pros and cons of being 2: a dilemma
May. 18th, 2005 09:09 amOne advantage of being 2 is that Eleanor can't read. Therefore if we showed her the Star Wars movies in episode order, she wouldn't know that Anakin becomes Vader until now, and then get to see his redemption in direct fashion, instead of seeing his fall as the last thing. Statements like Ebert's "That Anakin Skywalker abandoned the Jedi and went over to the dark side is known to all students of "Star Wars." That his twins Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia would redeem the family name is also known." are not 'true' for Eleanor. She's not reading reviews that give away these facts.
Previously the issue of showing it in chronological order was in no way a dilemma: I really intend to show her Ep IV (VHS, THX-but-unadulterated edition, baby!) first. But it's possible to toy with the idea that she could, for her first time watch the story in linear fashion. if she wanted, or if WE wanted.
Our parents never had this dilemma. This one doesn't show up in "What to Expect..." that's for dang sure.
Which is the bigger revelation of secrets...
Anakin Skywalker becomes Vader?
Luke's father is Vader?
Luke & Leia are siblings?
Vader becomes redeemed?
Talk amongst yourselves...
Watching in episode order diminishes the impact of Empire's big revelation that Vader is Luke's father and ROTJ's big reveal that Leia is his sister. But watching it in episode order makes it a story about Anakin-Vader-Luke-Vader-Anakin
Watching in release order makes it a story about Luke-Vader-Anakin-Anakin-Vader, but see? It injects that stutter-step in the cycle of Anakin's rise to glory, decline and fall to evil and rise to redemption. You already know he's Vader by the time you meet him in Ep 1. So if you love eps 4-6 already, then you want 1-3 to do justice to him. Since by all accounts, Lucas' dialogue is still craptastic in Ep3, does that mean we've been in a 6 hour car chase? i.e., there has been some excellent acting in Eps 4-6 and deep emotional content in a number of scenes. So the revelations and surprises seemed to hit with great force on the characters (obviously I'm among those who think Mark Hamill is a much better actor than he's been credited for being). Whereas in Eps 1-3 if it's all a foregone conclusion, you'd think it would be profoundly important for the emotional content of scenes to be top-notch. With some exceptions, they have been a little...stiff... So we're just waiting for it to conclude with flair?
Examples
Episode one has one scene, imho, that matches the emotional ferocity of episode four: when Obi Wan must watch Qui Gonn die and be thwarted by that energy field and then race into battle against Darth Maul. That made me feel some of the visceral feelings plainly visible on Luke's face when he says "that would lead them... home" and rushes back to Uncle Owen's. And the pod race was exciting dynamic cinema that compared most favorably to the thrilling battle of Yavin .
Episode two's tremendous lightsaber duels were electric. Seeing Obi Wan in action throughout the picture made you feel a touch of the greatness of the jedi knights at the height of the republic. What a lovely example of a golden age.
They pack little of the punch of an amputatin' duel that ends in "I am your father!" "NOOOO!!!" and again, that subtle quality Mark Hamill demonstrates as he examines his mechanical hand and gazes out at the vastness of the universe and their tiny fleet, the connection to his machine-father, the smallness of his and his friends' quest. Where's that?
Presently, my argument is that knowing who Luke & Leia are, who Vader is, would blunt the force of Eps 4-6 and that seeing them in release order is best. That decision would feel a lot better if Eps 1-3 contained better dialogue, or more completely embodied well-performed drama. All the complexity of relationships and the longing for PLACE in Eps 4-6 feels... missing... so far in the newer films. Why did we have to settle? To watch the fall so inexorably and with such a lack of mimesis? Permit me a final example: Yeats' "Second Coming" shows scenes that are foregone, seemingly unavoidable, the ending written before the start. But you feel that drama, you still mark the uncertainty despite the certainty, that terrifying ambiguity of things still to come- "What rough beast its hour come round at last slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?"
