Star Words: Episode V, Part 42
Oct. 8th, 2020 05:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matrilThis is the point of the film when it looks like everything is going wrong for our heroes. Han has been frozen and Boba Fett is carting him off, Vader has changed his mind yet again and demands that Leia and Chewie remain in Imperial custody, and Luke is about to fall directly into the Sith Lord's trap -- in spite of Leia's screaming plea that warns him of that very thing.
Well, the darkest pits make for the most thrilling escapes. What makes Episode V so compelling isn't being "darker" than the other films; it's that only some of its perils are overcome by the end of the movie. It was truly a middle act, leaving the full resolutions for the third. It made for a very unusual, daring sequel in an era where movies were reliably self-contained, single stories. Yet another way that the Star Wars saga forever changed the landscape of cinema.
Anyway, Luke enters the trap. On some level I think he's aware of this. He's not oblivious...just rash and reckless and over-confident. As Vader declares:
"The Force is with you, young Skywalker. But you are not a Jedi yet."
The visuals of this scene give me chills. Everything in stark shadow. Two bold silhouettes. A simple image, in many ways, and yet so evocative and memorable. And Vader's taunts, the faint praise wherewith an abusive parent damns his child.
There are shades of this exchange in the Count Dooku/Anakin duel in Episode II. Insults and sneers are as much a Sith Lord's weapons as a red-bladed lightsaber. Much like young Anakin, Luke does not yet have the emotional dexterity to parry those taunts. He despises Vader, and yet he is determined to prove his worth to him, to conquer this monstrous figure. That goes about as well as you might expect, alas.
In truth, it is only by recognizing the monstrous figure inside himself that Luke can become a Jedi Knight.
Next time, sparks fly amid a shifting allegiance...
Well, the darkest pits make for the most thrilling escapes. What makes Episode V so compelling isn't being "darker" than the other films; it's that only some of its perils are overcome by the end of the movie. It was truly a middle act, leaving the full resolutions for the third. It made for a very unusual, daring sequel in an era where movies were reliably self-contained, single stories. Yet another way that the Star Wars saga forever changed the landscape of cinema.
Anyway, Luke enters the trap. On some level I think he's aware of this. He's not oblivious...just rash and reckless and over-confident. As Vader declares:
"The Force is with you, young Skywalker. But you are not a Jedi yet."
The visuals of this scene give me chills. Everything in stark shadow. Two bold silhouettes. A simple image, in many ways, and yet so evocative and memorable. And Vader's taunts, the faint praise wherewith an abusive parent damns his child.
There are shades of this exchange in the Count Dooku/Anakin duel in Episode II. Insults and sneers are as much a Sith Lord's weapons as a red-bladed lightsaber. Much like young Anakin, Luke does not yet have the emotional dexterity to parry those taunts. He despises Vader, and yet he is determined to prove his worth to him, to conquer this monstrous figure. That goes about as well as you might expect, alas.
In truth, it is only by recognizing the monstrous figure inside himself that Luke can become a Jedi Knight.
Next time, sparks fly amid a shifting allegiance...
no subject
Date: 2020-10-09 01:04 am (UTC)I remember you making a point of Vader's "abusive parent" edge, and can ponder the bravado so many see as "foolish" in Luke, although he does have one more chance to escape this battle he doesn't take. Not that long ago, though, I saw someone suggesting that for all the lumps Luke takes for "rushing off half-trained," if he hadn't gone to Cloud City Artoo wouldn't have joined up with everyone else to open the locked door and know just how to reconnect the Millennium Falcon's hyperdrive... "The least likely can be the most important" has been pointed out at many different moments in the saga, although perhaps Artoo's developed such a heightened reputation it can almost be missed here.
no subject
Date: 2020-10-09 01:19 am (UTC)I haven't been consciously writing more and more entries for each film, but it seems my tendency is to get increasingly long-winded with each installment. If I went back to earlier movies, I'd probably end up writing more...