Episode III
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is a 2005 science fiction film written and directed by George Lucas. It was the sixth film released in the Star Wars saga and the third in terms of the series’ internal chronology.
The film takes place three years after the onset of the Clone Wars; the noble Jedi Knights are spread out across the galaxy leading a massive clone army in the war against the Separatists. After Chancellor Palpatine is kidnapped, Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi and his former apprentice, now Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, are dispatched to eliminate the evil General Grievous. Meanwhile, Anakin’s friendship with the Chancellor arouses suspicion in the Jedi Order and proves dangerous to the Jedi Knight himself.
The film was released in theatres on May 19, 2005, and received generally positive reviews from critics, especially in contrast to the previous two prequels. It broke several box office records during its opening week, and went on to earn over $848 million worldwide,[1] making it the second highest grossing film in the Star Wars franchise (not adjusting for inflation). It was the highest grossing film of 2005 in the U.S., the second highest grossing film of 2005 worldwide behind Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.[1] It is also the first and only Star Wars film to be rated PG-13 in the United States, and 12a in the United Kingdom.
Plot
The Galactic Republic is on the verge of collapse as a result of the Clone Wars, which have been waged between the Republic and the Separatists for three years. In a surprise move, General Grievous, commander of the Separatist Droid Army, kidnaps Supreme Chancellor Palpatine and attempts to escape. Jedi Knights Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker lead a mission to rescue the Chancellor, who is being held captive on Grievous’ flagship. There they confront Count Dooku, who is killed by Anakin in a lightsaber duel. The Jedi free the Chancellor and attempt to escape the battle-torn flagship, but Grievous traps them inside and escapes. Fortunately, the Jedi are able to manage an otherwise soft crash landing on Coruscant. Shortly after returning, Anakin reunites with his wife, Padmé Amidala, who reveals that she is pregnant. Anakin is overjoyed with this news until he begins having recurring nightmares of Padmé dying in childbirth, similar to the visions he had of his mother before she died. Anakin resolves to prevent these visions from coming true.
Meanwhile, the Jedi Council has begun to suspect Palpatine of being corrupt and orders Anakin to spy on him, an order Anakin resents since he has grown rather close to Palpatine. Under Palpatine’s influence, Anakin begins to grow distrustful of his fellow Jedi, and is intrigued when Palpatine mentions an ability to prevent death. Obi-Wan is sent to the planet Utapau where he engages and kills General Grievous. Back on Coruscant, Palpatine reveals himself to Anakin as the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, who has been controlling both sides of the war. Anakin exposes Palpatine to Jedi Master Mace Windu, who engages and subdues Sidious in a lightsaber duel. Believing that Sidious is his only hope to save Padmé, Anakin intervenes and disarms Windu before he can execute Sidious, allowing the Sith Lord to kill Windu. Anakin submits to the dark side of the Force and becomes Sidious’ new apprentice, Darth Vader.
Darth Sidious initiates a pre-programmed directive within all clone troopers to kill their Jedi generals, while Anakin kills all the Jedi within the Jedi Temple. Obi-Wan and Yoda are among the few Jedi to survive the extermination and meet up with Senator Bail Organa, who brings them to the Jedi Temple while Sidious, as Palpatine, publicly denounces the Jedi for attempting to overthrow the Republic before reorganizing it into a Galactic Empire with himself as Emperor. Anakin, meanwhile, heads to the volcanic planet of Mustafar where he slaughters the remaining Separatist leaders. Within the Jedi Temple, Obi-Wan witnesses footage of Anakin’s massacre as Darth Vader. Yoda tells him to confront and kill Vader, as the good man who was Anakin is no more.
Obi-Wan meets with Padmé, who refuses to believe that Anakin has fallen to the dark side. She travels to Mustafar to be with Anakin, with Obi-Wan secretly stowing aboard. Noticing Anakin’s new behavior, Padmé realizes that Obi-Wan was telling the truth. Spotting Obi-Wan within her ship, Anakin accuses Padmé of betraying him and uses the Force to strangle her into a coma. Obi-Wan and Anakin engage in a vicious lightsaber duel across the volcanic facility and over a river of lava. Finally, Obi-Wan gains the upper hand and, acting upon an ill-judged attack by Anakin, swiftly dismembers his former comrade. Anakin slides down a bank of volcanic ash and goes up in flames, while Obi-Wan collects his lightsaber and leaves him to die. Obi-Wan escorts the injured Padmé to the asteroid Polis Massa where he regroups with Senator Organa and Yoda, the latter of whom has gone into self-imposed exile after dueling Darth Sidious to a stalemate, while Sidious finds his apprentice barely alive and takes him away to revive him.