With star wars, we know what's slouching toward us as Episode 3 opens tonight. To show these movies to my kid in episode order, that knowing would have needed to be painted with an awful lot more tension and "shadows of the indignant desert birds", instead of "mere anarchy" and "passionate intensity."
wow, that went right off the cliff didn't it?
Previously the issue of showing it in chronological order was in no way a dilemma: I really intend to show her Ep IV (VHS, THX-but-unadulterated edition, baby!) first. But it's possible to toy with the idea that she could, for her first time watch the story in linear fashion. if she wanted, or if WE wanted.
Our parents never had this dilemma. This one doesn't show up in "What to Expect..." that's for dang sure.
Which is the bigger revelation of secrets...
Anakin Skywalker becomes Vader?
Luke's father is Vader?
Luke & Leia are siblings?
Vader becomes redeemed?
Talk amongst yourselves...
Watching in episode order diminishes the impact of Empire's big revelation that Vader is Luke's father and ROTJ's big reveal that Leia is his sister. But watching it in episode order makes it a story about Anakin-Vader-Luke-Vader-Anakin
Watching in release order makes it a story about Luke-Vader-Anakin-Anakin-Vader, but see? It injects that stutter-step in the cycle of Anakin's rise to glory, decline and fall to evil and rise to redemption. You already know he's Vader by the time you meet him in Ep 1. So if you love eps 4-6 already, then you want 1-3 to do justice to him. Since by all accounts, Lucas' dialogue is still craptastic in Ep3, does that mean we've been in a 6 hour car chase? i.e., there has been some excellent acting in Eps 4-6 and deep emotional content in a number of scenes. So the revelations and surprises seemed to hit with great force on the characters (obviously I'm among those who think Mark Hamill is a much better actor than he's been credited for being). Whereas in Eps 1-3 if it's all a foregone conclusion, you'd think it would be profoundly important for the emotional content of scenes to be top-notch. With some exceptions, they have been a little...stiff... So we're just waiting for it to conclude with flair?
Examples
Episode one has one scene, imho, that matches the emotional ferocity of episode four: when Obi Wan must watch Qui Gonn die and be thwarted by that energy field and then race into battle against Darth Maul. That made me feel some of the visceral feelings plainly visible on Luke's face when he says "that would lead them... home" and rushes back to Uncle Owen's. And the pod race was exciting dynamic cinema that compared most favorably to the thrilling battle of Yavin .
Episode two's tremendous lightsaber duels were electric. Seeing Obi Wan in action throughout the picture made you feel a touch of the greatness of the jedi knights at the height of the republic. What a lovely example of a golden age.
They pack little of the punch of an amputatin' duel that ends in "I am your father!" "NOOOO!!!" and again, that subtle quality Mark Hamill demonstrates as he examines his mechanical hand and gazes out at the vastness of the universe and their tiny fleet, the connection to his machine-father, the smallness of his and his friends' quest. Where's that?
Presently, my argument is that knowing who Luke & Leia are, who Vader is, would blunt the force of Eps 4-6 and that seeing them in release order is best. That decision would feel a lot better if Eps 1-3 contained better dialogue, or more completely embodied well-performed drama. All the complexity of relationships and the longing for PLACE in Eps 4-6 feels... missing... so far in the newer films. Why did we have to settle? To watch the fall so inexorably and with such a lack of mimesis? Permit me a final example: Yeats' "Second Coming" shows scenes that are foregone, seemingly unavoidable, the ending written before the start. But you feel that drama, you still mark the uncertainty despite the certainty, that terrifying ambiguity of things still to come- "What rough beast its hour come round at last slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?"
With star wars, we know what's slouching toward us as Episode 3 opens tonight. To show these movies to my kid in episode order, that knowing would have needed to be painted with an awful lot more tension and "shadows of the indignant desert birds", instead of "mere anarchy" and "passionate intensity."
wow, that went right off the cliff didn't it?