Thanks for that!
I think TPM's structure is a little hard to pin down (certainly, in my view, not a bad thing). Because there's three planets, like the three basic environments of the OT movies, it would seem to be a straightforward thing: Naboo, Tatooine, and Coruscant. What could be simpler? But, of course, the real planet structure is: Naboo, Tatooine, Coruscant, Naboo. That makes it harder to determine where to "break" the film up.
I like the way your diagram (from that web page) has it:
Act I is basically the beginning on Naboo,
Act II is all of Tatooine and Coruscant, and
Act III is the return to Naboo and the big action finale. That's probably the cleanest way to do it. Alternatively, the initial sequence on Naboo is an overture, and the "real" acts of the movie then follow the three planets, with a series of dilemmas and obstacles on each.
But if we combine the overture into the first act, per your diagrams, we see that this structure also follows the "intent" of the queen's ship or its passengers, who are trying to reach Coruscant, but are forced on a detour to Tatooine before fixing the ship and finally reaching their intended destination. Incidentally, in this, there is an echo of the original film, where Luke and Obi-Wan are intending to reach Alderaan, but instead, they confront the ruins of Alderaan and are pulled into the "belly of the beast": the very monstrosity that just destroyed their destination. In order for them to escape the Death Star, Obi-Wan stages a diversion, chopped down by Vader in the process. I've previously said that there's an equivalent "slaying" event in TPM, but it isn't Maul killing Qui-Gon -- it's Palpatine (via Amidala) deposing Valorum. It resonates better because of where and when it takes place. Regarding the "where" in particular: What is Coruscant, from space, if not a civilisational Death Star? The most brutal event in the film is one that (essentially) happens off-screen. Even Lucas suggested this in an interview with Vanity Fair just ahead of the movie's opening in 1999:
It's funny you say you wanted to rest after the podrace. This echoes what Lucas says when talking with his key creative and technical personnel at the start of "The Beginning":
Amazingly, the podrace begins at
59:58 (marked by the main podrace racing light going green and the first lap indicator light going blue) and is over at
1:09:30 (when Anakin crosses the finish line) -- there's basically still half the movie to go! The exact middle of the film (including starting titles and end credits) occurs (in my copy) at
1:08:05: this is the exact moment Anakin rectifies his engine troubles (caused by Sebulba's sabotage shortly before the race begins) and grabs the steering paddles to put his podracer in a full acceleration burn. This action enables him to rapidly catch up with Sebulba and ultimately win the race. So the end of the podrace leaks into the second-half of the movie (barely), but most of it (all of the first two laps and about half of the third and final lap) actually occurs in the
first-half. That's a crazy structure. It's almost saying the race for Anakin to win his freedom isn't that important. False jubilation. Premature ejac... well, you get the idea.
At some point in all this, the bulbous penis-king Jabba falls asleep. The big slug slumbers somewhere in the middle of the movie; but is roused back to awareness at the finish of the race. This would seem to echo the slaying of Grievous by Obi-Wan (or maybe Palpatine "going to sleep" and "waking back up" between manipulating Anakin about joining him to save Padme and the Jedi confronting him in his office). But here's where it gets pretty unreal:
The fact that Anakin is then shown in a hangar after winning the race, surrounded by his friends and family, feels like an ironic inversion of Anakin being rebuffed by Mace in the very next scene of ROTS in a
war hangar and left alone as the other Jedi head off to confront Palpatine. I've thought before it would be interesting to solder the movies together at this point: after Anakin wins the race in TPM, cut to the Jedi war hangar and let ROTS take over. How much different would everything feel? Of all that excluded material: what could be inferred? It might be a neat exercise in intellectually determining (or just viscerally feeling) how much has changed between the two time-frames. Indeed, in the quote from "The Beginning", Lucas could be talking about the audience going home and coming back for the second-half: the epic events of ROTS after Anakin discovers Palpatine's identity, topped with an "incredible Jedi battle" at the end! And just so AOTC doesn't feel entirely excluded: "No, we've got to get to that hangar!" (Subtext will get this).
