Revenge of the Sith a "Blood Bath" 780
An anonymous reader writes "The BBC is reporting that the Revenge of the Sith is a blood bath and is to recieve a PG-13. One notable point from the article is Lucas is quoted as saying "But I have to tell a story. I'm not making these, oddly enough, to be giant, successful blockbusters. I'm making them because I'm telling a story, and I have to tell the story I intended." As he lit a cigar with a large stack of burning 20's."
I don't see how anyone is suprised (Score:4, Informative)
PG-13 is not binding (TFA is wrong) (Score:5, Informative)
(Theoretically) A 7 year old could walk up and get into it without a parent. It's not like R, where it is enforced parental guidence, it's just a strong SUGGESTION.
Nothing to enforce... (Score:4, Informative)
Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Successful Blockbuster (Score:5, Informative)
Re:So long as... (Score:1, Informative)
Good point (Score:5, Informative)
That's a good point. The ratings specify for R that children under 17 are not permitted, while parents are simply cautioned about inappropriate material for PG-13.
Source [filmratings.com]
Of course, this is all still voluntary. There's no legal enforcement. However, I do know some movie theaters enforce the R rating (as I mentioned originally).
Joseph Campbell and the power of UGHHHHHH... (Score:5, Informative)
Anyhow, the article is about how Lucas wanted to perpetuate the ties to mythic storytelling in his saga. Even though in '77, his initial interviews talked about little more than a Western in space, once the connections to Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth started happening, Lucas didn't exactly go out of his way to deny it.
I wonder if that, more than anything, overly influenced the latter trilogy. The epic fall from grace. Suddenly, I have visions of Lucas sitting around reading Milton and having inner dialogs about why Satan gets all the zingy one liners.
There's a ton of ways to read into Star Wars. The ancient Sith / Jedi split invokes the Jesuits, right down to the robes and the dress. If you've read the final script, you know that (spoiler ahead)
Anakin forsees the death of his beloved again and again (in very vividly written scenes) and it torments him, as he wants his children, but it starts to drive him mad, and he agrees to become Sith only to gain the power to change the future and save the woman he loves. But, in the end, when he thinks Obi-Wan has betrayed him, he force chokes her and nearly kills her. in fact, Sidious tells him later that his force choke DID kill her, which drives him right over the edge.
There's a strong influence of Greek tragedy in this script. Cheating death, changing fate. Being at the height of your intellectual and phsyical powers in your late 20's, thinking that the world owes you, that you are the sole master of your destiny and finding your mortality is still all too real.
The script is brutal. If it's shot that way, it would be a stark departure from the first two. The final scene between Anakin and Obi-Wan was suprising in it's adultness. He falls into the lava, his legs are burning, he can't get up. He's clawing the sand... all of his conceits wash away. No more rationalizations of how totalitarianism is somehow more benign, he just cringes and screams at Obi-Wan, hs face twisted and red "I hate you!!!". Obi-Wan leans down, a tear streaming in his eyes and responds "I always loved you. Like a brother." and walks away leaving him to burn.
That's serious Campbell territory. The mentor relationship, the hero who fails the test because jealousy consumes him.
So, when Lucas says 'I needed to tell this story', what I really think is happening is that he needs to fufill the power of myth aspects. This film is a violent fable. The father falls, the son redeems him. His fall needs to be brutal and ultimately apolitical. Anakin doesn't want power for power's sake. He wants respect, he wants everyone to love him and adore him. He has a God complex. There are many levels there.
I have a feeling that this movie will leave everybody wondering all the ways the first two could be redone. Anakin should have picked up in his early 20's someplace NOT tattooine. His struggle as a slave, beaten and oppressed, would have forced him into spirituality (not chemistry) and a brutal desire for acceptance and hatred for oppression that ultimately twisted around until the only way he could fufill that was to become the oppressor.
Oh, and the scene where he kills all the padawans, that could have been brutal if it had a flashback to his slave days. As it is, it's just disturbing and the script invokes Columbine somewhat, with the imagery focusing on his black cloak.
