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отличная статья с разбором мотиваций героев. основная мысль - Последние Джедаи это фильм о неудачах и какую роль они играют в наших жизнях.

The Last Jedi: A Beautiful and Exquisitely Emotional Film About the Lows and Highs of Failure



I didn’t feel prepared to review this film after my first viewing, since I felt too overwhelmed by what I had seen and I wasn’t able to properly articulate my feelings beyond the level of mostly incoherent squealing. I have just seen it for the second time and feel much more capable of writing about it now. This review will be chock-full of spoilers, so please don’t read it until you have seen the film for yourself (and I implore you to do so - it’s a brilliant ride).

As I mention in the title of this review, The Last Jedi is ultimately about failure. This didn’t quite click with me on my first viewing, but it came through with startling clarity upon my second viewing. Every character has to deal with failure, but the beautiful thing about this film is that failure is shown to have the potential to be a source of strength and wisdom rather than helplessness and despair. Every character suffers and has their plans thwarted or their efforts proved in vain, but this doesn’t mean nothing was achieved.

To begin considering this theme, let’s start by discussing the story of Rey and Kylo (they have their own stories as well, but I want to begin by talking about the journey they take together). These characters are the beating heart of the film, and their mutual journey is the main through-line throughout The Last Jedi. Rey and Kylo are bound together through the Force, and their early scenes together are all about how they negotiate this and are forced to confront each other as people rather than enemies. They come closer and closer through scenes that are brimming over with intimacy, tension and tenderness, their encounters culminating with a lovely tableau where they extend their hands to touch each other. This is a moment of profound vulnerability and sensuality - Kylo deliberately removes his glove so they can touch skin-to-skin, and they gaze directly into each other’s eyes with the firelight between them, oblivious to everything except each other. It’s framed something like a pre-Raphaelite painting of forbidden lovers touching for the first time, and it is intensely romantic and beautiful. Later, we learn that this is the moment when they both had visions of a future together - Rey saw Ben returning to the light with her help, and Kylo saw Rey coming to his side to join him. These visions inform most of their subsequent behaviour and give them purpose.

Luke, still filled with fear and afraid of allowing Rey to slip into darkness, bursts in and stops them by exploding the hut where the would-be lovers are connecting (a parody version where Luke comes in screaming “NO SEXY TIMES IN MY HUT!” is surely incoming). Rey, however, has been swayed by her interactions with Kylo and her new appreciation of his origins - she considers him wronged in the worst possible way by the uncle who was meant to be guiding and caring for him, having had the truth of Ben’s turn to the dark side revealed to her by Kylo. Convinced that there is still hope for Ben, Rey leaves the island to go to him in the hope of turning him and bringing him to the side of the Resistance. Kylo, however, seems to betray her and takes her to Snoke. Snoke proceeds to torture Rey and is puffed up with pride over his apprentice’s achievement - he orders Kylo to murder Rey, reading his thoughts and revelling in Kylo’s new resolve. But Snoke, in a stunning moment, is actually reading Kylo’s resolve to murder him, not Rey, and is sliced in half by the sudden ignition of a craftily turned lightsaber.

Rey and Kylo fight Snoke’s Praetorian guards together in a gorgeous, virtuous fight scene that is easily the greatest setpiece in the film - they are completely in sync to the point that they fight back to back, with Rey leaning to rest against Kylo’s back in order to better launch an attack. It is a fight scene founded on their innate connection and trust in one another, and it is their high point together - it embodies everything they can achieve when they are at their best.

It has taken a while for me to get here, but this is the point at which failure comes into it. At the end of the fight, Rey appeals to Ben to stop the attack on the Resistance fleet. He refuses and reveals his ambition to rule the galaxy as the new Supreme Leader - he interpreted his vision of the future as proof that he was destined to rule with Rey besides him, and appeals to her to join him. Kylo makes the offer with desperate sincerity and longing, and clearly sees no evil in his dream - instead, he envisages a future where he and Rey will rule side-by-side to give order to a chaotic galaxy torn apart by factionalism and warfare. He considers it a question of destiny and responsibility - the most apt use for their remarkable and unique power. He tries to appeal to Rey by highlighting the awful truth of her background - in particular, her abandonment by uncaring and drunken parents - and telling her how important she is to him.

But Rey, of course, is horrified. She realises that killing Snoke did not restore Ben Solo, and that going to him was not enough to trigger the change. She reaches for the Skywalker saber - which she had passed to Ben in the battle - and she and Kylo battle for it through the Force, straining for control until the moment the saber breaks in two, exploding into a dazzling blast of light that knocks them both unconscious.

For Rey, Kylo’s offer to her represents the fact that she has failed - but there is also a lesson in it. She fails to bring Ben Solo back but the lesson is that he must be left to find a way forward alone - at least for now. She recognises the sincerity of his feelings and the conflict that stirs within him, but cannot share in his dream for two of them. She flees The Supremacy while Kylo is still unconscious, re-joining the Resistance and taking up the mantle of the last Jedi, inspired by Luke’s teachings and her own experiences with the Force. In a magical moment that embodies what Rey stands to become, she lifts the rocks that block the exit from the cave complex that the few surviving members of the Resistance were using to escape. They behold her as if she’s a miracle. By the end of the film, Rey has new resolve and confidence in her ability to represent hope for the galaxy and continue to propagate the light side of the Force. She may be a nobody born to scavengers from Jakku callous enough to sell their own child for drinking money, but the humble nature of her birth makes her a greater inspiration and heightens her achievements.

