Amidala has landed on Naboo, and draws up plans for the battle to retake what is hers. They don’t make much sense.
Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace (01.38.29-01.45.04)
I have not said much at all about staging, blocking, or the way scenes are set from an acting/production point of view, but I do want to say that not paying attention to little details can skew the way a scene is perceived. George Lucas does his staging in a pretty straightforward way, and he has talented people on his crews that help his films, and it works well. However, in the first scene of this section, a dialogue between Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi, the way that Jinn is standing makes him look ever so haughty. I think he is supposed to be looking off into the distance, perhaps watching for something, maybe on guard, but his posture evokes a more arrogant disposition, especially when he barely looks at Obi-Wan. What he says is even worse that how he stands.
One gets the feeling that the Jedi have been maintaining a cold silence throughout most of the trip from Coruscant to Naboo, born out of their early arguments. Kenobi makes the first overture here, which is hardly surprising because Jinn is not the type to ever apologize for anything. He makes a report, then asks Jinn’s opinion of Amidala’s plan to exploit the Gungan army. Jinn responds that the “Gungans will not be easily swayed; and we cannot use our power to help her” (01:38:40). The first part of the statement only sounds good until the Gungans are easily swayed a few moments later. The second part of the statement makes Qui-Gon sound uncaring and evil. Qui-Gon very conspicuously used his Jedi mind-tricking to make Boss Nass do what he wanted early in this story, basically give the Jedi a lift through the planet core and make Jar Jar Binks their slave, that is, nothing too important that the Jedi could not have worked out another way. Now, when the fate of an entire planet is at stake he sniffs, almost literally, and refuses to do anything about it. My gripe here is not that Jinn should have simply mind-tricked Nass into an alliance, he should not (the alliance between the Gungans and the Naboo is absolutely something that they should work out themselves free from any mental trickery). My gripe is that Jinn is being petty and self-serving; he expends effort only when it is convenient for him to do so.
After Jinn continues to ignore Kenobi, Obi-Wan charges ahead with an apology, saying that it “was not my place to disagree with you about the boy” (01:38:48). This is big of Obi-Wan, to admit wrong-doing and seek reconciliation. It takes a bit of ego assuaging, “I am grateful you think I am ready to take the trials,” before Jinn praises Obi-Wan as an apprentice and concedes that he is a “much wiser man than I am” (01:39:02). This would be a huge concession on Jinn’s part if he hadn’t been staring off into the distance while making Kenobi grovel and pander to him.
I dislike the blatant foreshadowing because it is blatant foreshadowing. I think it is really lame writing, in a prequel to the world’s biggest saga, to make very obvious statements about the greatness of key characters. It is just clumsy. Granted, the job here of writing the back story when the ending is already known is very difficult, but it can be done: the Planet of the Apes (Heston era) did it fairly well; JJ Abrams’ Star Trek movie did a great job of bringing together characters that everyone knew were going to mesh as a crew; and X-Men Origins: Wolverine showed the relationship between Stryker and Wolverine that played off of their encounter in X-Men 2 very well without clobbering the audience over the head with it.
Next, Jar Jar takes the Queen and Co. to the shores of Otoh Gunga only to find that it has been deserted in the wake of a battle. He then leads them to a more secret “sacred place” to which the Gungans would have retreated. The Queen-decoy starts negotiations, but Nass interrupts to blame the invasion on Amidala and the Naboo. From his point of view, this certainly makes sense because, while the Naboo obviously had bad relations with the Gungans the mostly left them alone, the droid army was indiscriminate. At any rate, Amidala figures that her decoy won’t be able to get the job done and she steps in, to the surprise of everyone in the movie.
I am not sure about other viewers, but I figured out the decoy business the first time I watched the film, and having analyzed it rather heavily in recent weeks, I have noticed that Lucas dropped enough hints to rip the ears off a gundark. I have waited until now to bring this up, but I don’t see the point of a decoy at all, either in-universe or from a writing point of view. From all accounts Naboo is a peaceful, quiet planet in the back part of the universe not far from Tatooine. They have no army, and until the Federation invaded, no enemies. So why would the Queen need a constant bodyguard/decoy? Normal secret service types like Captain Panaka should have been plenty. From a writing point of view, a bodyguard isn’t required by the story except for two clumsy reasons: 1, so that “Padme” could accompany Jinn on Tatooine when otherwise he wouldn’t let her thus facilitating her meeting and falling in love with Anakin and 2, so that she could pull a bait and switch on Nute Gunray during the taking of the palace. Seeing as the Queen always wore heavy makeup and elaborate costumes, it would have been easy for her to pretend to be a handmaiden without a pre-arranged decoy for the Tatooine stuff, even if she had a valid reason for leaving the ship (by the way, curiosity about the planet is a very lame reason. I am sure a Galactic Encyclopedia exists). As for the taking of the palace, there is absolutely no need for a full on tactical breach, so no need for a decoy, but I will get to that later.
