Small details that you missed or enjoy in the GL Saga

I've always loved how when Ani walks over to talk with Qui-Gon, R2 kills some time by going over and spitting off the ledge.



I also love the tone in Padmé's voice when she says "R2? What are you doing here?!" I mean, I know he was told to stay on the ship, but there's an almost incredulous disdain, at least that I like to sometimes pretend is there, for kicks. Like she doesn't serve their kind now. Or astromech droids aren't allowed at funerals.



And it's great how Ewan blinks while answering "I look forward to seeing them in action" when Jango asks him if he likes his army. As in, no, he doesn't look forward to any war or armies in action.



And of course the Geonosian guard who stands up straight as Dooku passes him.

Gen
Do Lines of Dialogue count?

Subtext Mining

Perhaps Anakin and 3P0 have a special creator-creation connection going on?

This one is a theme of animals fleeing. It's amazing how much detail went into such a seemingly innocuous thing.

I've always loved watching the Shaak running away from the TF tanks up on the hill. And how one of them gets so frightened and discombobulated that it runs back toward the tanks. Just like in real life. (upper right corner)


This one I just recently noticed after looking at storyboards from TPM; the birds/bugs flying out of the podracing cave. It's much more subtle in the film, but excellent detail.



There's also the birds in the Naboo forest as the TF ships land. They fly away right as the shadow of the TF ship passes over them. Mmm! I remember my eye being drawn to them while watching this in theaters.


And of course the little droids on Mustafar. I like how the last one isn't sure which way to go when he gets into the main room and changes his mind a couple times.

Another flock of fleeing birds when the Queen returns to Naboo.


And it really hit me recently how Anakin excitedly asks, "What are we gonna do about it?!" When Qui-Gon states he thinks the dark attacker is after the Queen. Good character development there, and set-up for his future. And brilliantly contrasted by Qui-Gon's, "We shall be patient."


And another one is dialogue, as well. Well an accent, really. The way the Queen's hand-maiden says, "Anakin SkyWALKer to see Padmé." Love that.

And the disproportionately long arms on that statue, interesting.

Shite! There's a lot to catch up on here. I fell behind. Big post. Here I go:


In blooper footage, Artoo actually falls over the ledge in the TPM scene. Mind you, he was actually meant to fall off ("Nothing happens by accident") in earlier drafts -- and he would then have recovered and debuted his rockets for the first time (instead this was saved for AOTC).

In the AOTC scene, I like how Artoo gets involved. Padme has some cheek to ask him what he's doing there. What is she doing there? Padme in TPM: "This is a strange place to me." Huh, that soon changed. Of course, the subtext (hehe) is, Artoo is a robot, and despite Threepio, young Beru looks a bit scared of them (another neat detail: Owen puts a reassuring hand on her shoulder in this moment). So Padme is basically like: "Don't scare the locals!"

In another reading, Padme's reflex reaction makes for a dumb question because Artoo is the most important character in Star Wars. He's here, there, and everywhere. He also represents her. Interestingly, Anakin's earlier line, "She programmed Artoo to warn us if there is an intruder" finds its fuller expression here. Earlier, Artoo fell "asleep" protecting Padme; here, he is alert to the urgency of Obi-Wan's message. There's an intruder, alright. It's the Sith plot to disrupt the galaxy with civil war.

And yes, like in so much of the PT, Lucas is also playing here and jazz-riffing. Artoo suddenly appears in sort of a "joke" insertion about how the plot needs to move on and get past the mopey, personal stuff and advance to the final act of fireworks and reckoning. Like, c'mon, lady. I'm here because y'all forgot you're in a Star Wars movie. This ain't The Searchers. Pack that shit up. If Artoo has a race, he isn't really white (or blue). He's a fast-thinking, sassy black dude that can take a hard slap or two and roast the idiots with aplomb. Chris Rock. 

In an even funnier sort of "riff", it's Artoo simply trying to look important and recover his dignity, after Anakin earlier dissed him to put Padme at ease: "Don't worry. We have Artoo with us." Like, yeah, bitches. YOU HAVE ARTOO WITH YOU. I'm here with some important shit. So listen up, fools. And boy, you need to listen. Y'all must have glass beads in yo ears if you couldn't hear me dragging my ass across all that bumpy sand. I almost came within taser-distance of your asses. Now, let's all get back to the ship, so you can behold my message of Obi-Wan Kenobi as y'all realise shit needs sorting out, in a slick homage to the original movie ("Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope.").

