I was twenty years old when The Phantom Menace came out. In the intervening years, I have turned 21, graduated college, gone to graduate school, gotten engaged, gotten married, gotten divorced, switched jobs several times and finally turned 30, a number I never thought I’d hit.
I still love Star Wars, but Episode I changed my relationship with it forever. It was the moment when I recognized George Lucas’s mortality, and also the moment when I realized that he had been lying when he said that this was the story he’d wanted to tell for decades and not something he simply made up to milk money out of his fanbase.
It’s fashionable to say that you hate Episode I, but it’s still Star Wars, even for all it’s flaws. It’s not my favorite, and it’s the one that I watch the least, but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to really hate it.
The biggest sin of Episode I is not the cornball dialogue or the midichlorians or the stiff, uninspired direction. Those are all sins, but none are as egregious as not being exactly what we’d been hoping for for over 20 years. It was like getting a Christmas present that isn’t garbage but wasn’t on your list. This does not, mind you, forgive midichlorians or make it a dumb idea to give a scientific explanation to a mystical force or make the horrible cultural stereotyping more palatable or make Jake Lloyd an expressive and likable actor or fill the archetypal gaps left in the film’s dramatis personae or turn Jar Jar Binks into a worthwhile character instead of a sad avatar of missed opportunities.
I got in touch with my friend Skip and asked him if he had any ruminations on Episode I’s decaversary. Skip is the most expert Star Wars fan that I’ve met (and I’ve met Steve Sansweet) and has managed to remain passionate about the saga without becoming helplessly damaged despite the scales-from-eyes nature of the prequels.
Skip says:
I have fond memories of [The Phantom Menace]. It was the first Star Wars film I didn’t see with my parents (the Special Edition was a family outing) and I’m still close to everyone I did go see it with.
Episode I gets a lot of flak. A lot of it is justified, but not all of it. Qui-gon immediately sticks out as the best thing in the movie, plus the fight between Maul and the two Jedi is the best fight in the whole series, hands down. The important thing to remember is that this is the movie Lucas wanted to make; he must have thought the politics would be boring but he put it in the film anyway because Star Wars has always been political. Both as a commentary and as part of the story. We may not agree with everything he did, or most of it; but Lucas made exactly the movie he wanted, even though it was not going to win any popularity contests. And while I think Lucas should stay as far from the EU as possible, I do respect him as a director. No one complained about how the prequels were directed.
The movie inaugurated the new era of Star Wars fandom, where it was cool to hate the new stuff and love the old stuff. Purists I guess you could call them, and that led to reactionaries that love only the prequels, which created a third group that thought they were both good. And of course, no one talks about the EU because it isn’t George’s vision. But one thing the prequels have taught us is that George ideas aren’t 100% great.
So, in conclusion Episode I gave us Qui-gon, Watto as Anakin Skywalker’s father figure, the podrace, and the best lightsaber fight in the series. It also exposed us to the true politics of the Galaxy Far, Far Away for the first time, which is integral to the prequels. But it also gave us Jar Jar and an 8-year old Anakin.
I don’t know that I agree that nobody complains about how the films were directed. I certainly do. I will say that Lucas has proven that he has an eye for cityscapes, space battles and effects shots, but doesn’t work as well with people.
Ultimately, the lasting legacy of Episode I is that it is, for good or ill, a milestone that geeks and nerds and fanboys can measure their lives by. It has resonance with people, never for quite the same reason from person to person – just like the story itself.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I wish I could agree with your assessment of THE PHANTOM MENACE. Then again . . . no I don’t. Why lie? I enjoyed THE PHANTOM MENACE. It wasn’t the best of the STAR WARS films. For me, the best included ATTACK OF THE CLONES, REVENGE OF THE SITH and THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.
But in compare to many other summer flicks, SW among the cream of the crop. Even a terrible SW movie – something like RETURN OF THE JEDI – is a hell of a lot better than many others.
I’m sorry that you didn’t like THE PHANTOM MENACE. Hmmm . . . again, I’m lying in order to be polite. What can I say? I couldn’t care less. But since you had went through a lot of trouble to express your dislike of the film, I could not help but react by expressing my disagreement with your opinion.
Rosie,
I appreciate your passion about TPM, and want to reiterate that I do not hate the movie. Critical of it? Yes. But I don’t think it destroyed my childhood or that it’s an unwatchable piece of dreck or anything that extreme. But thank you for loving it.