GOOD VERSUS EVIL IN STAR WARS - AN OBSERVATION

At the end of this:
http://www.filmthreat.com/Reviews.asp?File=ReviewsOne.inc&Id=2071

review it says:"A lot of people are going to be saying a lot of the same things about this movie, so I won't bore you by recounting obvious moments from the movie. (It always happens when you read a lot of reviews of an event film - after a while they all start to sound the same and make the same points.) I do just want to leave you with one interesting observation that no one else seems to have caught onto. George Lucas began as an experimental filmmaker. His early short films experimented with editing and color and "THX-1138" is truly a feature-length experimental film. Lucas is also an old school filmmaker who likes to focus on the basics in terms of storytelling. Here's a little exercise for you -- go back and watch all the films from the original trilogy and note the direction on screen that particular characters move. This is very important. You see the "good guys" can always be seen moving from left-to-right. The "bad guys" can be seen moving right-to-left. As this chart illustrates:
Good Guys like Luke Skywalker move left-to-right ---->
<---- Bad Guys like Darth Vader move right-to-left

Now, why is this important? Well, when we read in English, directionally speaking, our eyes move from left-to-right. It feels comfortable. We're used to it. When we see something moving right-to-left, it feels uncomfortable. Something about it unnerves us and we don't know why. It's because that is not the way we are used to reading. I don't want to get into a bunch of film theory mumbo-jumbo, but the purpose of this is to illustrate, visually-speaking, two characters in conflict. Eventually the character (Luke) moving from left-to-right will eventually clash with the character (Vader) moving from right-to-left.

Lucas is very consistent in all the Star Wars films in using this visual metaphor. What I found extremely interesting is that when the Clone Troopers appear at the end of the film, they are moving from right-to-left while the Jedi lead them into battle -- the direction normally taken by the bad guys.
<---- The Clone Troopers and the Jedi move right-to-left like the Bad Guys

Just a little something to observe that is worth noting. Now, this is not unique to Star Wars movies, other directors take this kind of care in setting up character conflicts, I just found it interesting that the "good guys" were moving in the direction generally reserved for the "bad guys." Hey, I could be reading too much in, or this could really mean something..."

Ist this true? Did lucas intentionally do this?

 

I believe the observation requires some gentle refining.

 

ummm...lol

Just because someone moves in one direction doesnt make them evil. I sadly cant think of any reason for this... its just a good angle or whatever... and...umm lol

 

Fun trivia time!

Another film that takes advantage of the "we read left-to-right" thing is The Graduate. From IMDB trivia:

In another scene, Benjamin is walking from the right side of the screen to the left, while everyone else in the scene is moving from left to right. In western culture, things that move left to right seem natural (think of the direction you read words on a page), those that move right to left seem to be going the wrong way.
... making Benjamin going the wrong way, not fitting in with everyone else -- which befits his character.



Rick McCallum loves you!