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Topic:
AOTC Chapter 34: "You're Not All-Powerful" DISCUSSION
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leelee
Registered:
Jan '03
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Date Posted:
1/31/05 2:24pm
Subject:
RE: AOTC Chapter 34: "You're Not All-Powerful" DISCUSSION
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 I LOVE this scene! great acting by Hayden in the confession and the funeral. The lines " i will even learn to stop people from dying" and "I wont fail again" will come back to haunt Anakin, and me when i'm watching Rots
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"Obi-wan, there is good in him.I know there is..still" Luke Skywalker: He's got too much of his father in him, but just enough of his mother "Padme becomes pregnant after a Jedi Knight with Anakin"  I have Ewan McGregor's autograph 
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RebelScum77
Title: Manager Emeritus
Registered:
Aug '03
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Date Posted:
1/31/05 2:47pm
Subject:
RE: AOTC Chapter 34: "You're Not All-Powerful" DISCUSSION
- Date Edited:
1/31/05 2:49pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
RebelScum77
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I definitely agree with everything Tyranus said (except for the wide angle zoom thing).
I'd just like to add a bit about Padmé. This is the scene which proves she loves Anakin. It's chilling that she comes to this realization at the same moment Anakin is realizing just what a horrible thing he did, and how much he liked the power it gave him. The reason you know she loves him is because she's only concentrating on his pain; she wants nothing more that to make it go away. Padmé's empathy completely overshadows what would have been her normal reaction to such an atrocity. For the idealist Queen turned Senator, this is a huge moment.
And I definitely agree that this is one of the standout scenes in all of Star Wars. Hayden also gives one of the best performances. It's all in the eyes... the mixture of: confusion, fear, anger, hatred, panic, remorse, pain, horror, satisfaction... this is why Hayden was cast.
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CHEAP SLIT!!
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Qui-Dawn
Registered:
Jul '00
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Date Posted:
1/31/05 2:51pm
Subject:
RE: AOTC Chapter 34: "You're Not All-Powerful" DISCUSSION
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Very much agreed, Lars_Muul....he so desperately wants to *be* a better person, one who wouldn't give in to such base, violent, dark tumultuous emotion....one who wouldn't do such terrible, tragic things - however much they were born out of pain and grief - only to so agonizingly regret it later, and be utterly heartbroken over it....because it is a failure, and he knows it. It's a very human flaw, of course, one born completely out of all-too-human emotion....but he looks back at what he's done, and he's terrified not only that it may mean he can't be a Jedi anymore - but also of what it could very well portend for him directly. He stared directly into the hellish maw of utter darkness and despair....and it scared the living daylights out of him. It terrified and horrified him like nothing else....and you knew right away, of course, that he wasn't the least bit proud or happy of what he'd done. He never could be, of course.
It's a tragedy, plain and simple....there's no joy, pleasure, triumph or satisfaction to be taken in it....it doesn't fill the void left in him when his mother died, and the emptiness only remains, when all is said and done. He wouldn't have been so completely broken-up despairing and grief-stricken over it if he hadn't in fact been realizing that what he'd done was wrong....and that he "should", perhaps, have known better - *been* better, more, somehow - at least, that's what all his Jedi training had taught him. But all the training and schooling in the world cannot subvert or take the place of human emotion....because no matter what, we will still feel - we'll still grieve, love, feel anger and frustration, even hatred at times....no matter how much we may *not* want to, of course, wishing very much to be better than to succumb to such a thing (especially anger and hatred)....well, as we keep seeing pretty much constantly - we'll just keep acting on our emotions. We're not robots, after all!
And that, indeed, could be seen as the crux of the matter where Anakin is concerned, in this instance....when he tearfully says "I'm a Jedi, I *know* I'm better than this!" - he's clearly so frantic to believe that....he wishes he could really feel the truth of it....but in his heart of hearts, and especially as Padme comforts him, too, he must know that being a Jedi does not preclude him from being human. She even *tells* him, "To be angry is to be human" - just as it is to love, to feel overwhelming grief and transcendent joy....the fact that, yes, he's a Jedi - it doesn't make him an automaton, something to be entirely freed of all mortal emotion or compassion. It's not like that....*he* simply can't ever be like that! Yes, to be sure, at least some of his Jedi peers may have taken emotional discipline to an extreme....but it doesn't have to mean that they're not still feeling it, either.
