How and why did Anakin Skywalker desert the Jedi and go over to the dark side to become Darth Vader?
This is the issue central to the third prequel in the Star Wars saga, the one that links to George Lucas’
original mid-sequence space opera from 1977. And while the retitled Star Wars: Episode IV – A New
Hope remains unchallenged as a ground-breaking classic, not least in the field of merchandising, nearly
thirty years later the franchise has virtually worn itself out, and audiences for Episode III are likely to be
paying up out of duty rather than with any expectations of enlightenment. The label Pauline Kael
attached to Episode IV (she called it “an epic without a dream”) on the other hand seems to have stuck,
and the now familiar trademarks of tediously astounding special effects, robotic acting (by the humans,
that is), and stodgy dialogue, particularly in the love scenes, do little to detract from the satisfying sense
of closure that completing the circle brings. Worth it for the birth of Darth Vader alone.
