I've Got A Bad Feeling About This...
I saw "Revenge Of The Sith" last night. And it was pretty much what I expected, right down to the fact that, as in all five of the other movies (Star Wars: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, The Phantom Menace, and Attack of the Clones) someone just had to say "I've got a bad feeling about this..."
I was talking to some friends about the fact that there are some interesting structural similarities between the two movie trilogies. There are both parallels and contrasts between the "pairs" of movies. Some of these are funny and pointless, others are a little more profound. I'm not sure Lucas intended all of them, but I suspect most of them were intentional.
Most of the parallels are between Anakin Skywalker and Luke Skywalker, and those are the most profound parallels. I think I'll save those for another entry - today I'm going to make a list of other parallels...
The Phantom Menace and A New Hope
Both movies contain the death of the Jedi Master who serves as a mentor to Anakin/Luke
Both movies end with a ceremony of celebration
Both movies contain a moment when Anakin is spinning wildly in a spaceship (unintentionally in New Hope, intentionally in Phantom Menace)
Attack of the Clones and Empire Strikes Back
Both movies contain an asteroid belt chase scene
In both asteroid sequences, escape is made by a ruse involving jettisoned material (spare parts/garbage) from a ship.
In both cases a bounty hunter was present - by contrast, the bounty hunter was fooled in AotC, but was not fooled in ESB.
In both movies C3PIO lost his head, and had it incorrectly reattached (in ESB it was put on backwards, in AotC it was put on another droid's body)
In both movies we are "fooled" by Yoda. In ESB we think of him as a mentally deficient character, only to be surprised by his wisdom; in the AotC we think of him as a physically impaired character, only to be surprised by his ability to fight with a light saber.
Both movies contain sections in cities which are not "land based" - Kamino is over water, Bespin is hovering in the air.
Revenge Of The Sith and Return Of The Jedi
Both movies begin with the rescue of someone who has been kidnapped.
Both movies have a "fuzzy creature" battle. (I read somewhere that Lucas intended to use Wookies in RotJ, but changed his mind...not sure why)
Both movies have a battle in the Emperor's "inner sanctum". Several identical/similar statements were made by the emperor to his opponent in both movies. Actually, I think in one case, Yoda said something to the emperor in RotS that the Emperor said to Luke in RotJ.
RotS contains the destruction of Anakin and the creation of Darth Vader, while RotJ contains the destruction of Darth Vader and the rebirth (resurrection?) of Anakin Skywalker.
Both movies address the issue of jealousy. Unless I'm reading too much into this, Anakan appears jealous of ObiWan, stemming from the moment he realizes ObiWan will be present for the birth of his child. Yoda warns Anakin about posessiveness, jealousy, and "letting go". By contrast, we see heroic Han Solo in RotJ, being willing to "let go" of Princess Leia.
Finally, both movies contain hints and suggestions about immortality; RotS talks about QuiGonn discovering the secret of immortality, and we see the fruition of his discovery in RotJ when the Jedi appear together at the end of the movie.
I'm sure there's plenty of other parallels...I've tried in this list to avoid the Anakin/Luke parallels; I'll post those another day. (Continue reading here: Anakin Skywalker and Luke Skywalker: Parallels and Contrasts and Thoughts About Meanings To Be Found In The Star Wars Saga)
Posted On May 28, 2005 at 4:36 AM
On May 28, 2005 Beth wrote: Wow, you got this up some quick!
Make sure you check out my blog, I got something just for you on there
Doug Replied: well, this was the easy one...the post about parallels between Anakin and Luke is going to be the long entry.
And I loved the "I've got a baad feeling about this" sound clip. Thanks for thinking of me!
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