And the fact that Anakin may not have their same discpline - the internal fortitude, if you will - does *not* make him any less a Jedi. You see, if he *were* indeed a robot or automaton, devoid of all heart, soul and emotion - then he really *wouldn't* be a Jedi anymore. Only if he truly stopped feeling would he be that dead a husk, inside.... It does, to a certain extent, hearken back to what he told Padme on the refugee ship.... "Compassion, which I would define as unconditional love, is central to a Jedi's life. So you might say that we are encouraged to love," was how he deftly - and, I feel, rightly - explained it to her. Because to be a Jedi is not to separate oneself from emotion, to be cut off from it....that would be a kind of living death, I think is how Anakin looks at it. Far as he's concerned, he *can* feel those feelings, and express them, and be a Jedi still. The two concepts, after all, need not be mutually exclusive....
Another thing of note about this scene....well, as has already been pointed out, it's in how Anakin is unleashing a tremendous barrage of overwhelming emotions all at once....anger warring with terrible pain, hatred at odds with guilt, numbing grief all mixed up with blame and resentment....and he's so emotionally fragile at that moment, so completely, broken-down vulnerable and *raw*, really, that you see this tumultuous cascade of sheer *feeling* all in but a single moment. You see the tears in his eyes, staining his cheeks - you hear the quiver and catch in his voice, you know that at heart he's just this lost, sad, forlorn, stricken little boy who's just lost his mother....his pain and sorrow leaps up, grabs you by the throat, and your heart bleeds for his pain. But then, in the same breath, you see his face contort with rage....his eyes blazing....his tone rising, harder, harsher, full of anger and blame....and you can't help but cringe and flinch from it.
His fury and dark, confused emotions, too, take such hold....and you're of course entirely mesmerized by him, can't turn away....no matter how much you may dread his anger or the utter, vengeful hatred with which he speaks of the Tuskens, and in rage spits out what he's done. The whole time, you know full well that it's breaking him to pieces - he's so terribly conflicted, anyone can readily see that - but, again, it's one of those instances where even as you know he's in such pain and it makes you cry to see him suffer so, the poor boy....still, that look in his eyes, his expression....and the confession itself, certainly - it's rather a terrifying, spine-chilling thing, that fills you with pure, unsettling dread for what his future holds....where this path could, indeed, lead him. And he sees it too....and I think it's also quite clear that it scares *him* most of all. He wouldn't be piteously crumpling up, hiding his head and breaking down in wracking sobs if he wasn't so scared and heartbroken.
Also....witness the moment where, as Padme gently, empathetically kneels beside him, and she's reaching out to him....gazing at him so tenderly, compassionately....at that moment, Anakin can't even look her in the eye. Perhaps he feels like he dare not....or like he doesn't deserve to do it anymore, after what he's seen and done....as though he can't bear to meet her gaze for fear he'll fall right to pieces. He's obviously trying so, *so* very hard to hold it all together....fraying, weakening, of course, but still he's struggling with it....and I think that in itself, the fact that he'd be so hesitant, so faltering at first that he'd not even dare look at her, perhaps dreading what he might see if he did....dreading her reaction, I suppose, what she might think of him....well, that in itself says volumes for his torment - how he'd so desperately cleave to the comfort she alone could offer him, but still, he was scared, tentative to do it....until she did it for him.
And then and only then, I think, could Anakin completely fall apart - very vulnerable, lost, pitiful and broken, and of course all too naturally, intrinsically human - there, in the shelter and safe haven of her embrace....her comforting and gentle reassurances, her acceptance and understanding. Right then, when he needed it the most - when he would've been forever lost without it - she saved him. With her gentle, graceful sympathy and exquisite compassion....being every inch his angel....she saved him. He'd already touched that darkness once and it terrified him so greatly....he'd already stepped over the brink, and she'd helped pull him back....she wasn't about to let him plummet over it once more, that was obvious. When he needed it, and *her*, the very most - she was there for him, and was every inch the angel to save him.
