Movies have the ability to take us out of our current situations and into another world. It might be a different time, a different place, or a completely different galaxy. Ask anyone who sees movies regularly, and they will be able to tell you what their favorite movie is and possibly why. The Star Wars saga does that for me and probably for a lot of you who are reading this.

If you couldn’t tell from the title of this post, my favorite movie of the Saga is Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith (ROTS). If you ask most Star Wars fans what their favorite movie is, the vast majority of them will say Episode 5: Empire Strikes Back, which is a darker movie and doesn’t have a very happy ending. Revenge of the Sith is the same way, but I think it is much darker. And I like it that way.

ROTS starts out in the middle of a galactic-wide war and finds our heroes rushing to save the supreme chancellor who’s been kidnapped and ends with two newborn babies shipped to opposite ends of the galaxy in order for them to be protected from the Sith, who are now in control of the entire galaxy. If the movies were released in order from 1-6, we would have no idea what was going to happen next. We would have some hope, but things would look bleak.

In this movie we get to see why Anakin becomes Darth Vader and the deception that he was under with Palpatine. We see Anakin become so obsessed with saving Padmè that he is oblivious to the fact that Palpatine is telling him about the powers that the Sith have and the Jedi don’t during their conversation during the opera. We also see how the Jedi Council’s mistrust of Anakin led to his frustration and anger at them and his disobeying orders and going to Palpatine’s office only to find that his friend was going to be killed by Windu and Anakin disarming him, which leads to Windu’s death and Anakin making the decision to be Palpatine’s apprentice and being given the name Darth Vader.

The movie is full of emotional highs and lows. There is the success of rescuing a close friend and mentor and the anguish of the inevitable fight to the death between two friends who are now mortal enemies. There is the joy of finding out that Padmè is pregnant to the sadness of her death when the babies are born. Then there’s the ultimate sadness that comes when the entire Jedi Order is destroyed by their own clones, with which they had fought side-by-side during the Clone Wars just days before. And of course there is the treachery of Chancellor Palpatine who was in reality a Sith Lord.

Obi-Wan: You were the chosen one! It was said that you would destroy the Sith, not join them. You were to bring balance to the force, not leave it in darkness.

Anakin Skywalker: [shouts] I hate you.

Obi-Wan: You were my brother, Anakin. I loved you.

The above dialogue is probably my favorite scene in the entire film, and maybe in the entire Saga. There is so much emotion in these lines. The first set of Obi-Wan’s dialogue show his anger that his friend has become something that he swore to defeat and as a result has destroyed the Jedi Order. But I think there is more. I feel that all the anger that Obi-Wan felt when his own master, Qui-Gon Jinn, was killed and the pressures of taking on a Padawan before he was probably ready and having to train Anakin during a war had gotten to him and this situation allowed him to release all that frustration. But we also see the love and sadness that Obi-Wan was feeling at having to kill his best friend, even as that best friend is telling him that he hates him. Just after this line, Anakin burst into flames and Obi-Wan leaves, thinking that Anakin will die and that he will never see him again. At this point, he goes back to Padmè’s ship to take care of her and finds out she is dying.

Another scene that I like is the scene where Anakin and Padmè are looking across Coruscant towards each other’s location. There is sentence that Palpatine is saying inside Anakin’s head that says that Anakin will inevitable lose Padmè if Palpatine is arrested, but the music that composer John Williams wrote for this scene is perfect. The haunting vocals and music add to the emotions, and confusion, that Anakin and Padmè are feeling. After this, Anakin decides to stop the Council from arresting Palpatine.

There are numerous other scenes that illustrate the conflict that Anakin is feeling. There’s his reluctance to kill Dooku, the outburst in the Council chambers, his conversations with Obi-Wan and Padmè are a few examples. All of this adds to his conversion to the Dark Side.

Is this a perfect movie? No. There are some issues that could have been improved, most notably was Padmè’s roll. As my fellow blogger, Jeff McGee, likes to say, she is a “walking womb.” She really has no significant scenes in the movie. You don’t see her part in forming what would become the rebellion against Palpatine, although there were some scenes that were cut from the final release. The only hint we get is when she is asking Anakin to talk to the chancellor to try and stop the war and begin negotiations.

I hope you enjoyed reading this blog. Please leave a comment in the comments section, or if you have a question for me personally, you can always e-mail me at joe2@coffeewithkenobi.com, and I’d be happy to reply. Remember to check out the other bloggers and also to check out the latest episode of the Coffee With Kenobi podcast, and remember, this is the podcast you’re looking for.

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