The Phantom Menace Analysis

No-one "biting" here??? Poodoo!

I guess it's also about consumption and digestion.

"In his belly you will find a new definition of pain and suffering as you are slowly digested over a thousand years."

Oh, and if it's a frog-thing that Sebulba is eating on Tatooine, then both Jabba and Sebulba are snacking on relatives of Jar Jar. When Sebulba accosts Jar Jar for hurling the frog in his food/drink, asking him if the item is his, it's like he's complaining that Jar Jar is way more popular than he is, as a simulacrum/action figure. It's all just very meta here. The wandering frog on Tatooine (Jar Jar was just about the last sort of creature Lucas could have pulled off in 1977) is a peculiar motif when contrasted with these other events.

To continue the simulacrum reading, the butch toys/hardware of the TF almost flatten Jar Jar in his very first scene -- sort of like the masculine competing with the feminine? Aggrieved, perhaps, that it can't be as lush, as shiny, as flexible, as beautiful. Thus the feminine must be targeted, taunted, hounded, destroyed.

AOTC and the three female deaths: Corde, Zam, and Shmi.
Order 66, the slaying of Aayla Secura, and Padme dying in ROTS.

TPM is neat in now it sneakily lays the groundwork for everything to come. It was shunned, in a way, for its preliminary qualities, perhaps. There's something about getting to the main course that people prefer over the starter or about one's journey to the eating location (see: returning this to your motif!) itself.


Triptychs. TPM excels at triptychs. So excellent at triptychs is she.


Don't give me a tetraptych now!


Or a pentaptych!


Finally. And look over here, folks...

I feel like inserting one more: 

Digression.


Thar she blows! Sneaky TPM triads again.


Naboo and Outlanders = NO!!!

That's all I got. For real.

No, actually, that and this GL quote:

"The advantage I had when I was young -- younger than I am now -- is that being shy, I was fairly quiet, being quiet, most people thought I was fairly smart. I listened a lot. You know, in Japan, if you don't talk, they think you're a genius. In this country, I think most people like to talk more than listen. So someone who listens is more easily liked by those who enjoy talking -- because they have someone to talk to. I've discovered that most people who talk a lot make fools of themselves. So, if you don't talk too much, it makes you more intelligent than you really are."

-- "The George Lucas Saga", Kerry O'Quinn, 1981 (from the book "George Lucas: Interviews", edited by Sally Kline, 1999, p. 101)

In a very apposite way, this historic Lucas quote goes to the heart of what you said at the end of your mini-monograph:

This is one of the reasons why I find TPM to be the most interesting of the films--it lays the PERFECT foundation for one of the most complex themes in the entire series AFTER half of the films had been made, but still provides it at the BEGINNING of the story.

Scope. Complexity. Locking things into place. The artist's signature.

You can also find another concrete expression of the sentiments GL issued there in another Qui-Gon line you yourself almost quoted above:

"When your learn to quiet your mind, you'll hear them speaking to you."

Again, when Lucas returned to his creation to give us the backstory, he made it infinitely richer and more rewarding.

Oh, and in the middle of all that, another motif from the GL quote:

Enlightened foolishness. Foolish enlightenment.


Very good. A panoply of interlocking parts. That's our beloved STAR WARS.


Plenty here, yep. Well, like, DUH.

All these motifs are gorgeously detailed and extensive.

For a little lemon twist, we might like to add DOORS. The Doors of Perception. Plenty of sideways-splitting ones -- like Japanese screens -- in the movie, too.

In fact, the Asian-Western fusion aesthetic in Episode I is pretty pronounced and interesting.


Now, this one is cool. I wrote a little about this motif before:

In the Prequel Trilogy, Lucas makes a strong attempt to tie the outbreak of war to the maneuverings of the state, the blindness and apathy of its citizens, the malignance of greed and self-interest generally, and the vain ambition of ruthless and amoral leaders. At the same time, the limitations of even a "well-meaning" government are shown. Chiefly, how wealth and power tend to concentrate in an economically prosperous center, with more urban and fringe areas neglected and essentially forgotten.

