Star Wars and Fatherhood: Anakin's Fall
Dean
It may seem overly geeky but in a recent discussion here on Dean's World, I had some thoughts in disagreement with some people regarding Star Wars Episode III that seemed worth reiterating here:
A frequent complaint about Episode III is that it is full of clunker lines. Furthermore, to many people, Anakin's fall to "The Dark Side" seemed poorly handled and hard to understand. Well maybe that is a weakness for some people, but it wasn't for me. Indeed, it was this part of the movie that I most deeply related to as a person--and as a man.
First off, as for the occasionally wooden dialogue: The clunker lines in the original Star Wars start with "Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope" and went on from there. The original movies were full of them: Han Solo bragging about how he made the Kessel run in 5 parsecs (or whatever), for example. And then there's practically everything Alec Guiness uttered in the first movie. Those movies are full of stilted an pompous lines. How about, "She'll die before she tells you anything!" "Leave that to me!" or "This technological marvel you have constructed is insignificant compared the power of The Force!" (Yeah right, like you ever blew up a planet with your force-powers, Vader.)
How about Luke grunting as he looked into space: "Faaaa-therrrr...!"
Then there's one of my all-time favorites, spoken by an Imperial officer with a sneer: "You rebel scum!" Pah!
Oh yeah, and then there's, like, every line that Jabba the Hut or Yoda ever spoke.
As for Anakin's fall: I guess it must just be me. I remember all too well being a surly, angry, resentful, rebellious teenager (and early 20-something). Me? I bought into the whole thing as a refusal to grow up and face your own demons--which to me is the ultimate in cowardice.
It was made pretty clear to me that Anakin never really loved Padme--he loved the idea of her. She, on the other hand, really did love him even though she often found him incomprehensible.
Maybe this all because I grew up with what they call "father issues." Growing up, I didn't really have a father so much as a series of men who sort of tried to fill that role in various half-measures.
With the hope that this isn't getting too personal (I don't think I'm talking out of turn or saying anything secret here) I note that Solomon Mason loved Episode III as much as I did, and grew up in a similarly broken home. I suspect that as a result we both related to Anakin and his dark side almost instinctively. After watching Episode III I felt like I totally "got" Darth Vader. I thought, "Damn, yeah, if I were who I was back when I was 21, and I'd had that kid's powers, I could well have turned into Darth Vader."
That moment after Obi-Wan had defeated him in battle, and Anakin screamed, "I hate you!!!"--man, chills ran down my spine. He was filled with rage at Obi-Wan for not validating everything he wanted to believe about himself.
It does help if you keep in mind that Anakin was young--very young--and quite conflicted and alone most of his life. The Jedi Council was probably right that he was waaay too young for the responsibilities he was being given. But it wasn't just his youth: it was obvious from day one that Anakin was kind of a mess.
Maybe others who didn't grow up like that, or know anybody like that, can't relate. I don't know. Me, I thought it was beautiful. Especially in seeing how his son Luke, faced with many of the same problems and limitations, overcame them and became a better man.
To be painfully self-revealing here, I often hope my sons will be better men than I was at their age. In truth, I often guage my effectiveness as a father with that as my yardstick--not to push them or bully them or try to make them someone they are not, but because I was a train wreck back then. My boys are not me, and they have to make their own way and discover who they are. Indeed I often marvel at how wonderful they are as people, even in their imperfections. I am only an imperfect (to say the least) guide when it comes to being a good person.
Still: it was obvious to me that the self-conflicted mass of insecurities that was young Anakin was like clay in the hands of Palpatine. It was so obvious to me I didn't feel it needed any further explanations.
Maybe not to others. I don't know. All I know is, I "got" Anakin's fall. I understood it completely and at a visceral level.
As I've said previously, Episode III made me actually like Episode VI (the last one with Luke Skywalker) better. Luke overcame the problems his father could not.
Very powerful. For me, anyway.
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The problem was that Hayden Christenson was simply not believable as Anakin or Vader. (Vader was decisive and self-confident. Anakin was not. I really don't see how Lucas could get from point A to point B.) And it may be a plausible story to hinge the fate of the galaxy on this whiny bundle of hormones with super-force powers. I just think he could have done a lot better on the explanation. There were so many angles that Lucas could have exploited in this new trilogy, but he left them all untapped.
Hell, we're all like that as teenagers, father figure or not. But a lack of a father figure in itself doesn't explain why Anakin fell so far so fast. There are other factors which Lucas never explores.
Anyway, you and Solomon and everyone else should go read Darth Side: Memoirs of a Monster. It starts off a bit schlocky, but at the end, you get a clearer idea of why Anakin became Vader, much more than Lucas could EVER give.
P.S. This afternoon as I'm running errands I am mentally re-writing this entire prequel trilogy to see if I can squeeze in a more plausible story of Anakin's fall.
"Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force. Mourn them, do not. Miss them, do not. Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed, that is. Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose."
As for Yoda: Oh give me a break. He's a sanctimonious little jerk who spouts dime-store novel platitudes that sound profound because of his cartoon-character way of speaking.
It all seemed cool when we were younger because it was so novel and different from anything we'd seen in movies before is all.