Re:PG-13 is not binding (TFA is wrong) (Score:4, Informative)
Binding under what pretense?
The ratings are voluntary and self moderated by the MPAA. There is no legal obligations or enforcements whatsoever. The enforcement is done at the movie theater by the movie theater people. I'm sure it varies much more from theater to theater than from state to state.
Re:Good point (Score:4, Informative)
| Actually "Under 17 Requires accompanying parent or guardian".
sort of.... (Score:2, Informative)
When he chopped up the original story into three, he wasn't sure that he would make the second two, and really wanted to include a wookie, so he made chewbakka a co-pilot, and upped his intellegence to boot.
When it was time for ROTJ, he needed "wookies". Hence the birth of the ewoks. No doubt with some marketing help.
Re:Gosh! How unlike the real world (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Bzzzt (Score:5, Informative)
- PG13 Titanic (1997) $1,835,300,000
- PG13 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) $1,129,219,252
- PG Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) $968,600,000
- PG Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) $922,379,000
- PG13 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) $921,600,000
- PG13 Jurassic Park (1993) $919,700,000
- PG Shrek 2 (2004) $880,871,036
- PG Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) $866,300,000
- G Finding Nemo (2003) $865,000,000
- PG13 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) $860,700,000
- PG13 Independence Day (1996) $811,200,000
- PG13 Spider-Man (2002) $806,700,000
- PG Star Wars (1977) $797,900,000
- PG Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) $789,458,727
- PG13 Spider-Man 2 (2004) $783,577,893
- G The Lion King (1994) $783,400,000
- PG E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) $756,700,000
- R The Matrix Reloaded (2003) $735,600,000
- PG13 Forrest Gump (1994) $679,400,000
- PG13 The Sixth Sense (1999) $661,500,000
So obviously PG-13 doesn't hurt ticket sales much (if at all).Re:No Suprise (Score:3, Informative)
They even show in great detail Anakin's new robotic arms and legs being attached to his body while what's left of his body looks like it just came fresh out of the oven. Anakin gets messed up bad in this one. I don't know if I would let my 12 year old kid see that.
Re:The real reason for the rating. (Score:5, Informative)
Trust me -- no need to wait for Lucas to make Star Wars nerds wet dreams come true with revisions to Amidala's cloak or Leia's Hutt bikini in the "Star Wars 8th Edition Special THX Widescreen DVD Collection" to get you in trouble with the wife.
My gawking during "Closer" was plenty enough to land me on the couch last Saturday night...where I watched it again, after the wife went to sleep, in the privacy of my den.
IronChefMorimoto
Re:Bzzzt (Score:2, Informative)
Re:As he lit.... (Score:5, Informative)
"I love it when a plan comes together"
Don't screw with Hannibal.
Re:Gosh! How unlike the real world (Score:1, Informative)
Violence in Iraq is ok because we don't see it.
There *IS* a legal basis for enforcing R/NC-17 (Score:5, Informative)
You mean no CRIMINAL legal basis. Theaters must enforce R and NC-17 ratings for movies distributed by members of the MPAA as a contractual condition of being able to show movies distributed by MPAA members.
Theaters are under no obligation to the distributors to regulate who may see G, PG, or PG-13 movies.
That's not to say a movie theater couldn't decide on it's own to not allow 12 year olds to see PG-13 movies, but if any do enforce such a policy, it's extremely rare, and entirely voluntary on a theater-by-theater basis.
Re:Bzzzt (Score:5, Informative)
Title, studio, adjusted amount, year of release
Source: Box Office Mojo [boxofficemojo.com]
Re:What about the contractors? (Score:3, Informative)
Dante: Yeah.
Randal: Now the first one they built was completed and fully operational before the Rebels destroyed it.
Dante: Luke blew it up. Give credit where it's due.
Randal:And the second one was still being built when they blew it up.
Dante: Compliments of Lando Calrissian.
Randal: Something just never sat right with me the second time they destroyed it. I could never put my finger on it-something just wasn't right.