In either case this decoy business just makes her negotiations with Boss Nass that much more awkward. He has not encountered her before this, and has no prior experience with her decoy. All he knows is two human females have just claimed to be Queen and I doubt such things matter to him. What Amidala says about her decoy is all for the benefit of those watching the film up to that point, which is why she reveals her true identity anyway. Lucas is saying “in case you missed it!” because none of what she explains means anything to Boss Nass.
But, back to the negotiations. Amidala says that the “Trade Federation has destroyed all that we have worked so hard to build” and for emphasis she makes her voice sound a little sad, which just sounds pathetic (01:41:12). In fact, this is simply not true. Having seen Theed, the Naboo capital, from the air several times the viewer knows that there has been little to no damage whatsoever. Even according to Jar Jar Otoh Gunga is still intact, just deserted. All the Naboo populace is in camps, while the Gungan populace is in hiding. So, what was destroyed, exactly? “All will be lost forever” — hardly (01:41:13). C’mon, Lucas, have her say something TRUE! I apologize, but when characters spout things that are so obviously false, it is bad writing. The Empire destroyed things, ways of life, and all that people worked hard to build, and we saw it! We saw the busted Jawa sandcrawler, the smoke gushing from the burned out homestead, the charred bones of Owen and Beru, the sparkling atoms of Alderaan. Not one single verdant blade of grass on Naboo has even been disturbed. No, nothing is in danger here.
But, back to the negotiations. Amidala sounds insincere and drops to a knee begging for help (I know she is supposed to be sincere, but she does not sound like it or act like it). Boss Nass laughs at the absurdity of the situation, and generations of prejudice are wiped away once he makes sure that Amidala doesn’t think that she is “greater than the Gungans” (01:41:51). If only Marin Luther King, Jr. had such an easy time of it. This happens so easily as to make a joke of long years of racism, but then, Lucas has neither the time nor the patience to write a dramatic and realistic presentation of what this would actually look like.
Now, Amidala’s plan is this: 1, the Gungan army draws the droid army out of Theed to do battle 2, Panaka and her handmaidens will invade the palace seeking Nute Gunray and 3, her pilots will fly up to destroy the only remaining battleship which also controls the droids. Qui-Gon Jinn nods sagely and says that her plan is “well-conceived” (01:44:20). Hardly.
This plan only works because Sidious goes all evil and decides that committing genocide is funny. Also, it hinges on not caring about the Gungans at all, because they are technologically and strategically outmatched by the droid army and their weapons. Tell me this: if knocking out the droid control ship will immobilize every single droid on the planet, why not start there? Destroy the ship, or infiltrate it and send a shutdown message. Then, walk into the palace and take Gunray hostage. Under normal circumstances, no army is going to abandoned a well-fortified and strategically important city to fight a battle on the nearby open plains (especially not when the enemy has air superiority). Urban warfare is the most brutal and costly form of fighting there is, so it makes no sense to go the enemy when you can make the enemy come to you at great risk.
Also, I highly doubt that there is any worry that if Gunray managed to escape that he would simply return with another droid army and invade all over again (which Kenobi states is an “even bigger danger” (01:44:31).) Two reasons why this is dumb: 1, a droid army that big is expensive and probably hard to come by and seeing as how Gunray has expended alot of money to run this campaign, he would be hard pressed to finance another and 2, how would he be able to fool the Republic again when Amidala can make a transmission from her newly won planet and show irrefutable proof that Gunray was there and is a war criminal?
Lastly, Amidala says that “without the Viceroy, [the droid army] will be lost and confused” (01:43:52). Really? A bunch of robots designed purely for combat? This would be laugh out loud funny, except that it is sadly bad writing.
This could be excused by saying that Amidala is an inexperienced commander of troops and has no idea what she is doing except that Panaka (who is against the plan already), the Jedi, and Boss Nass all go along with it thinking that it is a well-conceived plan.
Sidious says it best: “She is more foolish than I thought” (01:44:44). Also, anybody else notice how short Darth Maul looks next to Gunray and his lieutenant? About as short as this film is short on logic.
But, the battle is about to begin…
(01.45.04)
a simple man 