Dawn.
-----signature-----
Anakin Skywalker is shagadelic! "...I'm far too beautiful!" - Lorenzo de Lamberti The Rambling Court Bard of the A&P Defenders Royal Court Hayden is MY Love Muffin 
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casusev
Registered:
Mar '04
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Date Posted:
1/31/05 3:04pm
Subject:
RE: AOTC Chapter 34: "You're Not All-Powerful" DISCUSSION
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Best scene in the PT so far. And if ROTS is handled like this scene, then its gonna rock my socks off.
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"They can be a great people Kal-El, if they wish to be.
They only lack the light to show the way.
For this reason above all, their capasity for good,
I have sent them you, my only son."
Superman Returns 2006!
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JUKE-SKYWALKER
Registered:
Mar '04
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Date Posted:
1/31/05 4:56pm
Subject:
RE: AOTC Chapter 34: "You're Not All-Powerful" DISCUSSION
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After the Kiddie futility of TPM, Lucas finally
took the gloves off in this scene. Up until this point I wansn't sure that HC could handle the dramtic story
arc to come, but this scene was his shining moment.
One the the top moments in the entire saga, IMO.
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’Cause there’s thunder in your heart... Every move is like lightning! http://overgrownboyscout.blogspot.com/ "It's going to take a lot more than skill for Cru Jones to conquer the toughest BMX challenge in the world. It's going to take a miracle."
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Qui-Dawn
Registered:
Jul '00
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Date Posted:
1/31/05 6:46pm
Subject:
RE: AOTC Chapter 34: "You're Not All-Powerful" DISCUSSION
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"Kiddie futility"? *chuckles* Riiiiiiight, and that's why I was left emotionally reeling and shell-shocked, entirely overwhelmed by it....that's why it made me a real, enduring, passionate, devoted fan....  *chortling*
Now....another thing of note about this chapter, and Shmi's funeral in particular....there's just something so impressively stark - beautiful, to be sure, very grand and epic....but also very bittersweet and mournful - about seeing Anakin, in his dark robes, falling to his knees before his mother's grave....as though all the strength and resolve has left him in a single tremendous rush, he crumples then and there....moment of weakness, one might say - and when he's visually silhouetted like that, dark-robed and vaguely shadowed, a folorn and austere presence amidst the killing heat and dead dry sand....in itself it's an incredibly stunning, compelling image - sheer visual poetry from GL, yet *again*. Aaaahhhhhh, what a genius he is, but then I've always known that....
Dawn.
-----signature-----
Anakin Skywalker is shagadelic! "...I'm far too beautiful!" - Lorenzo de Lamberti The Rambling Court Bard of the A&P Defenders Royal Court Hayden is MY Love Muffin
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JUKE-SKYWALKER
Registered:
Mar '04
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Date Posted:
1/31/05 7:19pm
Subject:
RE: AOTC Chapter 34: "You're Not All-Powerful" DISCUSSION
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and that's why I was left emotionally reeling and shell-shocked, entirely overwhelmed by it
Hey, just change overwhelmed to underwhelmed and
you and I had the same reaction.
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’Cause there’s thunder in your heart... Every move is like lightning! http://overgrownboyscout.blogspot.com/ "It's going to take a lot more than skill for Cru Jones to conquer the toughest BMX challenge in the world. It's going to take a miracle."
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Jeff 42
Title: Manager Emeritus
Registered:
Sep '98
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Date Posted:
1/31/05 7:54pm
Subject:
RE: AOTC Chapter 34: "You're Not All-Powerful" DISCUSSION
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One of the best moments in this chapter, I think, is when Anakin says, "I'm good at fixing things... always was." Hayden does a fantastic job of recalling Jake Lloyd's young, innocent Anakin with this line delivery, and it makes his ensuing breakdown all the more stunning.
