nostalgic but hardly necessary. R2D2 makes superb comic and action contributions, as much a swashbuckler as any Jedi. There are real comic moments in this film and a litany of failed comic bits. They're all forgivable, for they are brushed aside quickly as the plot roars forward.

There are some daringly dark moments in this film, far darker than anything in The Empire Strikes Back. The dark deeds of Annakin have horrific, genuinely evil pall. His duel with Obi Wan is gut wrenching as we watch our two heroes go at it. Vader loses this battle because of his impetuousness as Kenobi masters him suddenly and abruptly, as life itself would have such a moment arrive. The last third of this film reaches back and grabs that energy that has lain dormant since 1977, the propulsive force that takes us into Episode IV.

Lucas has not made a masterpiece. Sith is a bit thick in places and the dialogue is at times wooden (most of the scenes between Padme and Annakin are cringe inducing but over before your cringe can actually take hold). Still, what Lucas has created is an achievement. The story wraps up its many loose ends, tragedy of a grand and epic scale is at last writ large and, in the final third, the film is deeply moving. Knowing where this movie is headed seems only to deepen its impact. Somewhere in our collective memory, we remember Vader entering an all white ship, James Earl Jones' voice thundering from the screen. Now we see how a man became encased in that suit, seduced by evil, betrayed by his impulse for power and failed, perhaps, most of all, by his friends.

Dileep can be reached at dileep@babblog.com.