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Mike Kilmo: I started out planning to do a series of articles about the prequels, but also Star Wars in general, addressing a lot of the criticisms that the movies have taken over the years, from '77 on. As I was doing all this research, I started to notice other parallels between the movies and it looked like, for example, the end of Phantom Menace. I think that a lot of people felt that there were a lot of parallels to the end of Return of the Jedi, right? You know, it's the Gungans coming together, with the people of Naboo to take on the Trade Federation? And there was this multi-strand battle and that sounds a lot like Jedi. And then I kind of realized that the beginning was kind of very similar to what was going on at the beginning of Jedi. And then, you know, I kind of took a look at the middle of the movie, and then suddenly, it was kind of like Holy shit! Wait a second! The beginning, and the middle, and the end all kind of match up! When I broke down the acts into sequences and then scenes, and then took a closer look at the plot points and even the camera work, I was like, "There's something going on here."
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Around that time, I stumbled upon a book called Thinking in Circles by a social anthropologist named Mary Douglas. And that's when everything started to click. She was essentially describing what I argue Lucas was doing with those six pictures.
The evidence, to me, is overwhelming that the structure exists—that this idea that there is a chiastic structure (you can call it ring convolutions). I think the evidence for that kind of speaks for itself.You point out that there are a lot corresponding shots in the prequels and original trilogy, which I certainly didn't realize.
The structure, to me, is undeniable. But how we interpret that, and maybe how we derive meaning from that, that's a different story. Essentially, I just wanted to argue that this is what I think Lucas was going for just based on who he was as a filmmaker: the prequels were designed as a fall, and the originals were designed as a redemption. A lot of both material, he's kind of beat against each other in that way. One represents the light side of the force, and the other represents the dark side of the force. And, you know, like I show in the piece, it doesn't seem like it's a coincidence that while directly in the middle of Attack of the Clones, there's a figure of the yin-yang in the clouds, while Anakin just happens to be meditating. I would argue that that's certainly intentional on his part.
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Two years from cradle to grave, in terms of researching and trying to get up to speed on ring composition, and all the different kind of rules that go with it: the prologue, and the split into two halves, and the most important idea existing in the middle. Yeah, it was a pretty long process.Are you a lot more interested in Star Wars as a literary object rather than just movies to obsess over?
Do you mean if I have a Stormtrooper helmet with George Lucas's autograph? [laughs] I mean, when I was growing up, I loved Star Wars. I obsessed over all the characters, the backstories, the details… As I got older though, I just went in a different direction. I got more interested in cinema. I kind of left Star Wars for a while and was just learning about movies. And by the time the prequel came out, I was far more interested in like Paul Thomas Anderson and shit like that. And then as I started learning more about George Lucas, I think I started to maybe admire Lucas. He was using Star Wars as a vehicle to kind of express larger themes and emotions.What do you think about the upcoming Star Wars trilogy and the news that J.J. Abrams jettisoned George Lucas's outlines for the films?
I think George Lucas's Star Wars as we know it, I don't know that it will exist moving forward, but I don't know if that's necessarily a bad thing. I mean, at this point, I loved the six films that he gave us and I think that there's just an enormous amount of just remarkable material there, but I'm excited to see other filmmakers come in and other writers come in and tell other stories in that universe. I think it'll be great.
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Do you think the ring structure will continue?On Motherboard: Can You Watch 18 Hours of Star Wars Unboxing Or Will Your Eyes Just Explode?
I get the sense—just even from the clips and the trailers and some of the stuff—that it's very much going to parallel A New Hope just like The Phantom Menace did. But anything outside of that, I'm just not sure. I'd love to know if J.J. Abrams sat down with Lucas and if they ever talked about this, and how much he might know what went into just the structure of those six pictures.What do you mean by the phrase "George Lucas's Star Wars?"
Episodes I-VI were very much the vision of George Lucas—you know, even with other directors and other writers helping out. But you know what? Part of me thinks it's not necessarily a bad thing that Abrams is taking over. And it's not because I know a lot of people who are thinking, Finally, George Lucas is gone and we'll have a good Star Wars movie. I would rather the new movies have nothing to do with George Lucas so that people don't have to second-guess them. Right now, it's like, "Well, how much is he involved?" or "How much are they keeping up his treatments?" You know what I mean?You want a clean break.
People are still wondering, Well, maybe they're still using his outlines. Or maybe some of the ideas. And it's just… I think of it as just a distraction; it gets in the way. Let's just get on with it and tear the Band-Aid off.Follow Drew on Twitter.