Just a thread about something that isn't often discussed - the prequel trilogy establishes the ages of Anakin and Obi-Wan and they're rather younger than you would imagine from the OT. In ANH, Obi-Wan is apparently 57 years old, and Anakin is just 45 at the time of his death. Do you really find this believable? And if not, what age do you imagine them to be? Personally, I would peg Obi and Ani as 70s and 60s respectively. 45 for Anakin is ridiculous.
I have no problem whatsoever with their correct ages. Alec Guiness was 63 when ANH was released, just 6 years older than his character. In fact, Hamill had a wider age gap to Luke than Guiness had to Obi-Wan. Anakin was quite badly burned. Him looking bad under that suit isn`t really an indicative of age.
Really? Guinness looked a lot older, that surprises me. I thought he was in his 90s when he died, I guess not. I think it's more that Vader calls him "old man" and I somewhat expect him to say "old man? I'm 57!". And Sebastian Shaw was 78 in ROTJ, but he was playing a 45-year-old?
Uhh, what? No need for that. Just looked it up and he was in his late 80s when he died so you know, hardly an unreasonable opinion.
Ah. No, I meant that Guinness looked older than 63 in the film and I always thought he was more like 70. The make-up people deliberately aged him up as well so I find it hard to believe that he was supposed to be 57.
Obi-Wan's age of 57 is much more strange to me than Anakin's age of 45. He was burned so it's not that unreasonable.
Anakin looking poor for his age is understandable considering what was left of him after Episode III...no? Or do you mean the Force ghost when we see Sebastian Shaw's Anakin?
thejeditraitor and Gobi-1 are right. 19 years on Tatooine didn't do much good to Obi-Wan's skin. Because of the double suns, he aged more then he would have under normal circumstances. Owen Lars en Beru also had this. As for Anakin, it is quite logical that he looked bad after being burned alive (as many here already pointed out). I don't have a problem with it. Seeing the age difference between Shaw and Anakin is quite mindblowing, though.
Vader calls him an "old man" because that's kind of what he is to him. We always think of our parents as old, no matter their actual age. Youth is a matter of perspective, to be fair. Yoda would probably think of Tarkin as a child, for example. Well, Sebastian Shaw's only scene in the movie is him as a badly scarred and hurt version of the character, and under a lot of make-up. I wouldn't really be able to judge a man's age in those conditions. He did look older than Guiness in the last scene as a Force Ghost (it bothered me a bit pre-SE), but that issue has been, well, erased when he was replaced.