Lastly, there's also Threepio who says the same thing to his companion, as if deliberately repeating the incredulity of "Ms. Padme", by asking the same question of Artoo on Geonosis. Artoo again just trundles into a heavy situation and saves the day -- well, saves Threepio and his sorry behind, which is almost the same thing.



It's awesome. You're right, though: It's often overlooked and rarely talked about. It sure beats having boring stormtroopers in six other saga movies. Damn you, Palpatine, for wiping out the Republic!!!


A good set of observations. The Battle Droids also have a lot of attitude. In TPM, their personalities are a bit more subdued. But their dry wit is there from the beginning: "Check it out, Corporal. We'll cover you."


Are you referring to the poet John Dryden or the character played expertly by Claude Rains in "Lawrence Of Arabia"? Either way, nice pseudonym!



Hi, Joe. They certainly do!



Well, being trapped in a beam of light and rotated endlessly, as well as later being chained up to a pillar, certainly makes Obi-Wan cranky and arguably improves his wit:

To Dooku: "Well, who can blame them..."
To Anakin: "Good job!"





I think Threepio just has good olfactory bulbs (or the robot equivalent). In the Jedi Order, Anakin was often referred to behind his back as Smelly Pants Anakin. In fact, he turned to the Dark Side and joined the Sith largely for this reason. When the Jedi assigned him to spy on Palpatine, they knew this meant Palpatine would demand Anakin's presence at the opera. They hoped this would motivate the boy to finally wash and clean himself up. It didn't.



I've always loved the shot for that particular touch, too. You listed some more examples, but don't forget about the stampede of animals when the TF arrive on Naboo and begin mashing trees, or the way the passage of the bongo disrupts a delicate ecosystem and causes several sea creatures to be tragically devoured -- or the bongo's surfacing in that water channel at Theed, which causes a flock of waterfowl to scatter. 

In the shot above, while not necessarily a "small detail", I love the clouds on the horizon, behind the war machines that themselves are cresting over the hill -- a very stark preview of what lies ahead in the PT narrative. Now, if you pair that up with the detail of the shaak fleeing, then you have a sort of "erasure" of Anakin and Padme frolicking in the meadow in AOTC. Like that scene is just a digression -- more overtly innocent, in a way, than many of the things happening in TPM (like it oughtn't be there). 

I suppose, you might say, the Gungans (in concert with Anakin) score a limited victory over the droid army in TPM; such that some innocence can re-flower in AOTC. The shaaks could also be the equivalent of banthas in the OT. In the Special Edition release of ROTJ, Lucas added a herd of banthas moving across the sand dunes of Tatooine, possibly sensitive to the flight of Jabba's sail barge. Technologic interlopers: ever-displacing the natural and free-roaming.  



There's a lot going on in this little encounter. 

First and foremost, it sets up the iconic, galaxy-changing meeting between Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi in the most casual and offhand of fashions. The scenery doesn't move or quake. There are no trumpets playing. Neither individual is doing anything of note to impress the other. Heck, they're "side-by-side", but essentially ignoring each other -- until Qui-Gon, the winded man, still trying to get his breath and recover his composure, cordially sparks up their introduction: "Anakin Skywalker, meet Obi-Wan Kenobi."

I said it on TFN some years ago, but it's like Disney/Abrams did what they could, very deliberately, to overplay the meet-up scenes in TFA in defiance of this understated first-encounter between Anakin and Obi-Wan in TPM. Yikes. Three letter acronyms. Anyway. The muted realism of TPM, with some kind of formalistic Asian politeness, remains a welcome change of pace from the OT (and certainly Disney's ST).

People still don't really get it. Today, however, the PT earns more respect than it used to, and the ironically played-down meeting between Anakin and Obi-Wan is oddly perfect for the YouTube generation -- where a level of concise admiration, often accompanied by salty humour, permeates comment sections, especially when videos are of a short length and contain grokable human moments (e.g., "I love how Qui-Gon is all like: "Oh, yeah. Allow me to introduce the young man who's gonna one day cut off your legs and leave you for dead."") Some people sort of get it now.

And right:

Anakin is impatient about the pretty queen (and, indirectly, Padme) being under attack. So he blurts out in all his fear and pain and irritation a very telling question to exactly the person he thinks nobody can kill: his ostensible father who can presumably do something about the situation and fix all evils. Only to be told the one thing he struggles with the whole saga: we gotta be patient, yo. See how incredible Lucas is at condensing everything down to the bare essence? It is very nice, I'll add, that Anakin asks: "What are we gonna do about it?" We. He sees them as a team. And they almost were, until the very thing/person he's asking what they're gonna do about, goes and offs the person he's posing the question to. Such a tragic dimension to the whole PT storyline. 