In Episode I, we see how Coruscant, the capital of the Republic, is a place of civilizational wonders, while backwater planets, either still within the Republic, like Naboo, or truly in the boondocks, like Tatooine, are left at the mercy of trade cartels and crime empires that openly practice and profit from the scourge of slavery. These factors, in turn, all dramatically feed into Anakin’s personal descent into Darth Vader: slayer of the sacred feminine and dark enforcer of the new era that replaces a thousand years of diplomacy and peace.

* * *

Of course, that's just the mundane "political" level of the PT (albeit driving the poetic/religious/metaphysical). The point in all this is that it's all very layered and interwoven -- or stratified. 

BIG BLOCKS is also another motif that comes to mind, having just said the former thing. Like the big columns of energy in the epic lightsaber duel or the huge list of vertically-scrolling production credits at the end. Imagine that many lines/layers to every motif (i.e., each screen credit is a layer). A giant roster. Listification.

And Vader's breath becomes the inhalation-exhalation (ventilation shaft) of everything imagined or made -- everything within that roster -- secretly going out into the world. As if the universe has been infused with many categories, roles, items, etc. Many of which are obscure, arcane, or given incomplete, shaky descriptions (film credits are tricky things to break down and they basically follow their own rules/procedures -- e.g., people given weird or limiting titles they don't deserve or that don't really explain their contributions).

Speaking of which:

Rules and procedures.

Titles, trinkets, and totems.


And staying close to Qui-Gon ties into SAFETY, which you listed earlier. Hmm...

Safety, protection, escorts, decoys.


Heck, even THE DOORS get jammed (in the palace).

PANAKA: Jam the doors.
HAN: Chewie, jam its transmissions.


Ooooooh. That's a really good one! We can probably say the confetti at the end is like an obscuring sandstorm, too.

The Sith just took control and everyone is celebrating. LOL.

"Monsters out there, leakin in here, all sinkin and no power -- when are yousa thinkin wesa in trouble?!"


Palpatine has the Senate "bogged down" in procedures. The primitives that battle the DROID ARMY in a DIVERSION rise up from a swamp.

And yep, when Anakin timidly says he feels "cold", he could be speaking about the coldness that's left over, once the warm welcomes and nice facades have gone away. "Space is cold", Padme tells him. The universe is mostly empty space. Literally chilling.


Nice. Although you listed DIVERSION earlier. Is "Diversions" its little brother? Pollen grains that have left the original flower?

Well, anyway, it might have been seeing these few items that sparked my desire to comment. My entry-point into this whole thing was desiring to list the following additional four around this point in your list, so here they are:

Palaces.

Loneliness.

Intensity.

Fragility.


Yeah, Anakin dragging Jar Jar off in the background, just outside Palpatine's apartment, through that transparent screen door -- or membrane -- is surely one of the more arresting "little details" in the film.


Okay, so that's what you really wanted to say.

tl;dr: midi-chlorians rule.

This is a neat formulation I want to close on:


Who, then, is ever "leading"? 

Semantic games aside, that little life formula is definitely something to ponder. 

Thanks! I'm not always good with words, either. I actually wrote the opening post about 13 years ago...but felt it was relevant now. LOL!

Also:

The Polar Express

Both times the Jedi are being led on their journey. The captain and the pilot fly them to the TF ship, while the Force guides them through the planet core. In the first instance, the Jedi force their will upon the TF on orders from the Chancellor. In the second instance, they surrender to the flow of things, and I believe they are using the Force to read Jar Jar's mind for directions. The Jedi, especially Qui-Gon, seem much more relaxed with Jar Jar in the bongo, than they do on the Republic ship which is strictly for business. Even though the planet core poses life threatening dangers, the Jedi are where they belong, in nature surrounded by life. They are much more tense and rigid when going about Republic business. In the TF ship, Qui-Gon says the matter of the negotiations is "trivial." Longingly, as soon as they arrive in the conference room and take their hoods off, they move to the window to gaze at the lush green planet below them. Surrounded by droids and other machinery, this is not the optimal place for a Jedi. But inside the planet core which is full of life, the Force starts guiding them.

I like this concept art which emphasizes even more the theme of the Jedi in nature running as one of the animals.

Anyone else been thinking about TPM more than usual over the last couple months? Never before has it felt so relevant. If only Irl it was possible to pull a Padmé when needed.

TPM, and the prequel trilogy, is really almost like George telling the audience "This statement is false." It's a trap. I keep seeing it.

It's strange sometimes to see what people choose to do with their imaginations.