Hidden Moments of Star Wars

The Star Wars series is well-known for those great defining moments, moments that stick out not only in the movies but all of cinema. Who can forget Han Solo taking out Darth Vader’s ship, giving Luke a clean shot at the Death Star? How about Leia rescuing Han from the carbonite and finally telling him she loved him. (Of course, Jabba was watching the whole time, but still, she tried). Perhaps the most important moment is—arguably in all of moviedom—is Luke and Darth on the catwalk. There hasn’t been that big a resolution of paternity since Anastaisia.¹

But I wanted to focus on some smaller moments. I’m chiefly concerned with moments that definitely mean something, but because their value is underplayed or the significance is not known at the time they get overlooked. I’m going to suggest a few here today. Feel free to leave comments and suggest some more, and in a few days I’ll list then and you can vote.

Of course, I’m on record as saying the revelation that Anakin killed the entire village of his mom’s captors might be THE pivotal moment of the series. There is simply no justification for his actions, even if we can understand his anger. This was the moment to reign the child in, and what does Padme do? Stand by him.

Then there’s the moment in EMPIRE that you didn’t really know what it meant until later. Yoda sends Luke in alone to this swampy area, and he fights a hologram Darth Vader. Luke cuts of Vader’s head, only to see his own face in the mask. Once we understand the true significance of this, that moment gets better and better in re-watchings.

On a similar subject, perhaps it’s not pivotal, but I always get a kick out of Luke and Leia kissing in Star Wars, and Luke’s puppy-dog attraction to Leia. Of course, the first time we saw Star Wars, only George Lucas knew, so he HAD to be laughing at us in his sleeve a little bit. Now that I’m in on the joke, I have to admit it’s pretty funny.

Okay: here’s a small thing, but I think it’s kind of cool and helps connect the two trilogies. In EMPIRE in Cloud City, when Han is getting frozen, C-3PO is quite upset, and Boba Fett goes to shoot him. Darth stops Fett, which at the time means nothing to us. Then, 19 years later, we see PHANTOM MENACE, and see that Anakin built C-3PO, and it all comes together. Somewhere in that evil shell was a shred of humanity left, enough for a boy to remember his droid he created. Sniff sniff.

In a darker version of this, remember how Senator Palpatine eyes the young Anakin after he saves the day at the end of PHANTOM MENACE? What does he say? We will have to keep an eye on you? Now, imagine if you were watching them for the first time, 1-6. You’d have no idea (until #3) that Palpatine is Sidious, so how much more poignant would that be? Of course, even for us, it’s chilling in a funny way.

I suppose this one seems clichéd, but until seeing REVENGE OF THE SITH, I never fully appreciated the significance of Vader and Obi-Wan’s fight in STAR WARS. The dialogue they use to each other is magnified know that we know how it all ends on Mustufar.

And, while I’m sure this qualifies as a big moment, and I realized the significance then, I have to mention Darth Vader at the end of JEDI. After everything he’s gone through, seeing how the Emperor wants Luke to kill him and take his place (which, by the way, the Emperor managed to pull off with Count Dooku), Vader somehow remembers back 20 years through all the hate and the brain-washing, to when he was Anakin, and the love for his son is enough for him to betray his master and save Luke’s life.

So there are seven of mine. What are yours? Write me or Leave a message on here, and we’ll see where we stand.

NOTES
1- You can read more about it here