Films and Fiction

It’s time to take a look at something that really gets people riled up about the Star Wars prequels: their terrible dialogue.

The prequels are the home to gems of quotes such as ‘I don’t like sand’, and many more meme-worthy additions, but do they really deserve to get such a bad reception for their dialogue?

First, let’s take a look at some of the characters who are given these lines. Are they really out of place to speak like that? For example, the Jedi are members of a wise order who follow a peaceful religion, and the great masters like Yoda and Mace Windu can be given some slack for speaking in a grandiose fashion that can come out as a little stiff and awkward. Likewise, Padme is a politician; she has to deal with senators and delegates from many planets who will all demand respect and need to be treated with a certain amount of courtesy and diplomacy if there’s to be any resolution; it also seems that the Senate is a place that’s wrapped up in convention and tradition, meaning that senators will have to stick to certain precedents to avoid offending their fellow representatives. As for the character of Anakin Skywalker, someone who much of the hate and criticism is aimed at, he sort of fits in somewhere in the middle. He was born as a slave, spending half his childhood dealing with pirates, traders, and smugglers in the harsh environment of Tatooine’s junk yards, before being taken into the Jedi and suddenly being expected to act in a more moderate and considered way. When he meets Padme again in Episode II, he really has no idea how to react with her: he’s not the Anakin who podraced on Tatooine, but neither is he a fully-trained Jedi who can control his feelings towards her; obviously there’s going to be some confusion in him with how to speak around her, and a certain amount of awkwardness.

Does that mean that the dialogue is good? No, of course not, but some of it is justified and not completely out of place. it’s also important to remember the dialogue that filled the original trilogy wasn’t always of the highest quality. Alec Guinness said that he thought some of it needed a little work to bring it up to spec, and Harrison Ford famously commented that you could write the lines but couldn’t speak them. George Lucas also had assistance on Episodes V & VI from raiders of the Lost Ark writer Lawrence Kasdan. In spite of this, lines such as ‘I find your lack of faith disturbing’ have been readily accepted by fans, with many becoming classics that are frequently printed in t-shirts. One of the reasons for this is no doubt that they were said by favourite characters, while many of the prequel’s most quoted lines are from the likes of Anakin and Nute Gunray, making it harder for fans to love them.

With all that being said, the prequels aren’t devoid of top quotes. Characters such as Count Dooku have some great things to say, although Christopher Lee could read a shopping list and make it sound epic. Yoda also brings back the wisdom of his Empire days with lines such as ‘Always two, there are, no more, no less. A master and an apprentice’, giving a link in to the original movies and the kind of dialogue found there.

Some things are implicitly Star Wars, and the dialogue is one of them: would they be any better if the dialogue was more realistic? Probably not, as it would remove a part of the franchise that fits in perfectly with the fantasy surroundings. If you push too hard for realistic dialogue, it would unbalance the sense of this sci-fi setting really being a much more ancient world than it appears, with deep histories and traditions. It’s also easy to see where George Lucas was inspired by epics such as the Lord of the Rings in his writing, and the dialogue fits into that style of ancient civilisations and cultures, just executed a little more roughly.

Whether loved or hated, the dialogue of the Star Wars prequels is still what George Lucas considered right for the universe. The ability to speak might not make you intelligent, but you don’t always need to say something intelligent to prove you are. After all, R2-D2 has managed to make his point just by using bleeps and whistles.