PT AOTC: A tragedy has occurred...

Has anyone else ever noticed that the chrome ship being used by Padme's decoy in the opening sequence and flanking yellow N-1 starfighters -- a bunch of fully or partially reflective T-shaped vessels superimposed on creamy, overlapping, permeable clouds -- are turned into the clone troopers' visors (reflective T-shaped strips on hard white plastic) at the end of the movie? "Now, *this* is podracing!" Next (and final PT movie) crawl: "War!" The dense fog of ambiguity (hypnotic, entrancing, full of possibility) is basically subverted and crushed into a crude series of absolutes (stifling, oppressive, destructive). It's a pretty devastating take on war; and a clever kind of lament for the unfettered promise of the PT going mainstream. Just my latest thoughts on AOTC and its profound imagery on this occasion.

 

Ah Cryo, I love your analysis as always! It's awesome how you are able to discover new visual symbolism and also new layers to the myth all of the time. I was just watching Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed earlier because I am such a dork, and the one woman (some scholar who was interviewed for the piece) says, "What is fun for me personally, is when I get to a point where I say, 'Did George Lucas mean for this connection to be made? Or am I making it? Am I participating as part of the poet, the creator in seeing connections.' And that is the mythological process. Everyone sees themself." That is the beauty of it. I wish more people had that level thinking. You certainly get it.

 

Thank you, Luuke! Another little detail from this opening sequence I just noticed -- or that hit me anew -- is the shot of Padme climbing down the ladder and actually stepping off. In order to show this, Lucas cuts from a medium wide shot, where we see that a vessel occupant (soon to be revealed to be Padme) has dismounted their craft, with craft and astromech droid (soon to be revealed to be Artoo) in full view, marking yet another DESCENT (so many of these in this movie), to a medium shot where emphasis is placed on the ladder and a closer look at the person's legs, as they finish their descent and place their boots on terra firma. In the same shot, we see the astromech droid (Artoo) being placed on the ground by a mechanism. It feels like a conclusion to what we've just seen: from the impersonal murky air to ships and individuals touching solid ground. But is the ground all that solid? Is this terra firma; or terra incognita? At times like these, I wish the Chapter-By-Chapter discussions could start up again.

That's a pretty stirring quote you've just provided. I think it's a little like the way Obi-Wan describes the Force: Lucas' art controls our actions, but it also obeys our commands. Or put a little more accurately: we are both passive and active spectators. Yes, we are baited, in a fashion, over and over, to see in Star Wars -- moving mythology -- what we will. We do not have to be adept in any given field; just curious and willing. We are rewarded for our desire to see GOOD things in the work. For daring to consider it worthy. Like Qui-Gon's passionate belief in the living Force, things open up for us once we surender ourselves to the nascent possibilities within and all around us, letting the art peer into us and peering back as communication flows. I am continually amazed at how rich these films seem to be when I dive in and enjoy the coolly refreshing and reinvigorating water. I don't go looking for things to bring back to the surface; they seem to come naturally once I start watching and calmly feeling my way to goodness. The beautiful ripples and eddies of the art really do all the work for me.

 

I've got a good feeling about this thread.