This post originated from reading two posts of John Stevenson’s (post and post), arguing for the much maligned Star Wars Prequel. (Could you please repost them here John.) Admittedly, like many I also on first view didn’t like the first two movies (I did immediately find the third one to be astonishing). I now think they’re brilliant and at the level of the original trilogy, if not better, and wanted to explain why, and give them their due.

Several reasons why people don’t like these as much as the original trilogy:

1) While the original is about sunrise, about the sun shining from the time of darkness, the prequel is about the fall of darkness. It’s a very sad and complicated trilogy, but most importantly people don’t like sad endings, and this one has a very sad ending – even if we know the original trilogy is to follow. Darkness (and evil) falls upon us.

2) As John says:
“While in the first trilogy the good and the bad is crystal clear - the good wear white while the bad wear black, the situation is much more complex in the prequel trilogy. Any action that happens you just don't know if it's good or bad as even if it looks good at the moment you know that it's all steps in the path to the dark side taking over. That's what is so interesting about the prequel trilogy, it really puts into question these notions of good and bad assigned to actions and results. “

I would go even further. The constant question in the prequels is well made by the dark lord: “good is a point of view.” While the Jedi’s claim is for absolute goodness, the dark lord sees it as simply a point of view, and the movies somewhat show that point of view. You don’t need to accept it but you have to constantly be exposed to it. What does it mean to bring balance to the force if not that the Jedi’s by themselves are not good.

3) The emotions in the original films are all moving and uplifting. It is a constant series of victories and niceness. The emotions here are, for the reasons stated above, complex and uneasy. The prequels are simply not as moving on first view (besides the very sad third). There are deeper reasons for this.

One of the reasons for this is that emotions are only of the dark side. The jedi’s here, unlike in the original trilogy, are emotionless and heartless, like monks, and emotions are part of the dark side. Love is the worst, as it blinds you.

Another is that the prequels are about the victory of the machine over the animal/human. In Return of the Jedi the victory is of the little furry creatures over the big machines. Darth Vader puts away his machine body in order to look at Luke with his own eyes. When Luke decides not to kill Vader it’s because he looks at his machine-like hand. Human’s win.

In the third of the prequel trilogy, The Revenge of the Sith, There is also a constant battle of man and machine. General Grievous is mostly a machine and the fight of Obi-Wan with him is constantly animal (this strange green monster) and Grievous machines. The Wookis instead of the small furry creates, but this time the wookis lose and almost all of them die. Losing to the new machine-like clone army. It ends with Darth Vader putting on his machine like body and mask, instead of taking it off.


I will further mention that the most beautiful metaphor is that of the fall, especially accentuated in episode 3. Throughout the prequel the jedi’s almost fall, cling the something, and manage to rise and usually kill the evil person. And then the fall starts, with command 66 of killing the Jedis, with the fall of Obi-Wan Kenobi in to the water. (“Nobody could have survived such a fall.”), and culminates with the striking image of both Yoda and the sith lord hanging on. Yoda slips and falls. He has failed - the Jedis have fallen.

The prequel is clearly the writing of a much more mature and sophisticated person. There is a charm to the original trilogy and the strength of simplicity, but there is also a strength in this very meticulous thought.

Now that we know what bringing balance to the force means, how would episodes 7-9 look like? What would it mean to bring balance to the force, a balance between the dark side and the emotionless monks. I hope Lucas will write and direct them.

Ps. As for the political meaning, I think people were too quick to understand it literally about current events instead of a more sophisticated reading of how politics works.