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Revenge of the Sith a "Blood Bath"
An anonymous reader writes "The BBC is reporting that the Revenge of the Sith is a blood bath and is to recieve a PG-13. One notable point from the article is Lucas is quoted as saying "But I have to tell a story. I'm not making these, oddly enough, to be giant, successful blockbusters. I'm making them because I'm telling a story, and I have to tell the story I intended." As he lit a cigar with a large stack of burning 20's."
If you've read the dog of a script, then you know that it's stunningly bloody. Don't click on that link if you don't want to know everything - the whole script is there.
But this is slashdot. A slashdoter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber!
In my state (NC), at least, PG-13 is not a binding rating.
(Theoretically) A 7 year old could walk up and get into it without a parent. It's not like R, where it is enforced parental guidence, it's just a strong SUGGESTION.
Jay | http://oldos.org
Why would parents be forced to go with their children? The -13 on the PG is simply an advisory notation; G, PG, and PG-13 all have the same admission criteria: Anyone can see it, no adult supervision required.
paintball
not to mention lucas get's 100% of ticket sales for the first two weeks, locks his movie in the largest screen in the house for 13 weeks and in some cases, get's a cut of the concession sales. (no, i'm not joking, those were the terms my theater agreed to in order to get the movie)
MABASPLOOM!
That's a good point. The ratings specify for R that children under 17 are not permitted, while parents are simply cautioned about inappropriate material for PG-13.
Source
Of course, this is all still voluntary. There's no legal enforcement. However, I do know some movie theaters enforce the R rating (as I mentioned originally).
Forget the whales - save the babies.
Screenwriter magazine this month has an article on Star Wars. I spend my lunch hours in bookstores wayyyy too often.
Anyhow, the article is about how Lucas wanted to perpetuate the ties to mythic storytelling in his saga. Even though in '77, his initial interviews talked about little more than a Western in space, once the connections to Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth started happening, Lucas didn't exactly go out of his way to deny it.
I wonder if that, more than anything, overly influenced the latter trilogy. The epic fall from grace. Suddenly, I have visions of Lucas sitting around reading Milton and having inner dialogs about why Satan gets all the zingy one liners.
There's a ton of ways to read into Star Wars. The ancient Sith / Jedi split invokes the Jesuits, right down to the robes and the dress. If you've read the final script, you know that (spoiler ahead)
Anakin forsees the death of his beloved again and again (in very vividly written scenes) and it torments him, as he wants his children, but it starts to drive him mad, and he agrees to become Sith only to gain the power to change the future and save the woman he loves. But, in the end, when he thinks Obi-Wan has betrayed him, he force chokes her and nearly kills her. in fact, Sidious tells him later that his force choke DID kill her, which drives him right over the edge.
There's a strong influence of Greek tragedy in this script. Cheating death, changing fate. Being at the height of your intellectual and phsyical powers in your late 20's, thinking that the world owes you, that you are the sole master of your destiny and finding your mortality is still all too real.
The script is brutal. If it's shot that way, it would be a stark departure from the first two. The final scene between Anakin and Obi-Wan was suprising in it's adultness. He falls into the lava, his legs are burning, he can't get up. He's clawing the sand... all of his conceits wash away. No more rationalizations of how totalitarianism is somehow more benign, he just cringes and screams at Obi-Wan, hs face twisted and red "I hate you!!!". Obi-Wan leans down, a tear streaming in his eyes and responds "I always loved you. Like a brother." and walks away leaving him to burn.
That's serious Campbell territory. The mentor relationship, the hero who fails the test because jealousy consumes him.
So, when Lucas says 'I needed to tell this story', what I really think is happening is that he needs to fufill the power of myth aspects. This film is a violent fable. The father falls, the son redeems him. His fall needs to be brutal and ultimately apolitical. Anakin doesn't want power for power's sake. He wants respect, he wants everyone to love him and adore him. He has a God complex. There are many levels there.
I have a feeling that this movie will leave everybody wondering all the ways the first two could be redone. Anakin should have picked up in his early 20's someplace NOT tattooine. His struggle as a slave, beaten and oppressed, would have forced him into spirituality (not chemistry) and a brutal desire for acceptance and hatred for oppression that ultimately twisted around until the only way he could fufill that was to become the oppressor.
Oh, and the scene where he kills all the padawans, that could have been brutal if it had a flashback to his slave days. As it is, it's just disturbing and the script invokes Columbine somewhat, with the imagery focusing on his black cloak.
- PG13 Titanic (1997) $1,835,300,000
- PG13 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) $1,129,219,252
- PG Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) $968,600,000
- PG Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) $922,379,000
- PG13 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) $921,600,000
- PG13 Jurassic Park (1993) $919,700,000
- PG Shrek 2 (2004) $880,871,036
- PG Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) $866,300,000
- G Finding Nemo (2003) $865,000,000
- PG13 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) $860,700,000
- PG13 Independence Day (1996) $811,200,000
- PG13 Spider-Man (2002) $806,700,000
- PG Star Wars (1977) $797,900,000
- PG Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) $789,458,727
- PG13 Spider-Man 2 (2004) $783,577,893
- G The Lion King (1994) $783,400,000
- PG E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) $756,700,000
- R The Matrix Reloaded (2003) $735,600,000
- PG13 Forrest Gump (1994) $679,400,000
- PG13 The Sixth Sense (1999) $661,500,000
So obviously PG-13 doesn't hurt ticket sales much (if at all).They even show in great detail Anakin's new robotic arms and legs being attached to his body while what's left of his body looks like it just came fresh out of the oven. Anakin gets messed up bad in this one. I don't know if I would let my 12 year old kid see that.
Oh for Christ's sake -- go see Natalie Portman nearly friggin' nekkid and stripping for Clive Owen in a 2-day rental of Closer http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376541/ at Blockbuster Video.
;)
Trust me -- no need to wait for Lucas to make Star Wars nerds wet dreams come true with revisions to Amidala's cloak or Leia's Hutt bikini in the "Star Wars 8th Edition Special THX Widescreen DVD Collection" to get you in trouble with the wife.
My gawking during "Closer" was plenty enough to land me on the couch last Saturday night...where I watched it again, after the wife went to sleep, in the privacy of my den.
IronChefMorimoto
Nitpick time:
"I love it when a plan comes together"
Don't screw with Hannibal.
Why single out PG-13... _all_ MPAA ratings are jsut advisory notations with no legal basis.
You mean no CRIMINAL legal basis. Theaters must enforce R and NC-17 ratings for movies distributed by members of the MPAA as a contractual condition of being able to show movies distributed by MPAA members.
Theaters are under no obligation to the distributors to regulate who may see G, PG, or PG-13 movies.
That's not to say a movie theater couldn't decide on it's own to not allow 12 year olds to see PG-13 movies, but if any do enforce such a policy, it's extremely rare, and entirely voluntary on a theater-by-theater basis.
paintball
Title, studio, adjusted amount, year of release
Source: Box Office Mojo