The Phantom Menace 20th Anniversary:  Deep Thoughts

The Phantom Menace opened up a whole new world of Star Wars; a whole new, utterly baffling world...


Two separate times in the movie someone makes a specific reference to the term “symbiont”. Obi-Wan tells the Gungans that they and the Naboo “form a symbiont circle, what happens to one of you will affect the other”; later Qui-Gon tells Anakin that midichlorians are symbionts with us (them), “life-forms living together for mutual advantage”. You could say that the first reference is simply a set up for the latter explanation of midichlorians; but it just feels like there is more to it than that, like we are supposed to make a connection between the idea of symbiosis and the Jedi’s relation to the Sith or perhaps the idea of the Light and Dark sides of the Force in general. I don’t know, but I’m telling you, I’ve spent almost as much time thinking about this as I have trying to understand the deeper meaning behind Bob Dylan’s 1967 album “John Wesley Harding”.


Remember when Qui-Gon is telling the Council about how he discovered Anakin and thinks he might be the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy. Mace is very skeptical at first, and then when Jinn wants to present him to them, he gets downright pissy. He gives Qui-Gon that Frenchman’s wave and says with not a little bit of condescension, “bring him before us, then”. What the heck? Were they about to break for lunch? Is there a ton of paperwork involved with interviewing a kid? Mace acts like this is, like, the tenth freed slave virgin birth Qui-Gon has discovered in as many months. Based on this reaction, you would think that the week before he had been in front of them with a potted fern that he claimed could bring balance to the Force. Well, it’s Star Wars; I guess that might actually be possible.


Need I say more? No, but I will anyway. How in the heck did this make it in to the final cut? Did you know there’s a scene where Lucas digitally altered Jake Lloyd’s eyes to be looking in a different direction? There’s another scene where different performances form Lloyd and Portman are edited together to get the best combined take and in order to make it seamless someone’s mouth is digitally edited and steam is reversed. That much care was taken, and yet this made it past the director and editors? No, there must be a deeper meaning behind that missed high five. There must be. Is it an allegory for the corruption of the political process by big business and other special interests? A warning of things to come?



I only recently learned this, but Boss Nass was voiced by Brian Blessed. I never really bothered to learn who portrayed him before now because, honestly, who gives a crap? Well, it turns out I give a crap. In fact, I give a huge crap; like, big enough to cause some plumbing issues. Why? Because Brian Blessed also portrayed Prince “Diiive!” Vultan in the 1980 cult classic Flash Gordon. This is awesome for a couple of reasons: 1) Diiive!! and 2)Flash Gordon was a huge inspiration for George Lucas in the initial creation of Star Wars. So, to have an actor from the film, whose production was in turn likely aided by the huge success of Star Wars, then appear in a Star War is really cool. Thanks George Lucas. For what? Well, for giving a dumb old bird a second chance!

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