Padmé gives birth to twins, a boy named Luke and a girl named Leia, and dies, but not before insisting to Obi-Wan that there is still good in Anakin. Meanwhile, Sidious has Darth Vader rebuilt in a cybernetic body armor and respirator suit to keep him alive. Vader lets out a scream of agony when he is told by Sidious that he himself killed his wife. With Anakin’s children the last hope for the galaxy, Obi-Wan, Yoda and Organa agree that they should be hidden and separate from one another. Leia is taken to Alderaan to be raised by Organa, while Obi-Wan takes Luke to Tatooine to live with his in-law relatives.
[edit] Cast
* Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi: Obi-Wan is a General for the Galactic Republic and is a Jedi Master who sits on the Jedi Council. He often travels and performs missions with his best friend and former Padawan, Anakin.
* Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader: Anakin has been recently promoted as the youngest ever Jedi Knight to join the council, but was denied the title of ‘Master’. However, upon learning of his wife’s pregnancy, he begins to have recurring visions of her dying in childbirth. Because similar visions accurately foretold the death of his mother, he swears to himself and his wife to do whatever it takes to stop this.
* Natalie Portman as Padmé Amidala: Padmé is Anakin’s wife-in-secret; she has recently become pregnant with twins. As Senator of Naboo, she has taken a cautious look at the growing amount of power that is being given to the Supreme Chancellor and her husband’s increasingly dark behavior.
* Ian McDiarmid as Chancellor Palpatine / Darth Sidious: As the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic, Palpatine enacted the start of the Clone Wars against the Separatists. As a result, the Senate has voted him emergency powers and has recently been voting more and more to him. The Jedi Council oppose this, and begin to distrust him. The feeling is mutual for Palpatine, who only confides in Anakin Skywalker, in addition to being an unofficial mentor. In reality, Palpatine is the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Sidious, who finally steps from the shadows to exact the revenge of the Sith using the powers he has accumulated as the Supreme Chancellor to destroy the Jedi Order and the Republic it serves and lure Anakin to his side.
* Frank Oz voices Yoda: The wise old leader of the Jedi Council. He is a friend and mentor to many Jedi. He plays a major role in the Battle of Kashyyyk.
* Samuel L. Jackson as Mace Windu: Windu is a Jedi Master who sits on the Jedi Council and is also a Jedi General in the Clone Wars.
* Matthew Wood voices General Grievous: Grievous is a fearsome, bad-tempered cyborg and General of the Separatists’ droid army. He is the individual responsible for kidnapping Palpatine at the beginning, and he has skill in lightsabre combat, thanks to training from Count Dooku.
* Jimmy Smits as Senator Bail Organa: Organa is a Senator in the Galactic Republic and friend to the Jedi, who grows concerned at the growing power of the Chancellor.
* Anthony Daniels as C-3PO: C-3PO is Padmé Amidala’s personal protocol droid created by Anakin Skywalker.
* Kenny Baker as R2-D2: R2-D2 is Anakin Skywalker’s astro-droid and good friend and C-3PO’s counterpart.
* Silas Carson as Nute Gunray and Ki-Adi-Mundi: Gunray is the Viceroy of the Trade Federation, who is at odds with Grievous and dares to question his leadership. Ki-Adi-Mundi is an old Jedi Knight who sits at the Jedi Council.
* Temuera Morrison as Commander Cody and Clone troopers: Cody and the clone troopers are part of the army for the Republic. As seen in Attack of the Clones, they are the clones of the bounty hunter Jango Fett.
* Christopher Lee as Count Dooku / Darth Tyranus: He is a Sith apprentice to Darth Sidious, Leader of the Separatists, and Grievous’ superior, and together they kidnap Palpatine.
* Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca: Chewbacca is a Wookiee who is friends with Yoda, and fights alongside him in the Battle of Kashyyyk.
