It seems like Star Wars is a…divisive property these days, but in truth it’s been a divisive property since it began. Long before the Prequels put on their childhood-raping gloves and traumatized a generation, there were no doubt people furiously mimeographing their long diatribes against the inclusion of those fuzzy little teddy bears in Return of the Jedi before mailing them out to their newsletter following.
No doubt, there were probably mass middle fingers aimed squarely at the screen when it was revealed that Luke’s father was—spoiler alert—Darth Vader himself.
Now, with Disney’s acquisition of the property, the fingers are pointed elsewhere, but the sentiments of the detractors remains the same: “true fans” don’t like _____. True fans didn’t like the prequels, and yet true fans were supposed to like the prequels. True fans hate what Disney has done to the property, but then true fans will accept anything that’s given to them. True fans think Luke’s character has been mangled. True fans will stick with the Sequels. True fans hate Ewoks. True fans love Ewoks. True fans think IG-88 just stood there and didn’t do anything. Eventually you realize true fans don’t exist…just fans.
In short, we get passionate about the things we care about, and that’s fine…to a point. I think sticking Hayden Christensen in as Anakin’s Force Ghost at the end of Return of the Jedi is the dumbest thing since suggesting that Greedo shot first, but if that’s your thing, get funky with it. You can agree or disagree. Running an actress off of Instagram or wherever because of a role she played ain’t cool at all, though. That’s the kind of scum and villainy that even Mos Eisley would turn up its nose at.
At whatever ripe age I am, I don’t care what kind of fan I am, or what kind of fan people think I am. I’m just a fan. I love the OT, I am digging the ST, and I tolerate the PT. A very recent rewatch of the Prequels allowed me to appreciate the good while letting the bad slide right off my back. Even Jar Jar.
More or less
So George’s vision didn’t match up to my vision. Who cares? It didn’t kill the property for me. I can still watch the Original Trilogy and forget all about Hayden’s whining.
One thing I could and did focus on since I wasn’t constantly bemoaning how this wasn’t the Vader origin I wanted to watch was just how excellent a technical director George Lucas really is. You can sometimes forget that fact underneath the terrible dialogue he made his actors vorp out (“Hold me like you did on Naboo”), but Lucas did a phenomenal job in almost every aspect of getting across the often extremely busy and claustrophobic visual information. His dogfights in particular are as smoothly cinematic and yet clear as any of the so-called visual masters.
It made me think about how these movies are more than just a sum of their parts, but are also made up of smaller moments that can almost take on a life of their own. So this long winded and occasionally preachy opening has been to setup what I think of as the single best moment or scene from every Star Wars movie, including the recent offshoots. These are the scenes that stick out in my head when I think of the movie as a whole.
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
In the end, Episode I was held back by a lot of searching for a story. The elements are there, but for all the good, it is overshadowed by other elements that don’t work well. Anakin starts out too young. The Gungans. Jar Jar. The stilted speeches. Jar Jar.
There is a lot of good. The final battle with Darth Maul is great up until the end. Palpatine’s quiet manipulation of events is well-done. The Pod race is long and plodding but excellent from a technological standpoint.
But to me, the best moment is the one near the beginning, when Obi-Wan and Qui-Gonn realize they have been betrayed, fire up their lightsabers and go after their attackers. Up until this point we had never truly seen a Jedi at the fullest height of their powers, nor have we seen just what that means to those around them. But Obi-Wan effortlessly deflecting laser blasts while Qui-Gonn slices his way through the blast doors shows just how unstoppable a force (no pun intended) the Jedi truly at this time in the galaxy. Two men, two lightsabers, everyone else is outgunned.
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
It is a movie with one of the worst romance stories ever, one in which the woman tells the man he’ll always be that little boy on Tatooine before succumbing to his painfully awkward advances. These were not the Clone Wars I was looking for when I first heard about them in Leia’s Episode IV hologram, but, again, they are what they are, it is what it is, we just have to deal with them.
Finding a “best moment” in this movie is, admittedly, difficult. My gut wants me to go with something Christopher Lee did. I found I didn’t hate Yoda’s jumping around quite as much as I initially did upon first viewing. But ultimately I went in another direction: the true birth of Darth Vader.
As we know, Anakin hates sand. It’s itchy, and it gets everywhere. The one thing he hates more than sand is Sand People. Anakin’s hunt for his missing mother is perhaps the best part of the movie. Maybe because he doesn’t speak much. But once he finds her, she dies, because tragedy and such. In possibly the best acting Hayden did in these movies, he gets up, walks out of the Tusken Raider tent, and proceeds to bisect a hapless Sand Person before the scene cuts away. We hear Qui-Gonn’s (ghost) voice yelling at him to stop. We see Yoda visibly shaken by Anakin’s pain and anger, which was so strong he felt it from far far away. We don’t have to be shown that Anakin is in the process of separating every single miserable Tusken Raider into bite size Tusken cutlets. And not just the men. He did it to the women, and the children. And probably the Tusken puppies too. It’s a stronger scene for what it doesn’t show than what it shows.
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Without question, the best moment in this movie (and possibly the entire Prequel Trilogy) is Palpatine’s telling of the tragedy of Darth Plagueis.