I think Obi-Wan's death stare (I inadvertently wrote "death star") in the screencap is also very telling. Even he is very rattled by what just happened and desperately trying not to show it. This clearly sets up his hatred of Maul when Maul slays Qui-Gon on Theed. He practically becomes Maul in both moments. Of course, here, the first time Qui-Gon is challenged and survives, Obi-Wan doesn't lose all composure and is able to recover to something warm and human when Qui-Gon diverts and breaks the tension by introducing him to Anakin. For a short time in the saga (the filmic saga), we see a Jedi Master with essentially two Padawan learners. Yeah, Qui-Gon is told the Jedi Code forbids him taking on a second, but he obviously does -- well, informally, at least. And he's guiding Padme and Jar Jar, too. 

Qui-Gon definitely cuts an impressive figure in this film. The flawless casting really shows itself in this little scene. Even though Qui-Gon is the one lying injured, or at least momentarily weakened, he remains the strongest, wisest person in the room. All attention falls on him. And, of course, Artoo is there up-close, to capture the epic encounter between Anakin and Obi-Wan -- the start of it all. In fact, they are basically all at Artoo's eye-level. The "kids" on the right all look to the elder guardian for insight and reassurance. The basic dynamic of all the films is established in this little scene, including the stoic but fundamentally good-natured disposition (the little chuckle from Qui-Gon at the end) of the ideal Jedi. 

Here's another little thing: Notice that Anakin blinks his eyes three times in denial of what he's hearing from Qui-Gon's lips. TPM and threes!!! I'm telling ya. This is clearly a lot for poor little Ani to process in a day. Indeed, you could argue he secretly begins finding the Sith seductive even before he meets the Jedi in their ivory tower because they are the "Dark Side" of the Jedi. Lucas sets this up by having Qui-Gon say that Maul, only being referred to as an "it" at this point, "was well-trained in the Jedi Arts". In other words, the Jedi aren't the only ones who can Jedi. This must be quite the mindfuck to Anakin, who we know reveres the Jedi, based on what he says to Qui-Gon at the meal in his home. The Sith literally enter his field of consciousness the very next day.  

Also note that it is Anakin who speaks first and acts if Qui-Gon is alright, echoing his being the one to ask if Palpatine is alright in ROTS on the Invisible Hand (with Obi-Wan again accompanying him). The basic meaning is obvious: Qui-Gon is Anakin's father/mentor in TPM and Palpatine has become that father/mentor in ROTS. As Ian McDiarmid has said: "If you wanted a subtitle for these movies, it could be "Fathers and Sons.""

Sure. The PT is full of little allusions like that.

Palpatine's preceding line is also interesting: "Leave him or we'll never make it."

Never make what? The Empire? The Death Star? Their Sith pact? Palpatine's full transformation into Sidious? The freaky Sith Eternal stuff in TROS? What, exactly, is Palpatine attempting to "make" throughout the saga, and does he achieve it? Note that the "we" could refer to his split identities.

If we're going into the dialogue in this scene, I'd like to also give a little nod to Ian McDiarmid's "Sidious" voice, especially when he casually tells Anakin, "There's no time." This is a line uttered by Obi-Wan on Geonosis when Padme says he and Anakin are going to need help capturing Dooku (whom Anakin, in this ROTS scene, has just killed). Ian makes it sound more authoritative and stark. It has that Emperor-ish quality of coming from the gut. Like Palpatine is half done with his "human" guise already. A little prelude to Sidious ordering Order 66. Of course, Anakin defies him here.

Twice Qui-Gon sighs a sigh of relief while partly mouthing something in awe and gratitude.



When Qui-Gon tells Obi-wan he still has much to learn, he pulls on him. So much so that Obi-Wan has to regain his balance. It's like Qui-Gon shakes him out of his rigid disposition, or at least enough to start Obi-Wan down a more well-rounded perspective on things. The very next day, in fact, after Qui-Gon's death, Obi-Wan insists that he will train Anakin whether the Council agrees or not, emphasizing that Qui-Gon believed in Anakin's potential.


And R2's melancholy whimper sigh at Qui-Gon's funeral is a nice touch. I don't think most directors would've thought of that.

I like that little tree branch dangling down in this shot, it looks like the fancy, cursive signature of the artist on a painting.


And I just recently noticed that girl in the peach colored dress is both standing on the platform and throwing confetti from the crowd in another shot.



And there are lots of subtle-funny visuals in the PT concerning Palpatine and something else like his wardrobe or something in the background, and this cat statue is no exception.