A Thousand Stars: Episode II, Part 28

Darkness. Falling from a great height. Fire. Violence. Without a single word of dialogue, Lucas tells us what is about to happen by way of evocative symbols and imagery and bone-chilling foreshadowing. We're holding our breath, as it were, in anticipation of the awful moment that's coming.

In addition, there's a parallel drawn with a famous western, John Ford's "The Searchers."



A earlier mirroring showed up in Episode IV, with the burning of the Lars homestead and a similar scene from Ford's film. But this moment digs a little deeper into that western's plotline. John Wayne's character is tracking down a kidnapped niece, but it becomes increasingly clear that he's not a straightforward, admirable hero. The longer the niece is among her abductors, a Comanche tribe, the more likely she is to have been assimilated by their culture. And our "hero" is so racist that he'd rather kill her than have an Indian niece. It was a significant departure from the simplistic morality of older westerns, an exploration of how a man's obsession warps his choices into something truly monstrous. A fascinating and fitting reference for Lucas to include in Anakin's journey, and a treat for any film history fans that deepens the visual resonance of this already powerful sequence.

Next time, face acting says it all...