Dante: And you figured it out?
Randal: Well, the thing is, the first Death Star was manned by the Imperial army-storm troopers, dignitaries- the only people onboard were Imperials.
Dante: Basically.
Randal: So when they blew it up, no prob. Evil is punished.
Dante: And the second time around...?
Randal: The second time around, it wasn't even finished yet. They were still under construction.
Dante: So?
Randal: A construction job of that magnitude would require a helluva lot more manpower than the Imperial army had to offer. I'll bet there were independent contractors working on that thing: plumbers, aluminum siders, roofers.
Dante: Not just Imperials, is what you're getting at.
Randal: Exactly. In order to get it built quickly and quietly they'd hire anybody who could do the job. Do you think the average storm trooper knows how to install a toilet main? All they know is killing and white uniforms.
Dante: All right, so even if independent contractors are working on the Death Star, why are you uneasy with its destruction?
Randal: All those innocent contractors hired to do a job were killed- casualties of a war they had nothing to do with. (notices Dante's confusion) All right, look-you're a roofer, and some juicy government contract comes your way; you got the wife and kids and the two-story in suburbia-this is a government contract, which means all sorts of benefits. All of a sudden these left-wing militants blast you with lasers and wipe out everyone within a three-mile radius. You didn't ask for that. You have no personal politics. You're just trying to scrape out a living.
(The Blue-Collar Man (Thomas Burke) joins them.)
Blue-Collar Man: Excuse me. I don't mean to interrupt, but what were you talking about?
Randal: The ending of Return of the Jedi.
Dante: My friend is trying to convince me that any contractors working on the uncompleted Death Star were innocent victims when the space station was destroyed by the rebels.
Blue-Collar Man: Well, I'm a contractor myself. I'm a roofer... (digs into pocket and produces business card) Dunn and Reddy Home Improvements. And speaking as a roofer, I can say that a roofer's personal politics come heavily into play when choosing jobs.
Randal: Like when?
Blue-Collar Man: Three months ago I was offered a job up in the hills. A beautiful house with tons of property. It was a simple reshingling job, but I was told that if it was finished within a day, my price would be doubled. Then I realized whose house it was.
Dante: Whose house was it?
Blue-Collar Man: Dominick Bambino's.
Randal: "Babyface" Bambino? The gangster?
Blue-Collar Man: The same. The money was right, but the risk was too big. I knew who he was, and based on that, I passed the job on to a friend of mine.
Dante: Based on personal politics.
Blue-Collar Man: Right. And that week, the Foresci family put a hit on Babyface's house. My friend was shot and killed. He wasn't even finished shingling.
Randal: No way!
Blue-Collar Man: (paying for coffee) I'm alive because I knew there were risks involved taking on that particular client. My friend wasn't so lucky. (pauses to reflect) You know, any contractor willing to work on that Death Star knew the risks. If they were killed, it was their own fault. A roofer listens to this... (taps his heart) not his wallet
-- Clerks
(really sad no one already pasted this)
Re:Bzzzt (Score:2, Informative)
Airplane! (brief frontal boob flash).
Logan's Run (brief profile boob flash).
Arthur (profane language).
A Bridge Too Far (the Saving Private Ryan of its day).
Excalibur (nudity, sexual situations).
Patton (a persistent barrage of profane language).
Ragtime (prolonged topless scene with Elizabeth McGovern).
Then there's the strange case of Nicolas Roeg's Walkabout, which, despite having prolonged scenes of full frontal nudity (a skinny dipping Jenny Agutter), was embraced by an american christian coalition for family values, who recommended that the whole family should see it. The film's R rating was downgraded to a GP rating, which stands for General Public, the modern equivalent of G!
Finally, if memory serves, the first PG-13 film was Red Dawn.
Re:If the level of Sex (Score:3, Informative)
Educate yourself. Rape is an act of violence, using sexual vulnerability as an opportunity to exert dominance, inflict injury and negate the existence of the victim.
I just talked about sex, you know - like you hope to have someday.