Padme’s Ruminations

Revenge of the Sith

Genie pops out of a bottle and grants me three wishes. One of them is for me to be as witty as the dude who does the Screen Junkies Honest Trailers voiceover – or at least, the team of writers that pitch that comedy gold.

As much as I love Revenge of the Sith, the Honest Trailers episode for the third chapter in the Skywalker saga is honestly one of my favourite in the series.

Amongst a feast of hilarity, Screen Junkies take time to poke fun at the amount of “sitting and talking” that there is in the film, while drawing particular attention to the exception to this rule – the scene when Anakin and Padme “stare out of the window.”

Hey, it’s a film about space wizards – if you can’t laugh at spoofs and parodys tastefully poking fun at the franchise from time to time, then the internet is probably not for you.

At least this particular parody brought to the forefront a scene that a lot of people will have missed on a first viewing. Amid all of the smashing, crashing and clashing that happens in the most action packed of Star Wars movies, the “staring out of the window” scene is one of my favourites.

It’s a break from the action, a time for reflection for Anakin and Padme. Having been snubbed from being part of the Jedi party en route to detain Chancellor Palpatine, Anakin sits alone in the Jedi Council chamber. Across Coruscant, Padme sits alone in her apartment.

In unison, they stand up to look at each other across the city, staring out of their respective windows.

Get ready for some interpretive metaphors, because they are coming in as hot.

With the sun setting on Coruscant and Anakin on the brink of turning to the dark side, he and Padme are split. The divide between them will never be bridged. The next time they meet, Anakin will have been consumed by Vader.

In a scene without any dialogue, Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman knock it out of the park, having a conversation through their facial expressions. Anakin’s trying to shut out Palpatine’s voice but can’t, Padme hears his internal conflict and rushes to the window, only to realise that she can’t reach him. Anakin comes to terms with the path that he has to walk – the realisation bringing the torn Jedi to tears.

Eye-roll all you like at some of the dialogue in the prequels and, in fairness, I’ll often be right there with you, but in this scene alone George Lucas and the team behind Revenge of the Sith gives the audience a masterclass in visual storytelling.

Never has “staring out of the window” been so powerful.