by Edward Gross
HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN
Wearing the Darth Vader mask and costume was orgasmic. It was everything you could ever imagine. It was a little boy’s dream come true. It was overwhelming. It’s hard to put into words, because it was a new sensation for me: a mixture of elation with this amazing sense of empowerment. To get to act behind a mask is a great freedom, but to act behind an entirely enclosed character like Darth Vader is really neat.
RAY MORTON
Speaking once again in the voice of James Earl Jones, Vader asks about Padmé. With a hint of mischievous delight, the Emperor informs Vader that Padmé is dead and that he—Vader—killed her. Since the Emperor has already informed Vader (after he turned to the dark side) that he does not actually possess the power to save people from death after all, Vader realizes there is no hope. He has lost Padmé forever. The telepathic blast of pain and fury Vader unleashes as he tears through his restraints and takes his first halting steps in his new body finally generates the tragedy Lucas has been after from the beginning. Although the drama wasn’t quite able to deliver it, this frightening and poignant moment certainly does. Even Vader’s ill-advised “Nooooo…” can’t detract from the horror and the sadness of what has become of Anakin Skywalker.
* * *
As the film and the trilogy come to a close, Padmé is buried; Yoda goes into exile; Vader and the Emperor begin supervising the construction of the Death Star; Leia is adopted by Bail Organa and his wife; and Obi-Wan brings Luke to Tatooine and gives him to Anakin’s stepbrother Owen and his wife Beru to raise.
RAY MORTON
This last bit is a rather odd choice, considering that Obi-Wan is trying to hide Luke from Vader. Not that we expect Darth to visit for the holidays or anything, but leaving Luke in the custody of Anakin’s closest relative does seem to be tempting fate a bit (in Star Wars, Owen was the brother of the non-Vader Anakin—who, of course, had no connection to Vader—and in early drafts of Jedi, Owen was identified as being Obi-Wan’s brother—not exactly no connection to Vader, but at least a remote and unlikely one).
HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN
There are a few odd things in the films, like the Skywalker name or the idea of leaving baby Luke with the Lars family on Tatooine, since it’s a place Anakin is already familiar with. Why don’t Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen recognize C-3PO when they first see him in A New Hope, considering they met C-3PO and Anakin in Episode II? So there are a couple of fun loopholes for the diehard fans to pick up on. George is human and we all make mistakes.
GEORGE LUCAS
There was a whole sequence in Revenge of the Sith that I cut out. The scene with Obi-Wan, Bail, and Yoda went on for quite a while and there was this whole discussion. Obi-Wan says, “I’ll take Luke to Tatooine,” and Yoda replies, “Well, yeah, you take him to his family, to Tatooine. That is such a painful place for the Sith that they will never go back there, and they’ll never think about it again.” So we had details like that, but in the end, you don’t need that stuff. It’s a big universe. There are billions and billions of stars, and millions of millions of them are inhabited. Why would anybody have any knowledge that anyone would be in any one place? Hell, there’s another George Lucas right here in San Francisco. What makes you think he and I have any connection with each other? And I live on Lucas Valley Road, which has no connection with me at all. So you can’t go around the universe looking for Skywalkers.
* * *
As originally shot and edited together, there was definitely something missing in Anakin’s narrative, which resulted in Lucas having to do some additional shooting for better clarification.
RAY MORTON
Lucas’s showcasing Anakin’s descent probably could have worked reasonably well despite the earlier issues pointed out, except that the screenplay then gave Anakin more motivations for his turn: he is angry at the Jedi Council for refusing to make him a Jedi master; he is arrogant and greedy—Anakin sees himself as a great Jedi who feels he deserves more acclaim and power than he has yet been given; he is loyal to Palpatine, who has been mentoring him since childhood, and he supports the Chancellor’s authoritarian ideas. When the Jedi threaten Palpatine’s rule, Anakin sides with his mentor. He is angry at Obi-Wan, whom he suspects of undermining him and of having romantic designs on Padmé. Unlike the unselfish desire to save Padmé, these additional motivations are self-centered and driven by arrogance, ego, and a desire for power. These are not sympathetic or tragic motives, just the usual despicable ones that drive most run-of-the-mill bad guys. They only confirm the negative aspects of Anakin’s character that we have already seen and frame his fall not as a tragedy, but as an inevitable outcome of bad character.
These multiple motives generate confusion. In a properly constructed dramatic narrative, a character should have a single, clear motivation for doing what he does. In the script for Sith, Anakin has so many reasons for his turn that his ultimate motivation for turning to the dark side just isn’t clear. Lucas recognized this when he was editing the picture, so he enlisted the acclaimed playwright and screenwriter Tom Stoppard (who had previously done an uncredited rewrite of the script for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) to write several new scenes that emphasized that Anakin’s main reason for turning to the dark side was to save Padmé. Lucas then recut several sections of the film to stress the point even further. Unfortunately, the changes weren’t sufficient. While they do make Anakin’s determination to save Padmé more pronounced, the other motivations are still prominent enough that his true incentive remains unclear.