It was announced in 2004 that Gary Oldman had been approached to provide the voice of General Grievous,[2] however, complications arose during contract negotiations after Oldman learned the film was to be made outside of the Screen Actors Guild, of which he is a member. He backed out of the role rather than violate the union’s rules.[3] Matthew Wood, who ultimately voiced Grievous, disputed this story at Celebration III, held in Indianapolis. According to him, Oldman is a friend of Rick McCallum, producer of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, and recorded an audition as a favor to him, that was never chosen.[4] Wood, who was also the supervising sound editor, was in charge of the auditions and submitted his audition anonymously in the midst of 30 others, under the initials “A.S.” for Alan Smithee.[5] Days later he received a phone call asking for the full name to the initials “A.S.”[6] An internet hoax said John Rhys Davies was considered for the role.[7]
[edit] Cameo appearances
Lucas makes an appearance at the Coruscant Opera House as a blue faced being named Baron Papanoida who can be seen outside Palpatine’s box. It marks Lucas’ only appearance in any of the Star Wars films. His three children also appear in cameos: his son, Jett, as a young Jedi-in-training called Zett Jukassa who is killed defending the Jedi Temple against clone troopers; his daughter, Amanda, as a character called Terr Taneel, seen in the security hologram; and daughter Katie as a blue-skinned alien named Chi Eekway, visible when Palpatine arrives at the Senate after being saved by the Jedi, and talking to Baron Papanoida at the Opera House. When Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Palpatine arrive via shuttle to the Senate docks after crash landing on Coruscant, the Millennium Falcon can be seen landing on one of the lower platforms as the shuttle approaches.[8] And while not a direct cameo, it was confirmed in the Revenge of the Sith online text commentary that a growl of Tarfull’s in the scene of Yoda’s departure from Kashyyyk is actually Itchy’s growl from The Star Wars Holiday Special.[9]
Much of the crew also make cameos in the film. Nick Gillard, the stunt coordinator, plays a Jedi named Cin Drallig (his name spelled backward, without the k).[10] Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett in the original trilogy), appeared in a speaking role as Captain Colton, the pilot of the Rebel Blockade Runner Tantive IV.[11]
[edit] Production
In 1973, Lucas claimed to have written the Star Wars saga’s fundamental story in the form of a basic plot outline. He would later profess that at the time of the saga’s conception, he had not fully realized the details — only major plot points throughout the series.[12] He began working on Episode III even before Attack of the Clones was released, offering concept artists that the film would open with a montage of seven Clone War battles.[13] As he reviewed the storyline that summer, however, he says he radically re-organized the plot.[14] Michael Kaminski, in The Secret History of Star Wars, offers evidence that issues in Anakin’s fall to the dark side prompted Lucas to make massive story changes, first revising the opening sequence to have Palpatine kidnapped and Dooku killed by Anakin as the first act in the latter’s turn towards the dark side.[15] After principal photography was complete in 2003, Lucas made even more massive changes in Anakin’s character, re-writing his entire turn to the dark side — he would now turn primarily in a quest to save Padmé from death, rather than the previous version in which that reason was one of several, including that he genuinely believed that the Jedi were evil and plotting to take over the Republic. This fundamental re-write was accomplished both through editing the principal footage, and new and revised scenes filmed during pick-ups in 2004.[16] During production, a large number of fans speculated online about the film’s subtitle; rumored titles included Rise of the Empire, The Creeping Fear (which was also named as the film’s title on the official website on April Fool’s 2004), and Birth of the Empire.[17] Eventually, Revenge of the Sith also became a “guessed title” that George Lucas would later announce to be true.[18] The title is a reference to Revenge of the Jedi, the original title of Return of the Jedi; Lucas changed the title scant weeks before the premiere of ROTJ, declaring that Jedi do not seek revenge.[19]
After the earliest draft of the screenplay was submitted, the art department began designing the various ways that each element could appear on screen. For the Kashyyyk environment, the art department turned to The Star Wars Holiday Special for inspiration.[20] Over a period of months, Lucas would approve hundreds of designs that would eventually appear in the film. He would later rewrite entire scenes and action sequences to correspond to certain designs he had chosen.[16] The designs were then shipped to “pre-visualization” to create moving CGI versions known as “animatics”. Ben Burtt would edit these scenes with Lucas in order to previsualize what the film would look like before the scenes were even filmed.[16] The pre-visualization footage featured a basic raw CGI environment with equally unprocessed CGI characters performing a scene (typically an action sequence). Steven Spielberg was also allowed to assist both the art and pre-visualization department’s designs for several action sequences in Revenge of the Sith.[16] Later, the pre-visualization and art department designs were sent to the production department to begin “bringing the film out of the concept phase”[16] by building the various sets, props and costumes. To determine the required sets, Lucas analyzed each scene with the staff to see which moments the actors would come in most contact with the set, warranting the set to be constructed.