Kylo’s failure, naturally, has a different form. For him, the failure lies in the loss of Rey. He awakens to find her gone and is furious, immediately charging into what he wants to be a final battle against the Resistance. He is determined to destroy anything and everything that reminds him of his past - the weakness he had earlier told Rey to “kill” if she had to - and goes about in a chaotic and senseless fashion. Hux attempts to reign in his more outrageous and childish tactics, but Kylo is rendered stupid and short-sighted by his blind rage - when he sees the Falcon, he screams for “that piece of junk” to be blasted out of the sky. When he sees Luke, he orders every gun to fire on him before finally going out to face his uncle himself. When he fights Luke, he fights sloppily and in anger, intensely frustrated by his uncle’s ability to evade his blows. He ultimately realises that Luke is nothing but a projection, a distraction that worked all too well and allowed the Resistance the time they needed to escape. While Rey ends the film on a note of achievement, purpose and belonging, Kylo ends it solitary and acutely aware that he hasn’t got what he craved - he may be the de facto Supreme Leader of the galaxy, but it’s a hollow title and a hollow victory. The dice from the Falcon - which Luke had projected across the galaxy with him - vanish from his fingers, and he has to look up in despair as Rey gazes down at him sternly and closes the door on their connection. There is a lesson for Kylo in this - IX will be where we see what he takes from it.

Every other main character deals with failure of a different sort, and while I won’t go into all of them in detail I will touch upon the stories of Luke and Finn and Rose. Luke starts the film on a note of failure which is contrasted with Rey’s optimism - he exiled himself as he feels he betrayed Ben Solo, and is convinced that the Jedi caused more harm to the galaxy than good. He wants to die and let the Jedi end. He is slowly won over by Rey and begins giving her lessons about the nature of the Force, albeit non-traditional ones that subvert expectations (ours and Rey’s). He is shaken by the discovery of Rey’s connection with his nephew, but one of the best things about The Last Jedi is how it challenges Luke himself and subverts his expectations and beliefs. Speaking to Yoda after Rey has left to join Kylo allows Luke to realise that Rey has all the wisdom she needs, and will gain more wisdom through any failures or trials she endures. This gives Luke a sense of peace and allows him to let her go and take up her own path.

One of the final tracks on the soundtrack is ‘Peace and Purpose’, and it is matched with the scene of Luke’s triumph at the end of the film - he faces his nephew with the clear goal of saving the Resistance. It may not be the grand set-piece many wanted for Luke, but I find it more effective than that since it really stresses all those qualities that make him a true Jedi - his selflessness, patience, calm and optimism. As much as Kylo is filled with rage and hurt, Luke projects calm and confidence and makes it clear that he will be with Kylo going forward. When we go back to where Luke really is - the island of Ahch-To - he is wearing his old Jedi master robes and is clearly under immense physical strain - the Luke that is fighting Kylo is an embodiment of Luke’s fine-tuned mental state, not his suffering physical body. The strain of projecting himself across the galaxy ultimately kills him and he becomes one with the Force in much the same way as Obi-Wan, having responded to his sister’s appeal for help and had a spark of hope for Ben Solo restored by Rey (Leia seems to have given up hope for Ben by the end of the film, but Luke has greater optimism and tells her that “no one is ever truly lost”). Luke attains the greatest wisdom that there is, by learning from his own failure and accepting that his apprentice must also fail to tread her own path. And his wisdom is ultimately rewarded by triumph, even though it comes at a cost.

Finn and Rose have an arc that’s as complex and fully realised as Kylo and Rey’s, even though it doesn’t have the same narrative heft. I will get to it in full later on, but in relation to the theme of failure it is worth mentioning that Finn and Rose’s whole side-mission is ultimately a failure. They infiltrate The Supremacy in the hope of disabling the tracker that is keeping the First Order on the tail of the Resistance fleet. The mission is proven to be in vain when a Resistance ship rams into The Supremacy and brings the whole ship down. The futility of their mission is crushing and the losses to the Resistance are huge, but what Finn and Rose experienced together wasn’t worthless - their adventure made them both better people, and Finn in particular was inspired by Rose and her bravery. At the end of the film Rose drives her skimmer into Finn’s on Crait to prevent him from ramming into the First Order’s weapon, saving him from what was effectively a suicide mission - in a way she makes Finn fail, but she also saves him. This underlines the film’s fascinating moral complexity and nuance, which are easily its greatest strengths.

The Last Jedi is more interested in character than action, and every set-piece and battle is designed with the goal of serving the characters’ stories - individual and intertwined.

There is so much to say about this film, and I know that I have many happy and productive months of meta-writing to look forward to. It is not entirely without flaws but I have already gone on too long here, and will have more time to write up my feelings in the coming months, weeks and years. I am so psyched and am intensely grateful to have a Limitless subscription right now.

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