I also find it interesting that Anakin grabs some sand from off the ground during the funeral, even though he said earlier in the movie that he doesn't like sand. It's as if he's trying to hold on to a piece of his childhood, when, even though he was a slave, he had his mother.
Unfortunately the DVD version of the confession scene is marred somewhat by a horrendous music edit for the added dialogue. After seeing AotC in theaters I hoped that the DVD would fix the butchery that the movie's score underwent, but instead it got worse with this scene. 
One other note. After numerous costume changes throughout the movie, Padmé remains in her white outfit from the funeral scene until the end of the Geonosis battle. Every time I watch the movie her appearance in the white outfit here reminds me that we are on our way to the big finale.
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RebelScum77
Title: Manager Emeritus
Registered:
Aug '03
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Date Posted:
1/31/05 9:40pm
Subject:
RE: AOTC Chapter 34: "You're Not All-Powerful" DISCUSSION
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To be honest, the one thing that really bugs me (and maybe it's because I'm a costume designer for theatre) is Padmé's outfit here. It's unlike anything else she wears in either movie. The outergarment, which is reminescent of a sort of Mexican blanket, is too stiff and awkward, she doesn't look like she can move in it well. I like the sheer undergown though, it's as if you can see the real her through it. I can fabricate elborate reasons for this design choice, but I really don't understand or like it. Something much simpler, Princess Leia-style, would have been a far better choice. Or what she was wearing when Anakin left, I don't think anyone would have questioned why she was in the same outfit.
Luckily the scene is so good that I can just ignore it most of the time.
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CHEAP SLIT!!
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Qui-Dawn
Registered:
Jul '00
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Date Posted:
1/31/05 10:52pm
Subject:
RE: AOTC Chapter 34: "You're Not All-Powerful" DISCUSSION
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When Anakin takes that handful of sand and almost reverently, wistfully lets it sift through his fingers - it does come across with this definite sense of aching and longing for the home, and moments of happiness, that he and his mother had managed to carve out for themselves in the dry, dusty hellish nothingness of Tatooine....it's very much as though he's desperate to cling to those few - too tragically few - good memories and moments....as though, when he kneels at her grave and takes that handful of sand, it's the last moment of any real closeness that he'll ever have again with her, and he can't bear to let that go.
It is, I think, a moment of pure vulnerability and yearning for what he's lost....what he'd do anything only to cling to for but a moment longer. Kneeling there at her gravesite, the sheer, vast, awful enormity of his loss and loneliness must have been very terrible, enormous and nearly unfathomable indeed.... It is, actually, a solemn little ritual - something very personal, and very treasured, private - rather akin to what Maximus frequently did in "Gladiator"....in his dreams of home, for instance, simply brushing his hands over the swaying stalks of wheat....or, before the gladitorial battles, bending down to brush some dirt between his palms....it's a simple, very personal gesture that, as in Anakin's case, seems to convey a connection or yearning, a very real need, for the comforts of home, and love, and the one who truly cares most in the world for them.
It just seems to me a moment, however fleeting, which allows them to reach out and touch that which would otherwise be too distant....it lets them feel that old, familiar, needed warmth, compassion, home, safety and love. It's their way of connecting to what they truly need the most....what sustains and nurtures them....it's a silent expression of yearning, hope and desire - and it's a gesture that, I think, everyone must understand on at least *some* level....I mean, really, it just makes sense.  When Anakin collapses at his mother's grave and drifts the sand through his fingertips....having it fall from his grasp as surely as his mother did as well....somehow, you still just understand the *why* of it. Well, I do, anyway....
Dawn.
-----signature-----
Anakin Skywalker is shagadelic! "...I'm far too beautiful!" - Lorenzo de Lamberti The Rambling Court Bard of the A&P Defenders Royal Court Hayden is MY Love Muffin
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Tatooine_Fireman
Registered:
May '03
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Date Posted:
2/1/05 1:37am
Subject:
RE: AOTC Chapter 34: "You're Not All-Powerful" DISCUSSION
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I accidently my opinion of this scene in the discussion of the previous chapter, so here it is again:
Though the confession scene in the garage is an important one in Anakin's life as well as in the entire saga, I don't have too much with it. I agree Hayden is at his best here, but I don't really like Natalie in the scene. I feel she didn't react enough to what Anakin was saying, and there should've been more of a conflict within her, before she sits down to soothe Anakin instead of running away and calling the cops.
