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Rewatching Return of the Jedi
Nov. 13th, 2006 11:58 amAfter seven weeks, my personal odyssey through the Star Wars saga once more is complete. All of a sudden, the usual gritches of others on just about every facet of the movies were gone from my mind, and I just plain enjoyed watching Return of the Jedi. (It may be that I was still drawing back on memories of watching the Vintage Editions with their noticeable matte lines.)
Of course, I've been tempted at times in the past to call the three new Star Wars movies in part an elaborate effort to brush up Return of the Jedi's image. (This follows one of my first reactions to The Phantom Menace, that its final battle didn't just try to top the previous final battle by weaving four threads together, but to correct the "primitives versus technology" theme George Lucas wanted for quite some time to develop by giving the Gungans better equipment and, perhaps, by ensuring that the battle droids didn't wind up with even the minimal competence that some fans insisted on granting the stormtroopers. Not that anyone else seemed to get that idea, of course...) By establishing Anakin Skywalker's past, they help even people like me to understand that there is indeed good left in Darth Vader, that his casting down of the Emperor to save his son is the climax of the movie instead of something that just happened to happen. (It may be a subtle response to the old complaints that the Millennium Falcon "should have been blown up in the Death Star" so that "we'd be left with a sense of loss"; what actually happened seemed to have gone right over those people.) Also, I may enjoy the Emperor more now that he's explicitly the "ultimate evil" instead of "just an attempt to top Vader." However, another thought that's begun occurring to me is that Return of the Jedi is likewise necessary for the new movies. It helps further establish that there was, after all, something good about Anakin and Padme falling in love, that they shouldn't have just controlled their youthful urges and lived the way the Jedi always had.
Spreading the movies out over seven weekends gave me a chance to watch Clone Wars as well, and perhaps each movie could be viewed more as itself. It may ultimately have been as demanding of time in its own way as jamming six movies into one weekend, though, and it leaves me with the question of just what to do next weekend.
Of course, I've been tempted at times in the past to call the three new Star Wars movies in part an elaborate effort to brush up Return of the Jedi's image. (This follows one of my first reactions to The Phantom Menace, that its final battle didn't just try to top the previous final battle by weaving four threads together, but to correct the "primitives versus technology" theme George Lucas wanted for quite some time to develop by giving the Gungans better equipment and, perhaps, by ensuring that the battle droids didn't wind up with even the minimal competence that some fans insisted on granting the stormtroopers. Not that anyone else seemed to get that idea, of course...) By establishing Anakin Skywalker's past, they help even people like me to understand that there is indeed good left in Darth Vader, that his casting down of the Emperor to save his son is the climax of the movie instead of something that just happened to happen. (It may be a subtle response to the old complaints that the Millennium Falcon "should have been blown up in the Death Star" so that "we'd be left with a sense of loss"; what actually happened seemed to have gone right over those people.) Also, I may enjoy the Emperor more now that he's explicitly the "ultimate evil" instead of "just an attempt to top Vader." However, another thought that's begun occurring to me is that Return of the Jedi is likewise necessary for the new movies. It helps further establish that there was, after all, something good about Anakin and Padme falling in love, that they shouldn't have just controlled their youthful urges and lived the way the Jedi always had.
Spreading the movies out over seven weekends gave me a chance to watch Clone Wars as well, and perhaps each movie could be viewed more as itself. It may ultimately have been as demanding of time in its own way as jamming six movies into one weekend, though, and it leaves me with the question of just what to do next weekend.