..Gary
Dretzka
..Noah
Forrest
..Leonard
Klady
..R.J.
Matson
..David
Poland
..Douglas
Pratt
..Ray
Pride
..Michael
Wilmington
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Ultimately, the story is the least important part of Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith, the two-platter 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment Widescreen release (2230309, $30). The final, 2005 installment for the series that George Lucas began in 1975 represents the mid-point in the series itself, and the narrative rather reminds one of a child attempting to draw a meticulous circle only to discover, when he nears the end, that he has to squiggle his line a bit to connect with his starting mark. The Star Wars movies were always intended to be a romp, inspired by the action-laden motion picture serials of old, with just enough thematic weight-originally about friendship, but here about maturation and the manipulations of power-to justify the action. The irony of science-fictions films is the more that is spent to make imaginative images, the dumber the film has to be to attract a large enough audience to cover the costs, and so historically, science-fiction fans have embraced some very dumb movies because the artistry of those films is legitimately stimulating. And there is nothing dumb about Revenge of the Sith. There are annoying cheats and cribs that Lucas employs to fit his stories together, but the Machiavellian conflicts and emotional flaws of the characters are valid and thoughtful, and big blockbuster films have been constructed around much less. The film's spectacle, on the other hand, is utterly enthralling from its first image to its last. You can freeze almost any frame on the DVD and marvel at the scientifically-based fantasy architecture, engineering, biology, and so on. Show the movie to a dozen kids and conceivably each one would be inspired by the film to grow up and enter a different profession than the others. When you unfreeze the frames, and let the images run together, the thrills engulf you. The fights, the chases and the battles are not just about one being catching or beating another, they are about the application of known emotions, such as anger or fear, in make-believe environments. The foregrounds are super, but it's the backgrounds that are masterful, and in Sith, particularly, Lucas is relentless in presenting unique environments, exhaustively exploring the logic and detail of how they function, and then tossing it all at the viewer in a flash as the heroes race through the landscape to reach some goal. The ideas in the movie are as exciting as the action, and they are as plentiful.
The letterboxing has an aspect ratio of about 2.35:1 and an accommodation for enhanced 16:9 playback, and the image transfer is precise enough to let you ponder and savor every detail. The 5.1-channel Dolby Digital sound, with EX-encoding, is fantastic, with many distinctive separation and rear-channel effects. The 140-minute program has alternate French and Spanish audio tracks in standard stereo and optional English subtitles.
Lucas supplies a commentary track, intercut with reflections by producer Rick McCallum, animation director Rob Coleman, and visual effects supervisors John Knoll and Roger Guyett, the latter two recorded together. Lucas spends much of his time explaining the story and the motivations of the characters, but he also talks about the fantasy environments, how scenes were altered or improved during the editing and a few production experiences. The others speak more about the actual production, and about the cast, as well as breaking down the effects as the shots rush by.
Lucas explains that Ewan McGregor 'kept advancing' his Alec Guinness accent from one film to the next, so that he would 'grow into' the character Guinness originally played, but it would have been a lot more fun if he had dialed it up from the very beginning, and it usually feels like an afterthought if you catch it at all. Additionally, Lucas shares what he has learned about filmmaking: "There's a real art to doing wipes. You really have to be very careful about what is the story elements you're telling, so that the transition can be very soft or very hard, and then 'what are the two shots you're going from and going to?' so that the graphics of the shots play into the light."
Lucas also discusses his inspirations for the story as a whole, and explains his mindset when he began the series. "When I first started making the film, it was during the Vietnam War, and it was during a period when Nixon was going for a third term, or trying to get the constitution changed to go for a third term, and it got me to thinking about how democracies turn into dictatorships. Not how they're taken over, where how there's a coup or anything like that, but how the democracy turns itself over to a tyrant, and so I went back and I looked at how the Senate, in ancient Rome, kills Caesar, they turn around and give the empire over to his nephew and make him emperor. And then, with the French Revolution, they go through all this trouble to have the Revolution and get rid of the king and all of the people in power, eventually they turn the democracy over to Napoleon and make him the emperor. So it has to do more with historical precedence, and it does happen a lot, more than one would think. Usually you think it is one group that takes over, and in the modern Twentieth Century, it was very much of the banana republic reality, where a general takes over, and does it by force. But it's more interesting when it's actually given over to kind of compensate for the fact that the elected representatives can't agree on anything and are corrupt, and therefore, in order to clean up the mess, somebody is allowed to come in and fix things." It may be set a long time ago and far, far away, but it sounds very here and now.
There are two types of DVD production documentaries, one that just tries to tell the story of how the movie was made, and another that also attempts to explore or share insights to the filmmaking process itself. As DVD releases proliferate, it becomes harder and harder to come up with something fresh in this latter category, but that is what happens with the outstanding 68-minute documentary on the second platter, in which 1 minute of the final film is used as the focal point to examine every aspect of the film's production and the contribution of almost every member of the crew, from the accountants and craft services people to Lucas and the stars. The segment is an excellent summation of how the film was constructed, but also, by examining the creation of the movie on so narrow a scope, a sense of the complexity and massiveness of the complete project is adeptly conveyed. And, because it strives to be comprehensive, a feel for the industry required to create a motion picture is also communicated.
Deleted scenes, running a total of 9 minutes and accompanied by 6 minutes of introductions, are included. The sequences would have stretched out the movie unnecessarily, but will still be a delight to fans, particularly an action-laden segment that was part of the already long opening sequence. To promote the film as it was being put together, fifteen featurettes were created and originally broadcast on the Internet. Those featurettes, which run 95 minutes in total, are also gathered on the platter. Whether they are looking at a supporting performer, a specific prop, or the complete story arc of all six films, the pieces are always fresh and interesting. Additionally, there is an 11-minute segment about setting up the stunts and fights, and a 15-minute look at the development of Hayden Christensen's character and how he, and not the character Mark Hamill played in the first film, is the true hero of the series. Two trailers are presented, along with a music video, fourteen TV commercials, some video game promotions and demos, extensively captioned production photos, and ad art in still frame.
January 4, 2006
DVD Roundup: This Week's DVD Releases
The Review VaultDouglas Pratt's DVD-Laser Disc Newsletter is published monthly.
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