The music in the scene is great though.
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"The Dark Side. Always it speaks to us, from our pain. Our grief. It connects our pain to all pain. Our hurt to all hurt." - Yoda, Dark Rendezvous
"Look at us. Are these the faces of victory?" - Darth Vader, Dark Lord
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Tyranus_the_Hutt
Registered:
Nov '04
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Date Posted:
2/1/05 2:39am
Subject:
RE: AOTC Chapter 34: "You're Not All-Powerful" DISCUSSION
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No, Tatooine_Fireman, I disagree. Portman is adequately subdued, something which creates an appropriate balance between her abject fear and shock, and Anakin's more pronounced dramatics. What Portman communicates in her very subtle manner, is more heartbreaking than any number of overblown dramatic speeches could ever hope to be. She does her job, and is crucial to the scene's success. I'll probably get flamed for saying this, but both this passage (the chapter in question) and the final ten minutes of the film, are as good as anything that Lucas has ever filmed. I submit that without reservation. Absolutely chilling.
I know that Lucas loves his long lenses; I have listened to him talk about it at length - "Kurosawa used long lenses, which I happen to like", but there are scenes in "Clones" when it bothers me. I think that the most jarring use of a long-lense zoom occurs in the "Droid Factory" sequence - I'll discuss that later, perhaps when Moleman1138 posts the corresponding chapter discussion thread. I know that this quibble is essentially irrelevant in the big scheme of things, but I think that when Lucas zooms in on Natalie Portman in one of her key reaction shots in the garage confession scene, he does so too quickly. I'm very picky, I know, but a slow zoom would have been less distracting and much more appropriate. Don't worry, I don't expect others to agree, I just have my own 'technical' issues with certain films.
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"The screen is a magic medium. It has such power that it can retain interest as it conveys emotions and moods that no other art form can hope to tackle." - Stanley Kubrick
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MissPadme
Registered:
Jul '98
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Date Posted:
2/1/05 6:00pm
Subject:
RE: AOTC Chapter 34: "You're Not All-Powerful" DISCUSSION
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This is a brilliant, powerful scene and it's not only my favorite in AOTC, it's one of my favorites in the entire series. Hayden was great and Natalie played it with subtlety, combining shock, horror, and compassion. This scene to me conveyed everything that torments Vader for the next several years.
--MissPadme
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http://lazypadawan.livejournal.com The Star Wars Prequel Appreciation Society http://starwarsprequelappreciationsociety.wordpress.com/ I spent too much on collectibles! Where's my bailout?
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openmind
Registered:
Jan '03
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Date Posted:
2/1/05 6:42pm
Subject:
RE: AOTC Chapter 34: "You're Not All-Powerful" DISCUSSION
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There nothing much that has not been said, but I noticed there is the “little boy” in Anakin when he says “The shifter broke....but I couldn’t. Why did she have to die?”. The whole line of it.
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Lucas pays off the most elaborate setup in film history. He succeeds so completely that anybody who doesn't just love movies but the movies will find reason for celebration—with or without Ewoks.
"ROTS" rewards all of the exposition of I and II
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BauconBatista
Registered:
Jun '04
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Date Posted:
2/1/05 7:03pm
Subject:
RE: AOTC Chapter 34: "You're Not All-Powerful" DISCUSSION
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After the Kiddie futility of TPM
This scene wouldn't have been as powerful if it weren't for the "Kiddie Futility" of the previous episode.
Oh, and pay closer attention to Padme's outfit--there's a bullseye on her, ummm...  you'll immediately notice it when you watch it again. Blatant innuendo, maybe, but it also symbolizes where Anakin's eventual redemption will originate from.
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