Well, I just saw Star Wars III.  It was good.  Not huge, but good.  I hesitate to write too much about this movie for many reasons.  One, I have not processed the movie yet, so my comments may be a bit premature.  Two, I may give away a bit of the movie, and this would ruin the fun for some.  But then again if you do not know where the movie is going after seeing all the other episodes, then even if I do give away a bit of it, it will probably be so obvious so that you will miss it.  But I know my readers are not that dull.  Three, once my friend Scott at Nehring the Edge writes his review next week, everything which I say here will be very trivial.  Nonetheless, I drank a cup-and-a-half of Turkish coffee at some Mediterranean restaurant today, and the waiter promised me that I would be awake for three weeks.  So I am going to take full advantage of the caffeine high and write a few thoughts.

What I am pondering most about this movie is its lack of justice.  What I am primarily concerned with is the redemption of Anikan Skywalker.  Now unfortunately Lucas made Anikan easily deceived, so the move from the force to the dark side was an easy move.  But in Episode II Anikan slaughters a whole tribe of Sandmen because they tortured his mother and killed his mother.  Anikan knows that this is wrong, and he is resolved never to let someone he cares about die.  This is his repentance for the crime he committed.  We learn in Episode III that Anikan confessed it to the Chancellor (The Sith lord).  But there is no restitution, there is no justice for the crime.  The crime goes without punishment or forgiveness.

Well, in Episode III the crimes that Anikan commits by way of his transformation to Darth Vader and after he is named the apprentice to the Sith lord are horrible.  He is a murderer in the worst sense of the word.  Now fast forward to Episode VI, The Return of the Jedi.  How is the balance in the force achieved by the ‘chosen one’?  Because he has compassion on his son Luke, Darth Vader picks up the Emperor (the Sith lord), and throws him to his death, thus saving his son from the torture of the Emperor.  This deed displays the little remaining good in Vader, and in the closure of the film, Vader returns to Anikan, and Anikan takes his place in the place of immortality along with Yoda and Anikan’s former apprentice.

Now, this is where my question of justice comes in regarding the redemption of Anikan.  This transformation from Vader to Anikan begs the question, where is justice regarding all of the atrocious crimes that Anikan committed before and after becoming Vader?  Anikan took out vengeance on the Sandmen.  He wanted justice for their crimes.  But where is the justice for the Sandmen and all the others that Anikan and Vader murdered?  This is a serious flaw in the worldview that Lucas presents.  Justice is a theme in the movie, but the greatest injustice is that Anikan is given immortality without the absolving of guilt.  In fact Lucas’ worldview cannot stand, because he gives no answer for justice with regard to Vader.  Believing that people have good in them is not enough.  Something must be done to rectify the evil that ‘good’ people do.

I may have more in the future on this.  The Turkish delight, I mean Turkish coffee, is wearing off.