AOTC: Editing "Mistake" Actually Deliberate?

Firstly, here's what the owner of Lard Biscuit had to say about a particular edit - one of his few criticisms of the film - in Attack of the Clones:

The edit in question? From the same page:

[image=http://homepage.mac.com/dtrull/pix/aotc/edit.jpg]

Now, last night, I stumbled upon another site that has a rational and eloquent defense of the prequels. It's not as detailed or layered as Lard Biscuit's but several observations caught my eye. Here is what this person thought of that same edit:

What are your thoughts on this matter?

Considering the complexity of Attack of the Clone's visual schemata and Lucas' fondness for cross-cutting events to establish intimate thematic links (seen prominently in Revenge of the Sith), I think this second author just swayed me: it's deliberate.

Think about how the film maps out. The brothers - Anakin and Obi Wan - are initially working together on Coruscant. Every major character either operates out of or comes to Coruscant at some point: Qui Gon, Obi Wan, Yoda, Anakin, Padme, Mace Windu, Palpatine, R2-D2, C-3P0 and Jar Jar. It's the New York Grand Central of the prequels. Thus, it makes perfect sense to begin here and express the cohesiveness of Anakin and Obi Wan before things

 

I never thought that was Anakin entering the rock structure, because a swipe indicates that the movie switches to another part of the galaxy. I agree, though, that it is deliberately half-confusing.



Movies - they swipe
/LM

 

That's the least of the editing disasters in this film.

The real editing disaster in this particular example is not cutting out Anakin getting directions from the Jawas. It's anticlimactic in the worst way and a rather ridiculous end for what is arguably one of the most powerful scenes in the movie.

Furthermore, it is just plain silly. Here we have this desperate, hasty and frantic search by the Son of the Force, the strongest Jedi in the Galaxy, looking for his mother and instead of "searching his feelings", he stops and asks a Jawa for directions to the nearest Tusken camp.

 

Switching scenes like that builds a sense of unease and suspense. Also, there's a strong parallel in the theme of the scene. Both are searching for answers. Anakin: Finding his mother. Obi-Wan: Putting together the pieces of the puzzle...Why Jango fled to Geonosis? Why is the Federation here? Why is Dooku here? What are they collaborating on? What does it all mean?

So that's the link that makes the transition plausible. That's what ties the separate ploy points together.

Anakin wasn't asking where his MOM was. If I remember correctly, in the book it mentions that the Jawa's directed Anakin to the camp of the Dead FARMERS that tried to rescue Shmi.

 

I don't think this was a "mistake", although that's quite a nice observation you've got there. I never thought Anakin was entering the structure, either.

 

I don't think it was a mistake either. Especially when you listen to music. GL says the music helps to tell the story. In this case, the music "switches gears" at the same time the scene transitions from Tatooine to Naboo. So I don't see where anyone would be confused.

 

Evrey singl time I watch it I always mix up who it is. Well the 1st 10 times for that matter now I know by heart.

 

That's an excellent observation.

Futhermore, Obi-Wan encounters the Sith in Dooku at the same time Anakin encounters the Dark Side when Shmi passes away.

After the Tusken slaughter, a wall has formed between Obi-Wan and Anakin.

From the title of this thread, I thought someone was going to be convincing me that the editing in the lightsaber battles at the end of AOTC were good.

 

I'm inclined to agree with you Cryogenic, this person's interpretation is very convincing.

The impression I got from the "Obi-Wan tries to contact Anakin" scene was a metaphor for Obi-Wan never seeing Anakin's turn coming.
"That's Anakin's tracking signal alright... but its coming from Tatooine! What in the blazes is he doing there? I told him to stay on Naboo."

This seems very insensitive of Obi-Wan knowing what the audience knows (that Anakin has just lost his mother and killed all the Tuskens), but Obi-Wan has no way of knowing this.
Obi-Wan wasn't there to steer Anakin right, and is oblivious to what Anakin is currently going through.
As usual, Obi-Wan demonstrates that he tries to do what he and the Council thinks is best for Anakin. "I told him to stay on Naboo". But learning to follow orders is not the lesson Anakin needed at this stage, it was far more complex than that.
I guess my view was similar to that of this author (of the quote you posted), I also felt this scene demonstrated their paths drifting apart, I just interpreted different details of it.

I agree, that for me is one of the worst moments in the movie. The music suits the speeder bike search perfectly, but then they conclude the song while Anakin asks for directions. Bad move.

However, the fact that he was led to a slaughtered farmers' village (or whatever it was) is interesting, I didn't know of this plot point.

