We Star Wars fans represent both the best and the worst in all the fandoms. On the dark side, we have the misogynists, flunkies, and trolls who translate their “love” for the original trilogy into cruelty so strong that it has broken the hearts and affected the careers of Kelly Tran, Jake Lloyd, Hayden Christensen, and even George Lucas himself. Yet for every troll, there are scads of freedom fighters out there writing fan fic, raising new little nerdlings in the ways of the Force, and creating beautiful cosplay mashups such as this one (my personal favorite to date):
Yet of all the injustices in the Star Wars realm, the one that rankles me most is the ongoing vendetta against Star Wars: Episode 1-The Phantom Menace. Everyone on the Internet these days declares this movie to be just the worst. It’s been deemed unlovable, unredeemable, an unfitting use of these characters, and most of all, a joke. To all of which I say, bantha poodoo. I was there on opening day in 1999, and I believe the Dark Side has distorted our memories.
Come along, all you rancors and luggabeasts, scoundrels and friends, as we turn back the clock and cast a little light on this swamp.
Where the Film Fails
In the spirit of intergalactic cooperation, I can definitely agree Phantom Menace IS a flawed movie. For one thing, the midichlorians/virgin birth piece of the story was awkward and ham-handed (so much so that it all but disappeared from the canon after this). It was also a missed opportunity. Darth Vader looms as an instantly recognizable symbol of daddy issues throughout all the realms of pop culture; wouldn’t a story of abandonment or premature death at the hands of someone Anakin could blame have made more sense?
Also, Jar Jar Binks takes a lot of heat (more on that to come), but it’s really the Gungan people in general who are problematic – and their leader, Boss Nass is by far the worst. With the spitting and the growling and his turn-on-a-dime, borderline schizophrenic leadership style…why isn’t he the one we malign?
Finally – and most egregiously of all – there’s this line:
spoken by Qui-Gon Jinn, JEDI MASTER. Oh, really? A leader in the order of knights who are the self-proclaimed guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy is too busy chaperoning a monarch for political purposes to address the issue of slavery? Even if you chalk it up to a Star Trek-esque approach of treading lightly in other cultures so as not to disturb their destinies, it still doesn’t hold up. Qui-Gon was completely comfortable with extracting Anakin, a being of incredible power and destiny, from his place in their culture for the benefit of the Jedi order…but he couldn’t free a whole people for the betterment of them and society in general? No.
So yes, I recognize there are many points worth critiquing in and about this film. Yet I think we’ve given in to a mob mentality by condemning/writing off the entire movie as though we didn’t absolutely love it when it debuted. The Phantom Menace ranks as the 18th highest grossing film of all time in theaters (above The Lion King, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and even The Avengers). It has made over $1 billion at the box office – $65 million of that in its opening weekend alone – and you just don’t get those kinds of numbers without repeat viewings.
So what’s our problem with it now, 20 years later?
The two complaints I always hear ad nauseam are:
- It’s too political.
Too much talk of trade routes and federations and Senate debates? I think it’s merely too little patience on the part of today’s viewers. There was plenty of political talk in Episode 4 as well; is it the absence of a backdrop of torture, violence, and genocide that we miss? Episode 1 takes place when there were still rules leaders had to follow, and it deftly sets up the rise of the Empire by showing how one man was able to manipulate people within those rules to eliminate them and secure ultimate power for himself. - Jar Jar Binks is the worst.
(Yawn) This is unfair, and it’s a dead horse people just can’t stop beating. Jar Jar has been called everything from merely annoying all the way to straight up racist. On that second count, all I can say is, his dialogue may have been atrocious, but his tone and inflections were created by the actor himself – Ahmed Best, a black man. As for being annoying…yep. Totally annoying to most adult viewers. But:
- Kids like him. He’s the connection to the younger viewers, just like R2-D2, BB-8, and C-3P0, to keep them engaged when all else is going over their heads.
- There’s no way Jar Jar is more annoying than C-3P0. In fact, these two have a lot in common. They both have weird body movements, annoying and highly affected speech patterns, and flaws they never seem to learn from which make them a danger to themselves and others. However you feel about them, neither deserves to be maligned as viciously Jar Jar has been for so long.
What We’ve Forgotten
Not only is Phantom Menace not as bad as we remember, it actually gave us some of the greatest treasures of the series. For example:
- The Score
John Williams is absolutely the man, creating and enhancing whole worlds with his musical backdrops and themes, and some of the best pieces are in the Phantom Menace score. (See especially “Duel of the Fates” and “Anakin’s Theme” – did you catch the quote from “The Imperial March” in the tag? Brilliant.) - Darth Maul
Best. Fight scenes. Ever. (Thank you, Ray Park!) And that FC-20 speeder bike? Badass. You know you want one. - Jar Jar Binks
That’s right, I said it. Not the character specifically, though, so much as the tech that created him. George Lucas pioneered the CGI which would later be used to create Gollum in the Lord of the Rings movies, the Na’vi in Avatar, and even Hulk in the Avengers movies. Whatever his other faults, the man was and is a genius at creating not just whole fantasy worlds, but also the special effects to immerse us into them wholly.
The Defense Concludes
Lots of people don’t remember this, but Episode 5-The Empire Strikes Back was maligned for a long time as the weakest piece of the original trilogy. I was only a kid, but almost all the way up until the prequels debuted, I heard how it dragged out with too much time in the swamp, and also how it had such an emotionally unsatisfying ending. Now it’s hailed by most of the fanboys as the best one, and we all go around quoting Yoda’s training mantras all the time.
The point is, time and trends can warp our memories. I invite everyone on this lovely Star Wars Day to revisit this particular chapter with eyes that are as objective as you can make them. What new things do you appreciate? What memories does it bring up? Tell me about it in the comments…and may the Force be with you. Always.
Lucinda S. Sutton 