DAN VEBBER
(producer, The Simpsons)
I think it would have been more interesting had Anakin found out that Obi-Wan was having an affair with Padmé. His jealousy and sense of betrayal would lead to the dark side and also justify Obi-Wan’s self-imposed exile for the next few decades, blaming himself for the death of Anakin and rise of Darth Vader.
PETER HOLMSTROM
Every screenplay, the hero has more than one motivation for doing what they’re doing. The macro and the micro. Look at Lawrence of Arabia, how many motives does that guy have? (Hint: it’s more than four.)
JONATHAN RINZLER
They had filmed this whole subplot of Padmé forming up what becomes the Rebel Alliance. But then they cut those things out because Francis Ford Coppola said, “You got to just have Anakin. Anakin is your throughline, you don’t need all this other stuff. It can’t be three hours long.” So …
EWAN MCGREGOR
The third one was the best. There’s no question. I was really happy with this last movie. It satisfactorily ties up all the plot points leading into Episode IV. I was very pleased with Revenge of the Sith, and I thought it was the most competent as a film.
HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN
George was very excited by the story he was telling, and you could see that in his eyes. He was extremely involved, more so than the last one. He was up from behind the monitors after every take and he had a bounce in his step.
RAY MORTON
Some of Sith’s problems are similar to those in the other two prequels: Hayden Christensen is simply not good in the role of Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader—he looks far too young for the part (there is no way the fellow we see here could possibly have aged into the elderly man revealed when the mask is removed at the end of Jedi) and his callow performance fails to convey the depth and complexity the character demands. Natalie Portman’s performance is also weak—as Padmé, she is stiff and shallow and is never able to reconcile the character’s many contradictory traits (although, to be fair, the writing works against Portman at just about every turn in this regard). The dialogue, while not as risible as that in Clones, is still pretty awkward. And—while technically impressive and often quite stunning—there’s just too much CGI in the movie. Too many of the shots are overly busy to the point of being frantic and the result is often quite distracting.
However, the narrative—even with the problems outlined above—is much stronger than those in the other two
films. The movie contains a single plot rather than a collection of subplots; it’s tighter; has less filler; is more focused; and has much more dramatic drive, momentum, and build. Ewan McGregor continues to shine as Obi-Wan and Ian McDiarmid delivers his most effective performance as Palpatine—his treachery in this movie is truly hissable and the venom he furiously spits as the Emperor reveals more and more of his true evil nature and is pretty terrifying. Lucas’s imagination is as fertile as ever, the production and costume design continues to impress, and the major action sequences—especially the opening rescue and Obi-Wan’s pursuit of Grievous—are quite thrilling. Also, Jar Jar only appears in one shot—and is silent.
BRIAN JAY JONES
At the end of Revenge of the Sith, when Vader breaks free of his shackles and screams, “Nooooooo!”—people laughed. Exactly the opposite of what Lucas intended. And it is a terrible decision from a storytelling standpoint and from a character standpoint. But what I love about Lucas—and this is where you’ve got to admire him—is that when people say a moment like that is inconsistent or bad storytelling or they say Vader wouldn’t do that, he’s like, “Fuck you. What do you know about Vader? I created him. It doesn’t exist until I say it does. And that’s the way Vader behaved.” What a great place to be.
RAY MORTON
It is in its final act that Sith impresses most. Epic, riveting, terrible, and poignant, it is here that the prequel trilogy finally recaptures the dark, mythic, playing-for-keeps fantasy of The Empire Strikes Back and in doing so connects itself stylistically, thematically, and narratively with the original trilogy.
* * *
In the final days of production on Revenge of the Sith, John Williams returned for what was presumably the final time (not realizing there were still the sequels in his future) to compose the score for the final installment in the story of Anakin Skywalker.
JOE KRAEMER
(composer, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation and Jack Reacher)
Six movies in and John Williams is still taking risks: for this film, his original idea was to interrupt the Main Title with battle music as Anakin and Obi-Wan fly to the rescue of the kidnapped Chancellor Palpatine. The soundtrack CD has this music the way he meant it to go. In the end, the final movie plays things more traditionally, allowing the Main Title to play to its natural conclusion, then segueing to the battle music through editorial convolutions. To be honest, I prefer the film version, but it’s so fascinating to see Williams still trying new things.
This film’s major new theme is the “Battle of the Heroes,” written to underscore the climactic lightsaber duel between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader. Apparently, Lucas was surprised not to hear “Duel of the Fates” scoring the entire sequence, but Williams saved that theme’s return for the fight in the Senate between Yoda and the Emperor. There is also a new theme for General Grievous, scored for orchestra and choir, which some likened to the Harry Potter theme. It appears a handful of times in the film, but the structure of the movie doesn’t really lend itself to allowing Williams to develop it significantly.
