Everything Wrong with the Worst Scene in Revenge of the Sith
How I would have tackled the pivotal moment in George Lucas’s third prequel.
In my previous article, I expounded on how I would have written the Star Wars prequels. However, even with the films as they are, many scenes could have been so much better. Here’s one particularly egregious example from what is admittedly the strongest of George Lucas’s prequels, Revenge of the Sith. The attempted arrest of Palpatine by Mace Windu and three other Jedi, the subsequent duel, and Anakin’s decision to make the leap to the dark side, is handled with staggering ineptitude. Here’s how I would have changed it.
Ill-conceived production design
Who on earth decided it would be a good idea to have Palpatine lower down on the set when Mace Windu et al turn up to arrest him? He should be higher up, looming over the Jedi. For one thing, then he’d have the high ground — something later revealed in Obi-Wan’s duel with Anakin as apparently all-important. I can imagine at some point, production designer Gavin Bocquet sat down with his boss and said: “Look George, this set with…
