Continuing my Odyssey with someone who has never seen Star Wars before, we’ve got together on two separate occasions to watch Episode III and Episode IV and I have to be honest, the reactions were a little different than I expected.
Revenge of the Sith is an emotional roller coaster for someone who actually loves and appreciates Hayden Christensen’s characterization of Anakin Skywalker. Kelsie, our Star Wars virgin, was a fan of his from before she saw any Star Wars movies because of his performance in Life as a House, and she seemed able to tune into the fact that he’s acting apropriately for a character in his situation. I mean, really, how else is a celibate monk of a teenager with no experience with girls supposed to act? Like Hayden did, that’s how.
The first part of the film is so adventuresome and fun that when the whole enterprise turns to the Dark Side her mouth became slackjawed and she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
In fact, had her mouth covered during the entirety of the slaughter of the Jedi and gasped in disbelief when Anakin went to kill the younglings. She had tears in her eyes.
Of course I was crying like a baby, but damnit, this movie is sad and amazing.
But this film was a thrilling tragedy and the pace doesn’t flag for even a moment.
(One moment I was more struck by than usual was the moment on the docks when Obi-Wan is leaving to defeat Grievous. It’s the last time Obi-Wan and Anakin part as brothers and upon repeated viewings, it resonates with so much more bittersweet heartbreak than I’d realized.)
She reacted as I would have expected someone invested in the characters to react through the course of the whole film. She was on board the roller coaster and it never let go.
Where things became unexpected was when we watched A New Hope.
She seemed a little bored. Here’s what she said as soon as the credits started: “I didn’t like it as much as Revenge of the Sith. I liked it a lot, but I thought there was way more going on in Revenge of the Sith. And Luke was just really whiny. I kind of wish he’d die and we could get on with the story without him.”
I think she rather enjoyed Han Solo and the smuggler character and she was incredibly interested in the fight between Obi-Wan and Vader. Obi-Wan’s disappearance was certainly cause for questions I refused to answer.
Watching it in this order with a new viewer, you are really hammered by the symmetry between A New Hope and The Phantom Menace. And I think the problem for a first time viewer is that Revenge of the Sith is a culmination of emotion and plotlines from the prior two movies, A New Hope is like a clean slate and gets back to telling a very basic, straightforward story (mirrored exactly in The Phantom Menace.)
I can’t wait to see how she reacts to The Empire Strikes Back, though. It has much more complexity on the way.
In parting, I’ll leave you with thoughts from her blog:
We’ve now watched Episodes 3 and 4. I LOVED REVENGE OF THE SITH! Wasn’t crazy about A New Hope, because I HATE Luke. He’s such a whiny little bitch, I just want to smack him. We’ll see how I feel about the next movies, because I hate Yoda. Who knows, maybe I’ll be the one freak on the planet who loves the prequels and hates the originals…
So there you have it. I’m hoping we get to The Empire Strikes Back this weekend. I’m insisting on at least a day between Empire and Jedi, so she can stew in the events and possibilities. We’ll see if it works out.
But I’m fascinated by her take on the characters and what she likes and what she doesn’t. I never would have guessed Luke and Yoda could be so reviled. The swamps of Dagobah should be interesting.