Tonight one of the networks played Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith. I both love and hate that movie. I love it because it has rockin' fight scenes and the story of Anakin's turn to the dark side is finally completed. I hate it because it's just sad. Depressing. So great was the fall... (and so cheesy was Natalie Portman's line, "Anakin, you're breaking my heart.") But I digress. After watching the movie I remembered writing about it more than 6 years ago. Here it is:
Thursday, May 19, 2005
The midnight showing of Episode 3 was worth the wait. There were at least two Sith's, a handful of Jedi, a princess or two (including one sitting kinda behind me in an Amazing t-shirt  ), a Stormtrooper, a really cool LightSaber along with some cheesy ones...in attendance.Interpreting a movie is kinda like interpreting the Bible. There are 6 billion of us and 6 billion opinions...but the opinion that matters most is the one that wrote it. I've never heard that Lucas set out to do anything more profound than create a sci-fi swashbuckling space opera. To say much more is to read into it what may or may not be there at all. Having said that- there are some incredible spiritual applications and perhaps none so striking as in this movie. In some ways, I thought Anakin gave in too easily...I didn't think the movie adequately developed his inner turmoil that led to such fateful decisions. But gosh...once he started making those bad choices...well...things got seriously out of hand! I always thought of Darth Vader as a "great" bad guy...ya know? one of the best movie villians of all time. But after last night I see nothing great about his character at all. He was worse than horrible. Before last night he was a bad guy in a cool costume. Now he's a horrendous human on par or worse than Hitler. He is hate personified- SIN itself personified. If it were real...and not a movie...I can't imagine seeing any good in him. But as much as I hate to admit it...as dark as Anakin was...as evil and vile as he was- that's a really good picture of us outside of a relationship with Christ. I don't want to imagine myself like that. I can easily compare myself to someone else in an effort to not appear as "dark". But the truth is- Vader is a pretty good personification of SIN. Of course...Episode 3 isn't the end. It's just the middle. Luke didn't see any good in Vader when he killed Obi Wan in Ep. 4 or when they fought in Ep5. But something happened to Luke that changed him and changed the way he saw Vader. Classic line from Ep6, Luke: "But Father, I came to save you", Vader: "You already have". Star Wars- the story of lost man redeemed by the Son. | |
