QUOTE (Mike Mac from NYU @ Jun 10 2004, 09:23 AM)
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To some extent I agree with what Xombie said. Yeah, it's great that Vader has a change of heart at the last minute, but it hardly makes up for all the crimes he's committed in the past (it was actually Tarkin who had Alderaan blown up, but nonetheless). I can see why Lucas wanted a 'happy' ending but it would be better if he'd just let Vader die, rather than having him appear at the end with the other Jedi.
Because the whole point of the Star Wars trilogy was about redemption. Anakin Skywalkers redemption. Luke's redemption of the Skywalker name.
The point Lucas was making was a very good one. Inside all of us there is great evil and great Good. A person who does a thousand good deed can make one evil deed and forever go down that path of evil. Conversely, A person can do a thousand evil deeds and commit one good deed and forever go up the stairs of goodness.
Nobody is beyond redemption. Whether your a drug dealer, murderer, mass murderer. All it takes is for you to be willing to take that first step towards the light
just the same if you are a person who lies once , steals once, murderers once, cheats on your wife once, that one step is just enough to take you down a spiraling pattern of evil.
IMO, that is a very powerful and true message.
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Because the whole point of the Star Wars trilogy was about redemption. Anakin Skywalkers redemption. Luke's redemption of the Skywalker name.
I could not disagree more. In SW Vader is nothing more than a stock two dimensional villian. In ESB he is a formidible foe with a bit more depth. In both films his "evil" is goal- driven. He does what he does because it's his job. True, there is a lot of talk about about going over to the "Dark Side" of the Force but, you know what?, it's all talk. Vader seems to have no dark passions. He doesn't seem to get any sadistic satisfaction out of all the torture and killings he commits. If he has a lust for power, we don't see it as he seems quite comfortable as the Emperor's number two man. The corrupting influence of the force, whatever it is, is all offscreen.
Vader is a bad guy because he is an instrument in the service of tyranny. Period. We the audience have no more reason to expect or care about Vader's redemption than we would the guy who cuts Jack Nicholson's nose in Chinatown. If the ENTIRE point of the trilogy was Vader's redemption then why wait until the last film to even broach the subject?
And how come Luke doesn't care about anyone else's redemption? What about Boba Fett's? If Vader, destroyer of worlds, can be saved, why not some lowly bounty hunter doing his bounty hunter thing? Or Jabba? Is redemption not possible for big slobbering gangster slugs? Why doesn't Luke care about their souls? Oh, yeah, I remember. Because they're not his daddy! Because apparently when the lives and liberty of billions and billions of galactic denizens are at stake, a true hero will always put the spiritual well-being of his mass-murdering daddy before his obligations to his friends and comrades who are fighting to liberate the universe from tyranny.
That is as sick and corrupt and as disgusting a world view to hang a film on and push to kids as any that I can conceive. I stand by my claim. George Lucas is a monster.