Time-wise, these events also line up quite well: the exact middle of ROTS (according to my copy) is a shot of Anakin staring across the city during the start of the "ruminations" sequence at
1:10:03, while TPM's exact middle occurs in ROTS at the moment Anakin is telling Mace that Palpatine "knows the ways of the Force" -- just as Anakin feels "the force" of his podrace engines in the middle of TPM, so things have come to a complete halt between Mace and Anakin in this moment in ROTS. Anyway, the hangar scenes don't themselves completely overlap (no pun intended), but it's still worth noting that they are about equally displaced from the middle: in TPM, the hangar scene occurs with a wipe from Jabba at
1:10:06, which puts it
2 minutes and 1 second (plus or minus a second)
after the exact middle of TPM (Anakin righting his engines), while the war hangar scene in ROTS occurs at
1:07:40, which is
2 minutes and 23 seconds (plus or minus a second)
before the exact middle of ROTS (Anakin staring across the city). If nothing else, notice the centrality of Anakin (and his fateful interlinkage with Padme and the Jedi) in all these moments.
I think what I'm saying is: The PT is the story of how Anakin wins a race and acquires the booby prize of becoming Darth Vader. "I'm building a podracer." Darth Vader is a podracer. He's like a blend of machine and racer (if you're a podracer, are you the vehicle or the person that races the vehicle?). "I'm a pilot, you know." The relatively rapid nature of Anakin's fall can be grasped with this metaphor. In fact, the whole podrace is essentially a metaphor for Anakin's journey across the saga. The structuring of the PT handmaidens its metaphorical and allegorical architecture.
AOTC... Oh, boy...
Can I deal with that one another time?
I'm one of those who doesn't just watch SW movies casually or in densely-packed marathons. In fact when I watch one of the films, I usually break it up into at least three parts so I can take some time to process what has happened and think about what might(will) happen next. Really marinate in the dramatic tension.
Basically, I think my intermission points usually follow the act structure. For example, with RotS, it's usually very close to how Cryo broke it down in 2006:
Opening crawl to "Soon I will have a new apprentice..." (Such a quintessential act closer).
Balcony scene to "Know the power of the dark side..."
Greivous vs. Obi-Wan finale to "...and we shall have peace."
Anakin entering the Jedi Temple to credits.
(Though sometimes, depending on how emotionally turbulent I'm feeling, with a short break when Padme lands on Mustafar before she gets out of the ship).
That's pretty cool -- and a touch creepy! Padme's face is lit hellish-red, and her visage in the other segments is preceded by Palpatine/Sidious, who is accented by little glints of light in the background. Maaaaan... What
is ROTS?
"Learn to know the power of the Dark Side and you will be able to save your wife from certain death."
I think Palpatine is telling Anakin that
he's his wife. Somehow or another, either Vader or Sidious are able to siphon and suck up Padme's soul at the end of the movie, and this is perhaps how Anakin remains tethered to Palpatine.
And not only Saturday Matinee serials, but I've also noticed SW films can be divided up into 1-2 minute mini-serials. Much like a daily, three or four-panel, dramatic comic strip. Basically, each little moment/scene has it's own dramatic arc with an objective, obstacle and resolution, each contributing to the overarching development of the act.
Like these:
There was in fact a three-panel daily SW strip from 1977-84. A seamless and natural transition, I think.
You could say a lot of fantasy/adventure films are structured this way, but it really stands out in SW. I first noticed it while contemplating the first act of RotJ.
And that is
very cool! So yet again: Star Wars resolves into triads and triptychs! What a trip(tych)!
(Based on your post, I also changed the title of the thread from "Notes on prequel structure" to "Notes on prequel
and saga structure").
It's funny you say noticed this while contemplating ROTJ. The larger panel there has a bunch of people falling off a bridge, not unlike the way several characters fall to their doom during the sail barge sequence. But more than that, there's a pronounced
bridge/gangplank/gantry (or skywalk) motif in ROTJ, which yields to any number of metaphorical (or, indeed, rawly "meta") interpretations. This also looks like a neat place to visit -- main image puts me in a ROTJ frame-of-mind immediately:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Canyon_Skywalk
"Jabba! This is your last chance. Free us or die."
