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Heart of Darth-ness: Jedi knight embraces his inner villain

By BOB LONGINO
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

INSIDE SKYWALKER RANCH — May Darth Vader's Pez dispenser be with you. And PlaySkool's new Darth Tater Potato Head toy. And James Earl Jones booming "This is CNN" in his deepest, Darthest bass.

"Revenge of the Sith," the final installment in George Lucas' six-part "Star Wars" saga, opens worldwide Thursday (screenings start just after midnight late-night Wednesday). Finally, the circle will be unbroken. Fans everywhere will find out how the promising Jedi knight Anakin Skywalker becomes the half-robotic, half-human killing machine of pure evil known as Darth Vader.

Lucasfilm Ltd. 'Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith' Director: George Lucas Starring: Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen, Ian McDiarmid, Samuel L. Jackson, Jimmy Smits, Frank Oz, Anthony Daniels, Christopher Lee Run time: 140 minutes Release date: May 19, 2005 Rating: PG-13 for sci-fi violence and some intense images. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer Rate "Star Wars Episode III - Revenge of the Sith"   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

It's been a long time coming. Led by 1977's original "Star Wars," the first trilogy concluded in 1983. Since 1999, we've slogged through "The Phantom Menace" and "Attack of the Clones" just to reach this week's climax.

"The story's really about Darth Vader; it's not about Luke [Skywalker]," Lucas says, sitting on a soundstage in the cavernous Tech Building of the filmmaker's private, grassy compound about 25 miles north of San Francisco. "I was fascinated with the fact that if you knew who Darth Vader was, I thought, 'Well, gee, . . . it would change the way you look at those first three movies.' "

Since his grand entrance in the original "Star Wars" — behind a menacing laser blast, the towering Vader strolled onto an all-white rebel space transport sporting more black than ever worn by Johnny Cash — the heavy-breathing icon has become "Star Wars' " biggest hit.

His presence is everywhere. On anti-Tony Blair political posters in England. On the satirical Darth Vader online blog at darthside.blogspot.com (the start of a recent entry: "Dull day. Arrived at Endor. Made Moff Jerjerrod cry.")

The moment of truth

The biggest moment in "Sith" filming arrived in August 2003 in Australia when actor Hayden Christensen, who also played the teen Anakin in "Clones," donned Vader's infamous helmet, mask and black attire for the first time.

The moment came two decades after the release of "Return of the Jedi."

Producer Rick McCallum picked up Christensen, dressed head to toe as Vader, in a golf cart. When they arrived at the soundstage at about 5:30 p.m. an overflow crowd of some 1,500 people was waiting, including the crew, workers from the studio's various supply companies who happened to be on-site, and employees from every service company connected with the studio but who had nothing to do with "Star Wars."

"They all moseyed on down," McCallum says.

The normally busy, noisy set, with gaffers handling lighting equipment and boom mikes being set into position, fell completely silent.

Lucas shot the scene. It involved a badly injured Anakin rising off a Frankenstein-style table as the rejuvenated Vader with the helmet on.

Still, not a sound.

Lucas shot a second take.

Yeah, I'm happy with that, he said.

"Then they went just completely ape," McCallum says. "They just lost it."

The onlookers cheered. They clapped. They screamed. They stopped production, partying with champagne and beer until about 2 a.m.

"It was, like, some incredible, iconic image to actually see it there," says Rob Coleman, animation director for "Sith" and Lucas' special effects company Industrial Light and Magic. "I've seen a model of Vader standing in the hallway at ILM, but he doesn't move. To see him actually striding onto the set was breathtaking."

Lucas had planned on using a near 7-foot stand-in, but Christensen talked the director into allowing him to be inside Vader's suit.

"It was very cool," Christensen says. "And you almost get this sort of beastly feeling, you know? What I really enjoyed was watching people sort of react to me as they took in Darth Vader for the first time. . . . There was that glimmer of fear or something, and they would lower their heads a bit and take a couple of steps backward. It was very cool. Very cool."

The making of Vader

The helmet that so many fans immediately respond to has a simple origin.

Some 30 years ago, Lucas contracted concept artist Ralph McQuarrie to envision Vader's suit.

"It was kind of a Japanese influence," Lucas says. "I basically described a character that was covered in armor. Had a black cape. Had a breathe mask because he couldn't breathe. A half-robot, half-human. And he had a kind of samurai helmet. That's pretty much the way it was described in the script. Ralph just started sketching stuff, and I would say, 'Make it more like this or more like that.' But very quickly he got that look down."

Befitting Vader's onscreen makeshift origin, the character has been played by a series of actors. At 6 feet 7, England's David Prowse was the man in the Vader suit in the first three films. James Earl Jones provided Vader's voice. Then 10-year-old Jake Lloyd played Anakin in "Phantom Menace." Christensen took over the role in "Clones."

While he had to play Anakin as a tempestuous teen in "Episode II" (he starts a secret romance with Naboo's Padmé Amidala that will likely be frowned upon by the Jedi council), Christensen views "III" as Vader's coming-out party. In "Sith," Anakin joins the dark side of the Force and fights his Jedi friends.

"Society is very eager for their villain," Christensen says. "He's a character that has had such staying power and in a way he's one of the great villains."

In 2002, the 132-member Online Film Critics Society voted Vader the No. 1 screen villain of all time. He beat out the liver-eating Hannibal Lecter ("The Silence of the Lambs") and shower slicer and dicer Norman Bates ("Psycho").

What does it say about us as a people that so many "Star Wars" fans can't wait to see Vader again?

"I think there is a fascination with the other side of the mirror because it is dangerous and strange," says Ian McDiarmid, who plays Supreme Chancellor Palpatine in "Sith." "And it's led the world through many incarnations through history down peculiar paths. People are puzzled, I think, not by these great monsters like Hitler and Mussolini and others we might mention, but more so by why normally right-thinking people follow them.

"And I think we don't know the answer to that."

'A very pathetic man'

Next to the foyer in Lucas' big, roomy Victorian house — the structure that looks upward toward green and rocky hills that served as the inspiration for the "Star Wars" planet of Naboo — is a small hallway hewn from redwood. Each side from floor to ceiling consists of glass cases holding movie treasures.

At the far end is Indiana Jones' fedora and the golden figurine so prized at the beginning of "Raiders of the Lost Ark." There's a clay figure of Jabba the Hut and a small Imperial Walker. Up high rests the red guitar from the unfortunate "Howard the Duck."

But the first item one sees, prominently displayed to the right at eye level, is Vader's lightsaber from "The Empire Strikes Back."

It's the lightsaber he uses to slice off Luke's hand, the one he holds above his son as he reveals, "No, I am your father."

What we had with these earlier films, Christensen says, is the ability to see Vader in whatever light we wanted to project.

"You were able to impose your own fears or whatever represented to you the most villainous concept. You could make that your Darth Vader," he says. "You had the visual, which is great, and the voice and the breathing, which is fantastic. But aside from that it's all left up to the audience."

What "Sith" does, Christensen says, is fill in the gap. We know why Vader does what he does, why he chooses the dark side of the Force, why he reaches a point where there is no turning back.

"He's now all [of a] sudden a very pathetic man, which is, I think, a very brave choice for George," he says. "I think smart people will appreciate it.

"To understand the contemporary relevance of who Anakin is and why he falls to the dark side, you need him to be somewhat pathetic. You can't just let him exist in movieland."

Turns out, he may be more than a cool Pez dispenser.