 

This was in both, the book and the script. However it was edited from the final cut of the movie. I think this should've kept in to make it clear that he was pointed in the direction of the dead farmers' camp as a starting point to find his mother.

Edit: spelling

 

Predictably, I've tried to give something a fresh positive interpretation and certain people are still harping on about negative aspects that that have been discussed ad infinitum. Lame.

Strilo edit: Baiting users is also lame...

 

I like the idea of cutting back and forth from a frantic Anakin who goes of alone and is hell bent on getting his mom and getting his revenge while you see Obi-Wan being patient and humble enough to go back for help. This also could be a bit of foreshadowing to the Saber fight at the end when Anakin shows his impatience in charging Dooku while Obi-Wan lays back

 

Ben Burtt must die.

 

It's Lucas' style to cut between the different stories.

 

I don't consider that edit a 'mistake'...

...but the first time I saw AOTC, I remember being momentarily disoriented as I realized it was Obi Wan, not Anakin, I had seen going in the entrance. The two environments may not be identical, but with the dark lighting, they were similar enough to confuse me, if only for a moment.

I admit that even after repeated viewings, every time I come to it, I say to myself "Right, that's not Tatooine."

It's a bit reassuring to discover that I'm not the only one who was confused by it.

 

I was never confused because

1) GL had already established a pattern of switching back and forth from Anakin's story (searching for his mother) to Obi-Wan's storyline (tracking down Jango and clues to Padme's assassination attempts.)

2) GL had establish a beat -- keeping the length of time on each scene a certain length. Had he stay on Anakin's journey longer, we would almost forget about Obi-Wan.

3)The music made a transition in cues

I also think this was done to add suspense to Anakin's story; to cause the audience to become anxious to see Anakin find his mother.

 

I for one remeber being confused during this moment, the one time I saw Ep2 at the cinema.
The music cue could have indicated time had passed since the last shot, and we were watching Anakin a bit later on.

 

Let me put it this way:

One of the features of the Star Wars films is that each planet has a distinctly different environment and appearance.

In ESB, when Han is searching for Luke in the frozen wilderness of Hoth, if they had suddenly cut to a long shot of a DIFFERENT character on ANOTHER snowy white planet...

...a change in the tempo of the music would not have prevented me from thinking we were still viewing action taking place on Hoth.

 

I get what your saying, but I don't see it. Not only was there a musical change, but there as a WIPE. Lucas has ALWAYS used wipes to transition from one storyline to the other. That's the visual cue that tells the audience we're switching back to Obi-Wan's storyline.

Not only that, but the Geonosian spires are completly different from anything we've seen on Tatooine. Sure there are rock formations on Tatooine, but they are clearly different. I just don't see how anyone could confuse the two.

That said; I do think that GL's use of DOTF during the the montage might have been misplaced because it felt like a let down because the build up seemed incomplete when we switch to Obi-Wan's storyline. But, again, that was probably done to increase the suspense.

 

Furthermore, it is just plain silly. Here we have this desperate, hasty and frantic search by the Son of the Force, the strongest Jedi in the Galaxy, looking for his mother and instead of "searching his feelings", he stops and asks a Jawa for directions to the nearest Tusken camp.

Really? I liked it because I thought it was a good shot.

 

Yeah, it's another nice visual tie to the OT.

 

What a coincedence! I was just watching AOTC the other night (in preparation for the ROTS DVD viewing) and thought about some of the things discussed in this thread.

Anyway, I wanted to point out that I always thought that Anakin stopping to ask Jawas for directions was always somewhat jarring, especially because the shot is sustained while the music is still roaring and fierce. But now that I think of it, wouldn't anyone in as frantic and volatile an emotional state as Anakin is in pass on calmly and rationally figuring out how to get from one location to another in such a vast, homogenous landscape? Lucas is overriding the "dark" and "cool" factor in Anakin's ride with the stupid and embarassing reality of being lost and having to ask for directions. Heh.

AC2

 

I agree with Stryphe - I always thought it was a great shot. So detailed, you can actually see the Jawas moving around inside the Sandcrawler.

Plus, I thought it was a nice touch to have the impulsive Anakin be 110% sure he was going to find his mother, and then have to get directions from the Jawas.

 

Obi Wan's earlier masculine tendencies ("Jedi business, go back to your drinks!" plus swagger

I'm pretty sure it was Anakin who spoke that line ("Jedi businness..."etc.).

 

Great shot - bad message and timing.