A long long time ago in… this galaxy, we got a movie that all but trampled all over the dreams held by an entire generation of fans.
That’s right, I’m talking about Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace.
Nearly 20 years ago to the day, that movie was dropped onto this green(ish) planet and proceeded to give birth to the phrase, “ruined my childhood.” But this isn’t going to be a pile on. It’s already endured two decades of that so no need for me to beat a dead tauntaun there.
Instead, I’m going to shine a light on the two things that the film got completely right: racist alien stereotypes and midichlorians.
Okay, that’s a joke. What I’m actually going to talk about are the lightsaber fights and the casting.
The moment when we knew something awesome was going to drop.
Phantom Menace ushered in a new era of lightsaber combat
The lightsaber fights in the Original Trilogy was something we’ve never seen before and were great scenes in their own right given the emotional weight behind each skirmish. But if we’re being really honest, the actual “fighting” part of it was pretty lame and consisted of little more than flailing with brightly lit sticks.
The Phantom Menace turned all that on its head by delivering the greatest lightsaber duel of all time by pitting Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi against Darth Maul, and subsequently set the bar for all future fights.
George Lucas wanted the fights to be faster and more intense so he hired pro stunt coordinator Nick Gillard to come up with a new dueling style and to really put the actors through their paces. Couple that with John Williams’ iconic “Duel of the Fates” theme and the final result was simply glorious as we got an 2v1 skirmish that was as epic as it was intense.
If it weren’t for this fight, we might not have gotten some great lightsaber duels in subsequent movies and the series would’ve been poorer for it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IezQw6dJs4I
The casting was perfectly spot on. Nearly.
Harrison Ford once famously said to Lucas, “You can type this s**t, but you sure can’t say it”, when talking about the lines in the Original Trilogy. There’s no denying that the dialogue in Star Wars feels like it was ripped from a high school play but Lucas got around it for The Phantom Menace by casting some brilliant actors to work their magic on his “s**t” lines and make it all sound somewhat digestible.
Liam Neeson was perfect as the stoic and wise Qui-Gonn Jinn, Ewan McGregor’s take on a younger Obi-Wan was pitch perfect as it was new while still honouring Alec Guinness’ version of the character, and Natalie Portman was a revelation as the morally upright and resourceful Padme. And that’s not even mentioning the supporting actors like Samuel L Jackson, Ian McDiarmid, and Ahmed Best, who all stole scenes with what little screentime they had.
And of course there’s Jake Lloyd as Anakin Skywalker, who wasn’t particularly great if I’m honest but we have to excuse his performance as a byproduct of Lucas’ subpar writing and, you know, being only 10-years-old at the time. Sure it wasn’t perfect but the poor guy copped an unfair amount of flak for what turned out to be a thankless job.
But hey, the fact that we’re still talking about Anakin means he must’ve done something right for the character to still remain in our consciousness.
It sure is, kid. It sure is.