Action and Violence in Star Wars: Revenge of The Sith

In 2005, a blockbuster sci-fi/action hit arrived in theaters. Star Wars: Revenge of The Sith was a cinematic masterpiece directed by no other than the infamous George Lucas. The film’s action provided entertainment and long-lasting memories for fans around the world. From the impressive camera work, inclusion of violence, and impact on millions of people, this film did massive numbers in the box office and was a force to be reckoned with.

In this image, the two main characters Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi are seen duelling each other with their bright blue lightsabers enlightening the scene. Throughout the scene, the camera is moved in several directions with different intents to show the action and where it takes place. Before this image takes place in the film, the camera is placed overhead and looks downwards at the jedi as they tightrope along a thin metal pipe. This is done to strike anxiety and fear into the audience by showing the great drop into a fiery river of lava. At one point during their duel, the camera transitions into a first person POV to focus on a huge wave of lava crashing on the platform they are standing on. There are also several cuts throughout the entire fight scene to show the dangerous environment and impressive choreography. Cutting states “scenes in popular movies are designed in part to speed up the narrative” (Cutting, 2019). This tends to be the case in most action scenes in the franchise because the audience wants to not only enjoy the action, but the overall story and plot. The camera is also positioned over the shoulder at times to show each character from one’s own perspective. By the time the image shows up in the film, the camera pans horizontally to show the two jedi struggling to overpower each other as they clash. The set design and camera work did an incredible job at portraying a deadly environment and fatal situation these characters were going through.

Star Wars is a franchise that thrives off its action and is known for some of its violent scenes. Director George Lucas has always claimed that Star Wars was meant for kids, however the amount of violence for a supposed “kids movie” cannot be ignored. At the conclusion of the fight scene between Anakin and Obi-Wan, Anakin gets his legs cut off as well as one of his arms at the mercy of the “Hero” Obi-Wan. When it comes to watching violent movies in general, Worth states “Boys, minorities, those with low socioeconomic status, and those with poor school performance are all more likely to watch extremely violent movies” (Worth, 2008). In the past it would have been easier for parents to monitor and control what their children watch and play, but nowadays kids are only a click or tap away from exposing themselves to graphic content. George Lucas created Obi-Wan to be a wise, stoic, and orderly jedi master, however the number of times the character has killed and the ways he goes about doing so somewhat contradicts this. O’Brien writes “Though action movies seem to project hypermasculine triumphalism and redemption through violence, they thus represent a profoundly anxious attitude” (O’Brien, 2012). This can relate to the film because Obi-Wan resorted to violence and trying to kill his former apprentice Anakin because of his fear that the dark side had already consumed Anakin. This can however paint a negative image into a child’s mind by making children think that violence is the only way to resort to high stress situations. Even though action movies contain violence for entertainment value, it is important to consider the negative effects it may have on a child.

When Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith released in 2005, it became a major success as it made $380,270,577 million domestically, $469,727,028 million internationally, and $849,997,605 million worldwide (Box Office Mojo. This surpassed the previous film Star Wars: Attack of the Clones which came out in 2002. This film only garnered $310,676,740 million domestically, $343,103,230 million internationally, and $653,780,724 million worldwide. This film was overall not as well received by fans and lacked the action in the final film of the trilogy.

This film was ahead of its time with the impressive CGI, set design, practical effects, choreography, and directing. The massive budget that Lucasfilm had, made this project possible. The film satisfied many Star Wars and non-Star Wars fans alike. The combination of romance, comedy, and action made the movie a rollercoaster of emotions and will be remembered as one of the best films in the franchise. The amount of violence and the small amounts of gore, however, will not be forgotten as this may be an issue for those who watch the film and aren’t used to things of that nature. As the franchise continues to make more projects, many hope that Star Wars will never cross the line and go overboard with violence.

Bibliography
Cutting, James E. “Sequences in Popular Cinema Generate Inconsistent Event Segmentation – Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics.” SpringerLink, May 15, 2019. https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13414-019-01757-w.
O’Brien, Harvey. Action movies: The cinema of striking back. London: Wallflower, 2012. https://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=b6OeW-PHMTQC&oi=fnd&pg=PP3&dq=violence+in+action+movies&ots=SSqIQTL7dJ&sig=hekX4w2MZaULGA0WBWxrtKtW8Mw#v=onepage&q=violence%20in%20action%20movies&f=false
Worth, Keilah A. “Exposure of Us Adolescents to Extremely Violent Movies.” Exposure of US Adolescents to Extremely Violent Movies, 2008. https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/122/2/306/73070/Exposure-of-US-Adolescents-to-Extremely-Violent