A Thousand Stars: Episode II, Part 28

[matril]

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...

Comments

[krpalmer]

Having missed my chance to make a comment two weeks ago (I'd wanted to say that as Anakin is speeding off against the sunsets he's moving from right to left, reversed from the way we read words and perhaps images too, possibly reflecting how he's trying to "turn things back"), I'm trying to comment now. I recorded The Searchers off Turner Classic Movies to a DVD some time ago among many other films, and with it noted in Rick Worley's compendiums of "visual quotes" in Star Wars I wouldn't mind watching it myself if only I could block out the time. I suppose I am wondering about whether that screenshot is "day for night" shooting, which I have to admit can look pretty obvious to me in other old movies.