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Return to Revenge of the Sith
After “Episode I” had followed “Episode VI” as an “anniversary theatrical re-release” (and scotched a certain residual suspicion the people at Disney would go only so far in acknowledging the Star Wars movies they’d bought as opposed to making themselves), I’d taken note of certain speculations as to what anniversary might be marked next. I’ll admit to once again pondering how two “divisible by five” marks would show up in the same year, even if I’d seen a comment or two about a “fortieth anniversary” re-release of The Empire Strikes Back back when it might only have been able to have been shown at the residue of drive-in theatres that had endured to that point. To be brief, I also have to admit that as we got closer to the next anniversary there were certain troubling thoughts of “the fall of the Republic” being too ominous an event to put on movie screens. However, a “twentieth anniversary” re-release wound up being announced for Revenge of the Sith, and I bought a ticket only to then recall certain dire predictions (not about the movie) from twenty years ago too.
I’d been lucky enough back then anyway. The year before, I had at last worked up the courage to look a bit deeper into the links provided by a fanfic writer who used the name Fernwithy, and found a forum with some “prequel-positive” and “saga-positive” fans on it. I suppose that helped with winding up seeing Revenge of the Sith at the movies more than once in the summer of 2005, five times in fact. This was no doubt making the deliberate effort to top having seen Attack of the Clones at the movies three times in the summer of 2002 (and “the Imax version” once later that year), but where my third trip to that movie had me wondering if I’d got to the point of “sitting and waiting for the final battle” I’d stayed interested in the later movie throughout. So far as other “this is going to be the last hurrah” thoughts went, I did buy a number of action figures in 2005 (and have to admit they’re still in a closet unopened, despite thoughts throughout the years they wouldn’t increase in value the way the original action figures did given more people now know about “leaving them unopened”...)
My own reactions and ability to think of “the last puzzle piece in place” aside, though, I have had to confront how Fernwithy herself hadn’t been able to take the thought of events being arranged to have Padme die on screen and had more or less dropped out of the discussions. “The prophet can’t enter the promised land” does pack a certain impact. I’ll admit I’ve made certain efforts ever since to claim “the dialogue can’t explain everything” and make a big deal of particular cross-cuts between Anakin and Padme; I’ve also wondered about to what extent a Padme who survived would have been disconnected from the eventual yet existing dramatic climax of Return of the Jedi and the saga to instead be connected to Obi-Wan and Yoda’s “he’s lost” (as those who insist “the Jedi were wrong” might suggest) or “Luke just needs to work certain things out by himself” (as those who insist “the Jedi were right” might suggest).
In any case, this sixth theatrical viewing was pretty satisfying; it’s possible seeing things back on the big screen had more of an impact in this case than “theatrical sound” did. In supposing the only “anniversary re-release” that might happen next year would involve dipping into the Disney-made movies I considered the understanding another one of those movies does seem to be taking actual shape, and wondered if just maybe there’d be an “early trailer”; there wasn’t. The year after, though, will have more than one “divisible by five” marks show up for all that “good grief, it’s been fifty years now?” might have to be confronted.
I’d been lucky enough back then anyway. The year before, I had at last worked up the courage to look a bit deeper into the links provided by a fanfic writer who used the name Fernwithy, and found a forum with some “prequel-positive” and “saga-positive” fans on it. I suppose that helped with winding up seeing Revenge of the Sith at the movies more than once in the summer of 2005, five times in fact. This was no doubt making the deliberate effort to top having seen Attack of the Clones at the movies three times in the summer of 2002 (and “the Imax version” once later that year), but where my third trip to that movie had me wondering if I’d got to the point of “sitting and waiting for the final battle” I’d stayed interested in the later movie throughout. So far as other “this is going to be the last hurrah” thoughts went, I did buy a number of action figures in 2005 (and have to admit they’re still in a closet unopened, despite thoughts throughout the years they wouldn’t increase in value the way the original action figures did given more people now know about “leaving them unopened”...)
My own reactions and ability to think of “the last puzzle piece in place” aside, though, I have had to confront how Fernwithy herself hadn’t been able to take the thought of events being arranged to have Padme die on screen and had more or less dropped out of the discussions. “The prophet can’t enter the promised land” does pack a certain impact. I’ll admit I’ve made certain efforts ever since to claim “the dialogue can’t explain everything” and make a big deal of particular cross-cuts between Anakin and Padme; I’ve also wondered about to what extent a Padme who survived would have been disconnected from the eventual yet existing dramatic climax of Return of the Jedi and the saga to instead be connected to Obi-Wan and Yoda’s “he’s lost” (as those who insist “the Jedi were wrong” might suggest) or “Luke just needs to work certain things out by himself” (as those who insist “the Jedi were right” might suggest).
In any case, this sixth theatrical viewing was pretty satisfying; it’s possible seeing things back on the big screen had more of an impact in this case than “theatrical sound” did. In supposing the only “anniversary re-release” that might happen next year would involve dipping into the Disney-made movies I considered the understanding another one of those movies does seem to be taking actual shape, and wondered if just maybe there’d be an “early trailer”; there wasn’t. The year after, though, will have more than one “divisible by five” marks show up for all that “good grief, it’s been fifty years now?” might have to be confronted.