I had originally intended to cover ten minutes of screen time in a single post, but judging by how my previous post went, I can see that my plan needs tweaking. In preparation for this post (and the previous one) I watched the first ten minutes of the Phantom Menace about ten times. On each viewing I have paid attention to different things. On one viewing I turned down the sound and watched in silence. It is amazing what I notice when I am not distracted by auditory signals: body language, for one thing. Even with uncomfortable masks and prosthetics, the actors portraying the Neimoidians (Trade Federation agents) did an amazing job portraying their fear of both the Jedi and Darth Sidious. Ewan McGregor also stands out with his facial expressions, perfectly channeling Sir Alec Guinness (check out A New Hope, when Han makes his outrageous Kessel Run boast, and you will see what I mean). With that said, I am still working in the first ten minutes of the film.
Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace (00.02.00-00.10.00)
I mentioned in the previous post that Chancellor Valorum’s choice to send Jedi to handle the blockade of Naboo seemed puzzling. It appears I am not the only one. When TC-14, the silver Threepio clone, informs his masters that the ambassadors are Jedi, Nute Gunry is surprised and immediately thrown off his game (00.03.44). He is clearly scared, and immediately wants to contact Sidious. It is reasonable to assume, like me, he expected to deal with a bureaucrat or agent of the Republic Tax Office. Valorum, for all the possible illegality of sending Jedi, is no fool, and clearly understands how to deal with the Trade Federation. However, it still doesn’t explain why the Jedi are unaccompanied.
Next, after the Jedi take their tea, Jinn mentions that he senses an “unusual amount of fear for something as trivial as this trade dispute” (00.04.16). I wouldn’t want to live in a galaxy where trivial disputes involve military blockades. I chalk this up to bad writing because it is a direct contradiction of the opening crawl seen just minutes before, where the galaxy was in “turmoil” and the Senate was debating “alarming” chains of events. They should have relaxed, sipped some tea a la Jinn and realized that this actually was just a trivial matter. I could be majoring on a minor here, but this bad writing is a serious flaw throughout the film. Anything that causes a viewer to surface from the experience of watching a film and scratch their head is a failure, because all movies demand a level of willful suspension of belief, but there is a breaking point, and the Phantom Menace reaches that point several times.
My claim about the “coerced cowards” that the Trade Federation are is vindicated as soon as Sidious picks up the phone. Gunray’s lieutenant has already crumbled, and does not want to “go against the Jedi” (00.04.35). That makes sense. What doesn’t is Sidious’ response a few seconds later. He says that this turn of events is “unfortunate” and that the Chancellor should never have involved the Jedi. Now, given that Sidious is almost always lying through his teeth to almost everybody he could just be manipulating the Trade Federation further. But, given that when he hangs up here and calls Amidala, he tells her that he has “assurances from the Chancellor” that the Ambassadors arrived (00.09.09). My assumption is that Palpatine, for all his scheming, didn’t know that Valorum would ask the Jedi to be his ambassadors. This, if true, makes his decision to have Gunray snuff them confusing. Killing a few tax lawyers would be one thing, but assassinating Jedi is a much bigger deal. I know that eventually Sidious’ plan is to murder every last Jedi, but starting with Jinn and Kenobi is clumsy and premature. Surely it would alert the Chancellor to the fact that something bigger is happening here, the Council would launch an investigation, and this becomes a liability. If Gunray is brought to justice, he would be called to answer for the death of two Jedi, and could possibly expose Sidious. It seems a much better plan to simply lock them up, force them to return, or simply stall them with more tea. Ultimately, I think this is poor plot planning. Besides, we haven’t gotten to see a lightsaber yet, and by this time in A New Hope there was already a battle, so perhaps Lucas just wanted to get to the eye candy.
Gunray follows Sidious’ command and destroys the Republic cruiser in the hold. Why? This is simply more evidence that the blockade is not legal or trivial. In any case it immediately alerts the Jedi that they are in danger, though not really because they can hold their breath long enough to outwit a few dumb droids who are hopelessly outmatched anyway. Also somewhat amusing here is that Gunray apparently has poison gas already placed in the vents to his conference rooms. Perhaps that is how he routinely takes out rivals. Hostile takeover indeed. I also like that his new lieutenant has a very healthy respect for Jedi. However, the Jedi soon run for cover, crawl through some ventilation shafts, and arrive at an unlikely conclusion. Dropping into a hold of the Federation battleship, they see a whole lot more droids. Jinn identifies them (Good work, Sherlock. Seriously, this guy has some of the dumbest lines ever. More bad writing.) and Kenobi assumes that they are “an invasion army” (00.07.35). Despite this being another dumb thing to say (are there different types of armies? invasion, defense, pretend?) how does he come to make that assumption? All he knows is that they were being stalled, then being threatened and then suddenly “invasion”? Except for the fact that I know he is right, I see no way he could possibly know that. If I see a bunch of droids right after I see a bunch of droids try to kill me I would assume that they are being organized into search and destroy parties. But, the head-scratching doesn’t stop there. Jinn recognizes that if it is an invasion, it doesn’t make sense (hooray! someone else gets it!) but then he wants to “stow aboard separate ships” to “warn the Naboo and contact Chancellor Valorum” (00.07.47). Um good idea, but by the time the invasion ship lands, won’t the Naboo already know making it too late? And, what real good would it do to warn them anyway? Surely he knows they don’t have a standing defense force (it is absurd to think that he didn’t get a briefing before he left). Given that he is going to spend about 15 minutes of screen time trying to warn the Naboo this makes this more bad plotting. This has echos of Artoo trying to take the Death Star plans to Kenobi, but his mission made sense. This one does not.
While Jinn and Kenobi are stowing away, Amidala calls the Trade Federation. She mentions that she knows the ambassadors are there and that they should be negotiating, not answering the phone (00.08.22). Gunray lies about the ambassadors and lies about his blockade being legal. It obviously isn’t, and Amidala has been and will be talking to Palpatine about it, so why say nothing at Gunray’s lies? Odd, but then, she is a young queen. Again Gunray’s lieutenant is the voice of reason, stating that the Senate would not approve something as blatantly illegal as their blockade. I like this guy.
Lastly, there is this whole business of disrupted communications. Gunray seems to think it is a good idea (00.08.53) and as soon as the phone lines are cut, Sio Bibble assumes an invasion, in fact, such failure can “only mean” invasion (00.09.25). I guess the Naboo palace has never experienced a blackout, bad storm, faulty equipment, or any other of 100 other things it could be. Like Kenobi, people just assume invasion. There is no reason for them to think this, everyone from the Jedi to the Federation themselves have said that this whole situation is odd, so I see little precedent for them to draw on. I know that Palpatine is trying to force a crisis so that he can usurp the galactic throne, but surely there must be a more elegant solution (like Order 66) that relies on a lot fewer parts and a lot less entanglements. The more I analyze this, the more I think that Lucas just never thought twice about what he was writing. I think the great strength of the Original Trilogy is simplicity. There are very few complications to what happens in A New Hope, particularly, and that film makes so much more sense than this one.
But, Amidala vows to avoid war at all costs until she decides to wage it at high cost, and the invasion fleet descends.
00.10.00
a simple man 