Of course, the “Main Title” and the Force Theme make appearances in the score, as well as Yoda’s Theme in its most original-trilogy-like usage yet, and at the end of the film, Princess Leia’s Theme. A particularly nice use of the Main Theme can be heard in the final scene on Tatooine, as Obi-Wan delivers the infant Luke Skywalker to Owen and Beru at their homestead. The Emperor’s Theme can be heard strongly in the final reels of the movie, and some nice quotes from the score to The Empire Strikes Back underscore his fight with Yoda in his office under the Galactic Senate. “The Rebel Fanfare” even makes a surprise appearance when R2-D2 pulls off a heroic deed. The previously mentioned “Duel of the Fates” and “Funeral Music” from The Phantom Menace also return, as does the love theme for Anakin and Padmé from Attack of the Clones, though never in its full romantic glory—their relationship is long past that now. Anakin’s first assignment as the newly christened Darth Vader is an attack on the Jedi Temple, which is underscored by the unused music from Attack of the Clones for the battle with the monsters in the Geonosis Arena. Anakin’s Theme from The Phantom Menace is heard once in this film, during a moment where Anakin confides to Padmé that he’s been having nightmares of her death during childbirth.
Perhaps the most satisfying theme to return was the funeral music for Qui-Gon Jinn, now underscoring the death of Padmé and the rebirth of Darth Vader in his iconic black suit. Williams cleverly interpolates “The Imperial March” into the sequence as counterpoint, and reprises the approach for the final moments of the film when Padmé’s funeral is juxtaposed against the construction of the Death Star.
There is a fascinating dive into Sith history between Palpatine and Anakin during a live performance of a water ballet, and the music for this sequence is a spooky atmosphere of bass choir and synthesizer eventually joined by orchestra and a subtle Sith melodic motif that returns when Sidious anoints Anakin with his new name of Darth Vader. This choral texture will be revisited in the Disney-era Star Wars movies for Supreme Leader Snoke.
There are a few sequences in the film that, similar to what was done on Attack of the Clones, utilize tracked music from previous scores on purpose, with no intention to replace that music with new cues. The crash landing of Grievous’s ship on Coruscant is one such sequence, as are the fight scenes between the Wookiees and the battle droids (and also, the aforementioned march on the Jedi Temple by Vader and his troops).
This score is probably the darkest score of the entire saga, in keeping with the tone of the film, which is an unrelenting tragedy in its second half. It’s remarkable that the film’s ending is in any way satisfying given the oppressive gloom that precedes it, but the score does a good deal of the heavy lifting there, with its placement of iconic themes from the original film to bring the audience to some feeling of homecoming and resolution.
* * *
Revenge of the Sith, which was released on May 19, 2005, was produced at a budget of $113 million and enjoyed a worldwide gross of $868 million. The best-reviewed entry in the trilogy, it nonetheless had its detractors. In the end, though, Lucas had told the story he wanted to in the way he decided, and ultimately many people paid money—repeatedly—to see it unfold.
GEORGE LUCAS
If anyone else had done Sith, it would have been a $250 million movie. The interesting thing is that we did an inflated/adjusted estimate of all the films. Return of the Jedi came in at $100 million, and I think the first Star Wars was $44 million. Empire fell somewhere in between at $70 or $80 million. But on these prequels, we’ve managed to make three of them at relatively the same cost. That’s quite an accomplishment when you’re talking about sequels, because they have a tendency to grow. I used my TV crew, whom I’ve worked with for a long time. We also used much of the technology that we’ve developed over the years. And Rick McCallum is an amazing producer. He really keeps a lid on things. Plus, we relied on digital technology, which probably saved us $20 to $30 million.
EWAN MCGREGOR
I don’t think of the Star Wars trilogy as being “event movies.” The Star Wars pictures are way beyond studio pictures. They’re enormous. Whatever issues I had with them, I couldn’t say no when George Lucas called … There’s nothing cooler than being a Jedi Knight.
DON BIES
(model builder: droid unit supervisor, Revenge of the Sith)
It has been an amazing opportunity, and not something I ever dreamed would happen to a little kid from Chicago like me. I look back on my time with those projects fondly and proudly, and will probably continue to bore my children (and eventually grandchildren) with all my stories repeated over and over.
NALINI KRISHAN
(actress, “Bariss Offee”)
I think you have to understand that these movies were made in a different era in the eighties, the target audience for the trilogy had grown up and weren’t maybe into the next three as were the teens of today’s society. Different people react
ed differently. I think everyone watched it because it was Star Wars and it had played a part in so many people’s childhoods and it was one of those movies that would be remembered forever! The first three were far more superior, but, having said that, I have spoken to the younger generation and they are saying that the last three are better. I think it depends who identifies with the movies and everyone has had a different experience, there is no such thing as one was better than the other, it was Star Wars!
HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN
It’s strange to be a part of the Star Wars phenomenon. My whole relationship to these films is very surreal. My knowledge and involvement in the science fiction world prior to this was minimal. I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a huge fan of the genre. I wasn’t the first person in line to see Episode I, but I’ve definitely become a fan since becoming a part of it. You have to find a way to enjoy it. In anticipation of shooting the film, I spent a lot of time on the internet immersing myself in the culture of Star Wars, because it has such a huge following. Some people have put the belief system associated with Star Wars into their lives. It’s pretty amazing.