And there's nothing wrong with that--these are great movies. But the critics of the original Star Wars film all the way back to 1977 were saying the same thing: stilted dialogue, hackneyed situations, melodramatic, cheap sentimentality, etc. Those complaints have always been there.
dale
I'm sure all geeks out there realize that a parsec is a measure of distance, not velocity. "I made the L.A. run in 200 miles" ?
I must confess that I have seen nought but bits and snippets of the Star Wars series -- even as little as I have seen of Star Trek since the days when Dr. McCoy told Mr. Spock to shut up -- so I render no judgement. I grew up on the Lost In Space television series, as well as The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits, back in the early 1960s. I suppose that I must see it all (the Star Wars saga) someday, as it seems to be rapidly becoming part of the folklore of our early 21st century Late Western, or at least American, civilization.
That quote from Yoda sounds like the philosophy of Buddhism, the basic premises of which are diametrically opposed to my own. Myself, I prefer our Western philosophies and religions, such as Judaism, Christianity (particularly Catholicism), Asatru, and Objectivism. G. K. Chesterton wrote profoundly on Buddhism vs. Christianity in his Orthodoxy. I am an egoist.
Also, (keep in mind that I don't have a problem with Annakin's turn- it seemed abrupt but it made sense) the argument that people don't "get" something because they lack necessary life experience is kind of weak. Not just in this individual case, but generally. Not to go into moral relativism and etc., but that argument has vast application.
Finally I have to disagree about Padme. I think he loved her very much and was unable to handle it. If you're saying that real or true love can't be twisted or perverted by insecurity and fear of loss then maybe he didn't love her... But in my experience love can be warped into hate, into feeling of posession, etc. Lots of young men can relate to that, too.
I agree 100% about when Annakin screamed "I hate you!"... whoa! That line really gave me chicken skin.
cheers!
I went back and watched the 1977 original Star Wars this weekend. Wooden lines predominated, especially from Ben Kenobi.
SMA: IMO, Lucas drew heavily on Buddhism, esp. Zen Buddhism when he was creating the Jedi Order (the Jedi order's symbol, BTW, is an eight-spoked wheel similar to a Buddhist dharma wheel). Warrior-monks, "unlearning" what you have learned, belief in the illusory and fleeting nature of physical reality, a goal of forsaking all worldly attachments. (Also note that lightsaber combat was heavily influenced by Japanese swordmanship, from the Samurai on down to modern versions like kendo and iaido, all of which were strongly influenced by Zen teachings.)
The thing about Buddhism itself is that it does not have any internal references to a God or gods, or specific divine individuals. Consequently, most adherents of Buddhism either combine its style of worship with local deities/legends (Tibetan buddhism), or practice it along side other religions (Confucianism/Taoism in China, Shinto in Japan). I am a Catholic myself, but even I find myself amazed at the paralells found between Jesus' teachings and those of Buddhism.
huh...
Different strokes I guess. Or maybe I still see it through my 10 year-old eyes and ears when I rewatch. But would the movie have been that popular if "wooden lines predominated?"
The movies were popular for a wide variety of reasons. The criticisms of the time were very similar to the criticisms of the current movies. Audiences didn't care, largely I think for the reasons Paul Burgess mentions above.
The current movies are going to seem weaker for a variety of reasons: the novelty has worn off on a lot of it, the themes explored are not quite as universal, Lucas did try to cram too much in, special effects have become orders of magnitude better and more common (a phenomenon Lucas himself is in large part responsible for), and so on.
I 11 when that movie came out and I can tell you, there had never been anything like Star Wars when it first came out. It was mindblowing. Nowadays of course we have no shortage of great science fiction and science fantasy in movies and television. If that movie had come out in 1997 instead of 1977 it wouldn't have been the hit it was. It came along at exactly the right time, exactly the right moment.
Nowadays, nothing seems to ring the cultural chimes quite so large. movies sell lots of tickets, but none changes the culture like star wars.
Still and all, there's a reason carrie fisher and mark hamill haven't done much on screen since the original movies - they are not good actors. As one of the few people who saw "Corvette Summer" in the theatre, I can attest to Hamill's less-than-stellar skills. Harrison Ford made a career of playing harrison ford/hans solo playing whatever part he was playing.
cheers!
Taking Anakin from his mother would not have been unusual in the least, it was routine.
In the original trilogy, the Jedi were an obscure and anonymous group with strange mystical powers, who used those powers to do good deeds throughout the galaxy whenever possible. In the new trilogy, they are no longer obscure and anonymous, their powers aren't so mystical or even that special, and they have become a group of self-absorbed elitists concerned only with preserving what is left of their dwindling power.
In other words, Lucas turned the Jedi from being reluctant superheroes of the Spiderman type("with great power comes great responsibility") to university professors.
That said, as entertainment, I enjoyed Episode III, but I'm just not sure it, or any of the prequels, add anything to the Star Wars lore.
But I do agree that Episode III dealt greatly with father-son relationships. While the plot made us believe that Anakin joined the dark side in order to save Padme, the subtext (and I'm not sure if this was Lucas' intent or not) was that he joined the dark side in search of a father figure. While Obi-Wan was mouthing off Jedi "do your duty" platitudes, Palpatine was providing a sympathetic ear.
Again, I'm not sure that was Lucas' intent since he seemed to want to make it all about Padme, but the love scenes between Padme and Anakin were so clunky that you could barely be convinced that he loved the woman, let alone slaughtered the Jedi in order to save her life.