During this time, actors Hayden Christensen and Ewan McGregor rehearsed extensively with stunt coordinator Nick Gillard to memorize and perform their climactic lightsaber duel together. In addition to performing the scenes as actors, they rehearsed each fight scene together for months on end. Like the previous two prequel films, McGregor and Christensen performed their own lightsaber fighting scenes without the use of stunt doubles.[21] The speed at which Anakin and Obi-Wan engage in their duel is mostly the speed at which it was filmed, although there are instances where single frames were removed to increase the velocity of particular strikes. An example of this occurs as Obi-Wan strikes down on Anakin after applying an armlock in the first half of the duel.[12]
Although the first scene filmed was the final scene to appear in the film (shot during the filming of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones in 2000),[22] principal photography on the film occurred from June 30 to September 17, 2003. The film was shot entirely on sound stages at Fox Studios Australia in Sydney, although practical environments were shot as background footage later to be composited into the film. These included the limestone mountains depicting Kashyyyk, which were filmed in Phuket, Thailand (they were later damaged by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami). The production company was also fortunate enough to be shooting at the same time that Mount Etna erupted in Italy. Camera crews were sent to the location to shoot several angles of the volcano that were later spliced into the background of the animatics and the final film version of the Mustafar planet.[16]
Revenge of the Sith eventually became the first Star Wars film in which Anakin Skywalker and the suited Darth Vader were played by the same actor in the same film. As Christensen recounted, it was originally intended to simply have a “tall guy” in the Darth Vader costume. But after “begging and pleading” with Lucas, the Vader costume used in the film was created specifically to fit Christensen. The new costume featured shoe lifts and a muscle suit.[23] It also required Christensen (who is 6 feet 1 inch/1.9 metres tall) to look through the mouthpiece of the helmet.[24]
While shooting key scenes, Lucas would often use an “A camera” and “B camera,” or the “V technique,” a process that involves shooting with two or more cameras at the same time in order to gain several angles of the same performance.[16] Using the HD technology developed for the film, the filmmakers were able to send footage to the editors the same day it was shot, a process that would require a full 24 hours had it been shot on film.[16] Footage featuring the planet Mustafar was given to editor Roger Barton, who was on location in Sydney, Australia cutting the climactic duel. All other footage was forwarded to lead editor Ben Burtt at Skywalker Ranch in California.
The post-production department began work during filming and continued until weeks before the film was released in 2005. Special effects were created using almost all formats, including model work, CGI and practical effects. The same department later composited all such work into the filmed scenes—both processes taking nearly two years to complete. Revenge of the Sith has 2,151 shots that use special effects, a world record.[25]
As the DVD featurette Within a Minute illustrates, the film required 910 artists and 70,441 man-hours to create 49 seconds of footage for the Mustafar duel alone.[16] Members of Hyperspace, the Official Star Wars Fan Club, received a special look into the production. Benefits included not only special articles, but they also received access to a webcam that transmitted a new image every 20 seconds during the time it was operating in Fox Studios Australia. Many times the stars, and Lucas himself, were spotted on the webcam.[26]
[edit] Releases
Revenge of the Sith premiered at the Cannes Film Festival (out of competition) on May 15, 2005. Its theatrical release in most other countries took place on May 19 — the same day and month as the release of 1999’s Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1977’s Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and 1983’s Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi were also released on the same day and month, six years apart). The global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas claimed one week before the premiere that it may have cost the US economy approximately US$627 million in lost productivity because of employees who took a day off or reported in sick.[27] Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, a traditional venue for the Star Wars films, did not show it. However, a line of people stood there for more than a month hoping to convince someone to change this.[28] Most of them took advantage of an offer to see the film at a nearby cinema, ArcLight Cinemas (formerly the “Cinerama Dome”).[29]
A copy of the movie leaked into peer-to-peer file sharing networks just hours after opening in theaters. The movie was a time-stamped workprint, suggesting it may have come from within the industry rather than from someone who videotaped an advance screening.[30] Eight people were later charged with copyright infringement and distributing material illegally. Documents filed by the Los Angeles District Attorney allege that a copy of the film was taken from an unnamed Californian post-production office by an employee, who later pled guilty to his charges.[31] The illegal copy was passed among seven people until reaching an eighth party, who also pleaded guilty to uploading to an un-named P2P network.[32]
Shortly after the above-mentioned print was leaked, it was released in Shanghai as a bootleg DVD with Chinese subtitles. The unknown producer of this DVD, for unexplained reasons, also elected to include English subtitles, which were in fact translated back into English from the Chinese translation, rather than using the original English script. This translation was particularly inept, translating many characters literally and losing the meaning of words, leading to unintentional humor; the title of the movie, for example, was given as Star War — The third gathers — Backstroke of the West. One error in translation that recurs several times in the film is that the phrase “it seems” (好象) was rendered as “good elephant”. The mis-translation also caused the vulgar word “fuck” (a mis-translation of “work”) to appear three times in the subtitles, and rendered Darth Vader’s cry of “Noooooooo” (不要) as “Do not want.”[33] This last translation error would later be popularized as an internet meme.