I’ve been down on Lucas and his dialogue here and there, but I have to be honest; it is almost hard to believe that Lucas wrote this scene. There’s nothing “off” here, nothing awkwardly worded. It is what ends up being a near flawless confession by Palpatine of things he has done, couched in the telling of a simple story, with Anakin being none the wiser that he is hearing an accounting of one man’s crimes. It is a confession, but it is also a seduction. Ian McDiarmid is neck and neck with Ewan McGregor as the single best thing about the Prequels—balls to the wall scenery-chewing in one moment and extreme precision in another–and he is absolutely dynamite here, all subtle facial motions and silken words. When Palpatine tells Anakin that Plagueis could defy death and Anakin asks if it is possible to learn this power, Palpatine responds with a simple, slow head turn and four weighted words: “Not from a Jedi.”
Goosebump-inducing. Masterful. Everything I wanted from the prequels.
Solo: A Star Wars Story
It’s a very simple moment in this story of Han Solo’s origing, but it is a vitally important one to the character of Han Solo. While the first meeting between Han and Chewbacca was well done, I have to give the best moment award it to Han’s “shoot first” final encounter with Beckett. It’s something that the revisionist history of having Greedo either shoot first or at the same time forgets: Han is not going to wait around to get screwed over. Han is smart. Han is impatient. Han doesn’t have time to wait around for a quicker blaster. Han is the same guy that fired a blaster at an intercom because it was a boring conversation. He will shoot first.
Rogue One: A Star wars Story
This one isn’t even difficult. There were a decent amount of good moments in this movie, but all of them pale in comparison to a sight that I have wanted to see for decades: Vader going absolutely sithshit on a gaggle of outmatched rebel scum. From the moment he ignites that blistering red lightsaber in the dark corridor to the effortless way he dispatched life after life, Vader reclaimed his title as the number one baddest dude in the galaxy. I have never been as five years old watching something as I was during this scene. Put it on a loop and I could watch it all day.
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
The one that started it all, the first Star Wars movie is a distillation of centuries of mythic storytelling into a whiz bang spectacle that moves with the assured pacing and careful momentum of a master. Scene leads to scene in such a natural way it’s almost amazing to hear about the hurdles that had to be overcome in not only making the movie, but in inventing new ways of telling cinematic stories on screen. Star Wars as a film didn’t only have to reinvent the wheel, but it had to create new methods of moving from place to place. Finding the single greatest moment out of this movie essentially ends up being an examination of the entire filmed screenplay. You could easily point to any single scene in this movie and find something worthy.
For me, I have to point to a very small scene as the greatest moment. It’s the second after Luke Skywalker, having just ignited his father’s lightsaber for the first time and reveling in this strange new weapon, sits down beside old Ben Kenobi and asks “How did my father die.”
Ben pauses there. For a moment. He looks down, away from Luke’s eyes. You can see him weighing that question, a question he no doubt knew Luke would be asking at some point. A question he never wanted to answer. It’s that pause that old Ben takes before giving Luke an answer that is not quite the truth and yet not quite a lie, depending on your point of view. At the time, we knew nothing of the truth. We didn’t know anything about the relationship between Luke and Vader. At the time, it may have seemed like a simple pause. But with the weight of what was to come, that simple little pause is given so much more weight. Alec Guiness nailed that internal conflict, and he did it without a word.
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
The (arguably) best Star wars movie is a veritable smorgasbord of great scenes. Any number of moments could qualify as the best here, from the appearance of the AT-AT Walkers on Hoth to Yoda lifting the X-wing. From the Millenium Falcon screaming out of the mouth of a space worm to Darth Vader blocking Han’s blaster bolts and ripping the gun from his hand with ease. I love you…I know. So many scenes, but I would have to turn in my badge if I didn’t give the edge to four little words that have become so mythical they’ve created their own cottage industry of pop culture references: “I am your father.”
It just doesn’t get any bigger than that.
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Luke may have been on the receiving end, but I can still remember the shock I felt when lightning poured out of the Emperor’s hands. We knew the Emperor was evil. We could tell that there was something about him that could make even Darth Vader himself bow. But we had no idea just how powerful this seemingly decrepit old man was until he realized that Luke was not going to join him ad decided to give him a true taste of the Dark Side of the Force. The Emperor’s hideous, cackling face lit by the electricity pouring out of his hands as Luke writhes and smolders remains one of the most disturbing moments in the entirety of the Star Wars saga. And then, when you think it can’t get any worse, the Emperor says “Now, young Skywalker…you will die,” and seems to increase the power behind his lightning.
Brr.
Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
“It’s true. The force. The jedi. All of it. It’s true.” From the mouth of a skeptic. Age brings a certain amount of wisdom. In many ways, Han had not changed—maybe in some of the worst ways, he had not changed–but fathering a Skywalker had definitely altered his opinion of that “hokey religion.” It makes the tragedy that comes later all the worse for it.
Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi
Boy, this movie was controversial, wasn’t it? Regardless of all that, the best moment in the entire movie for me is that shot of Luke skywalker walking out of the bunker to face down what feels like the entirety of the First order. One man, so small, so seemingly insignificant, against some of the most powerful war machines of the day. It doesn’t get much more epic than that.
Whew. Ten movies, ten moments. What will episode IX bring? Who knows! Have some different ideas? Let’s hear them!
