When Star Wars still could have been great.
In 1999, the people at Skywalker Ranch made six short films called "tone poems" to advertise the upcoming release of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Each tone poem featured a major Star Wars character reading a monologue introducing and developing his or her character. Three of the six of them are truly great, and show that if the prequels had utterly different dialogue, they might have been as great as these tone poems. I've been a fan of these tone poems for ten years, and I figure I'll mention them here on the off-chance that others haven't had the pleasure of watching them. Watch these and cry for your lost youth and George Lucas's squandering of a great opportunity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTXqFbCNJPw - One Dream (The Boy Anakin)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjC7SwS41q0 - One Destiny (Qui-Gon Jinn)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcLf7HPcxwE - One Love (Shmi Skywalker)
I have not included Queen Amidala's "One Will" tone poem because she is a weak character, and her tone poem is nonsense without rhythm, and this post is about when and how Star Wars could have been great. Portman's fake British Imperial accent utterly scuttles what was already an abortion of storytelling.
I have also not included Darth Maul's "One Truth" tone poem, nor have I included Obi-Wan's incongruous and amateurish tone poem.
The Shmi Skywalker tone poem is one minute, and in that minute it gives a robust portrait of the conflicted feelings of the mother of a talented child, when it comes time for that child to leave home in order to flourish. The maternal selfishness of the mother who wants to have her son nearby conflicts with the awareness that the son is an autonomous individual presented with the opportunity to escape from slavery and develop his talents and see the world. She tells him not to look back when he leaves, with the full awareness that he is turning his back on his mother.
The Qui-Gon Jinn tone poem presents the recruiting PR pitch for the Jedi order. Being a Jedi will be a hard life, but you will become who you really are if you choose it. This is the Jedi sales pitch Don Draper would have come up with. When I watch this, I want to join the Jedi, with all their arrogant blindness, just so I can know who I am.
The Anakin tone poem is the most tragic and effective and affecting. What if all your dreams came true, and you banished fear, and you became your best self, and you could protect your mother forever? That's all the boy wants. This is the last time that we could ever think of Anakin's innocent character in a way that might have harmonized with Vader's, with the unmasked Anakin's, at the end of Return of the Jedi, before the utterly confused, psychologically incredible material introduced in the prequels.
Who would have believed in 1981 that Star Wars fandom would mourn the death of Darth Vader? Here it is, albeit not in its true aspect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfF8UgfXHrk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTXqFbCNJPw - One Dream (The Boy Anakin)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjC7SwS41q0 - One Destiny (Qui-Gon Jinn)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcLf7HPcxwE - One Love (Shmi Skywalker)
I have not included Queen Amidala's "One Will" tone poem because she is a weak character, and her tone poem is nonsense without rhythm, and this post is about when and how Star Wars could have been great. Portman's fake British Imperial accent utterly scuttles what was already an abortion of storytelling.
I have also not included Darth Maul's "One Truth" tone poem, nor have I included Obi-Wan's incongruous and amateurish tone poem.
The Shmi Skywalker tone poem is one minute, and in that minute it gives a robust portrait of the conflicted feelings of the mother of a talented child, when it comes time for that child to leave home in order to flourish. The maternal selfishness of the mother who wants to have her son nearby conflicts with the awareness that the son is an autonomous individual presented with the opportunity to escape from slavery and develop his talents and see the world. She tells him not to look back when he leaves, with the full awareness that he is turning his back on his mother.
The Qui-Gon Jinn tone poem presents the recruiting PR pitch for the Jedi order. Being a Jedi will be a hard life, but you will become who you really are if you choose it. This is the Jedi sales pitch Don Draper would have come up with. When I watch this, I want to join the Jedi, with all their arrogant blindness, just so I can know who I am.
The Anakin tone poem is the most tragic and effective and affecting. What if all your dreams came true, and you banished fear, and you became your best self, and you could protect your mother forever? That's all the boy wants. This is the last time that we could ever think of Anakin's innocent character in a way that might have harmonized with Vader's, with the unmasked Anakin's, at the end of Return of the Jedi, before the utterly confused, psychologically incredible material introduced in the prequels.
Who would have believed in 1981 that Star Wars fandom would mourn the death of Darth Vader? Here it is, albeit not in its true aspect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfF8UgfXHrk