That very first moment, where the Rebel ship flew overhead pursued by the Imperial Star Destroyer, impossibly huge, impossibly loud, is one that will stay with me forever. I had, quite literally, never seen anything quite like that before, and it changed my life. The Empire Strikes Back was even better – characters that we cared about were caught in the middle of an epic war, and there was every chance that they might not win. The subsequent films had their moments, but they were just marking time. There was just one thing that I really wanted to see.
I think it was in a Star Wars poster magazine, or a comic perhaps, just a throw away line about Darth Vader and Obi Wan Kenobi fighting a duel on the edge of a volcano. For me, this epitomized the magic of the Star Wars universe. Characters had a history, stretching back, outside the glimpses that we saw on the screen. It felt real, in much the same way that Middle Earth feels like a real place to those of us who grew up with Lord of the Rings.
So, we come to the end. The final film. Our last sight of the Star Wars universe.
I am prepared to forgive this film a lot. The wooden acting, the stilted dialogue, and the bombastic spectacle for the sake of it. The opening sequence with hundreds of Star Destroyers just feels empty, whereas that original moment was overwhelming in its scale and simplicity. At one point a character dies, simply because they have lost the will to live – there are points in Revenge of the Sith that come dangerously close to that point.
Still, there is much to appreciate. Light saber duels, Mace Windu filled with righteous anger, Wookies in a humongous battle, Yoda being the most expressive character on the screen.
Oh yes, and that moment. The fight on the volcano. Thrilling and horrifying in equal measure, and a fine postscript to the saga as a whole. The closing moments of the film are simply magnificent – the final transformation of Anakin into Darth Vader, Yoda looking very old, the sight of Death Star, and the twin suns setting over Tatooine. We have come full circle, and this will do.
The most satisfying thing of all was the joy on a small boy’s face as we fought our own light saber duel in the sunshine when we got home. The imagination is the most powerful force of all, and that is where the real magic lies.
1 comment:
Yes. I used to get the comics and I remember reading in an old collectors magazine special that said Darth Vader was in the suit after 'falling into a volcano' and for years I just thought he was really clumsy.
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