Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith

"Every story has a hero. Every hero has a destiny. Every saga has an end."

2005 2h 20m EN

🙌

7.5

BANGER

★7.5TMDB · 15,389

AdventureActionScience Fiction

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

When the sinister Sith unveil a thousand-year-old plot to rule the galaxy, the Republic crumbles and from its ashes rises the evil Galactic Empire. Jedi hero Anakin Skywalker must choose a side.

“Every story has a hero. Every hero has a destiny. Every saga has an end.”

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Cast

Hayden Christensen
Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader
Ewan McGregor
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Natalie Portman
Padmé Amidala
Ian McDiarmid
Chancellor Palpatine / Darth Sidious
Samuel L. Jackson
Mace Windu
Jimmy Smits
Senator Bail Organa
Frank Oz
Yoda (voice)
Anthony Daniels
C-3PO

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: George Lucas
Writers: George Lucas, Derek Thompson
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

$113M budget — tentpole studio territory.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 7.5× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 21 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Part of the "Star Wars Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

CAST

Did you know

276+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by George Lucas, shot by David Tattersall. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by John Williams. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Ben Burtt shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

George Lucas directs. David Tattersall behind the camera. John Williams scores. Ben Burtt cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1$113M budget — tentpole studio territory.
2Made its money back 7.5× over at the box office.
3Released 21 years ago.
4Part of the "Star Wars Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
5276+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
6Directed by George Lucas, shot by David Tattersall. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
7Original score by John Williams. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
8Editor Ben Burtt shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
9Hayden Christensen and Ewan McGregor and Natalie Portman carry the top of the cast.
10Marketing tagline: "Every story has a hero. Every hero has a destiny. Every saga has an end.".
11IMDB entry: tt0121766 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
1215,389 TMDB user ratings logged — serious cultural footprint.
13Classified under 26 themes, including "showdown", "lava", "fight", "politics".
14Released under 76 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: David Tattersall
Original score: John Williams
Editing: Ben Burtt
Production design: Gavin Bocquet
Costume design: Trisha Biggar
Makeup / hair: Annette Miles
VFX supervisor: John Knoll
Sound: Ben Burtt
Stunt coordinator: Nick Gillard
Runtime: 140 min · 2h 20m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $113,000,000
Box office: $850,000,000
Return: 752% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)

Awards

Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film
MTV Movie Award for Best Villain

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Part of

Star Wars Collection

An epic space-opera theatrical film series, which depicts the adventures of various characters "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…."

Also by

George Lucas

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

NeoBrowser2013-07-20
★ 10/10
George Lucas comes full circle in more ways than one in "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith," which is the sixth -- and allegedly but not necessarily the last -- of the "Star Wars" movies. After "Episode II" got so bogged down in politics that it played like the Republic covered by C-Span, "Episode III" is a return to the classic space opera style that launched the series. Because the story leads up to where the original "Star Wars" began, we get to use the immemorial movie phrase, "This is where we came in." That Anakin Skywalker abandoned the Jedi and went over to the dark side is known to all students of "Star Wars." That his twins Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia would redeem the family name is also known. What we discover in "Episode III" is how and why Anakin lost his way -- how a pleasant and brave young man was transformed into a dark, cloaked figure with a fearsome black metal face. As Yoda sadly puts it in his inimitable word order: "The boy you trained, gone he is, consumed by Darth Vader." As "Episode III" opens, Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) and his friend Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) are piloting fighter craft, staging a daring two-man raid to rescue Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid). He has been captured by the rebel Gen. Grievous (whose voice, by Matthew Woods, sounds curiously wheezy considering the general seems to use replacement parts). In the spirit of all the "Star Wars" movies, this rescue sequence flies in the face of logic, since the two pilots are able to board Grievous' command ship and proceed without much trouble to the ship's observation tower, where the chancellor is being held. There is a close call in an elevator shaft, but where are the guards and the security systems? And why, for that matter, does a deep space cruiser need an observation tower, when every porthole opens on to the universe? But never mind. Back within the sphere of the Jedi Council, Anakin finds that despite his heroism, he will not yet be named a Jedi Master. The council distrusts Palpatine and wants Anakin to spy on him; Palpatine wants Anakin to spy on the council. Who to choose? McDiarmid has the most complex role in the movie as he plays on Anakin's wounded ego. Anakin is tempted to go over to what is not yet clearly the dark side; in a movie not distinguished for its dialogue, Palpatine is insidiously snaky in his persuasiveness. The way Anakin approaches his choice, however, has a certain poignancy. Anakin has a rendezvous with Padme (Natalie Portman); they were secretly married in the previous film, and now she reveals she is pregnant. His reaction is that of a nice kid in a teenage comedy, trying to seem pleased while wondering how this will affect the other neat stuff he gets to do. To say that George Lucas cannot write a love scene is an understatement; greeting cards have expressed more passion. The dialogue throughout the movie is once again its weakest point: The characters talk in what sounds like Basic English, without color, wit or verbal delight, as if they were channeling Berlitz. The exceptions are Palpatine and of course Yoda, whose speech (voiced by Frank Oz) reminds me of Wolcott Gibbs' famous line about the early style of Time magazine: "Backward ran sentences until reeled the mind." In many cases the actors are being filmed in front of blue screens, with effects to be added later, and sometimes their readings are so flat, they don't seem to believe they're really in the middle of amazing events. How can you stand in front of exploding star fleets and sound as if you're talking on a cell phone at Starbucks? "He's worried about you," Anakin is told at one point. "You've been under a lot of stress." Sometimes the emphasis in sentences is misplaced. During the elevator adventure in the opening rescue, we hear "Did I miss something?" when it should be "Did I miss something?" The dialogue is not the point, however; Lucas' characters engage in sturdy oratorical pronunciamentos and then leap into adventure. "Episode III" has more action per square minute, I'd guess, than any of the previous five movies, and it is spectacular. The special effects are more sophisticated than in the earlier movies, of course, but not necessarily more effective. The dogfight between fighters in the original "Star Wars" and the dogfight that opens this one differ in their complexity (many more ships this time, more planes of action, more detailed backgrounds) but not in their excitement. And although Lucas has his characters attend a futuristic opera that looks like a cross between Cirque de Soleil and an ultrasound scan of an unborn baby, if you regard the opera hall simply as a place, it's not as engaging as the saloon on Tatooine in the first movie. The lesson, I think, is that special effects should be judged not by their complexity but by the degree that they stimulate the imagination, and "Episode III" is distinguished not by how well the effects are done, but by how amazingly they are imagined. A climactic duel on a blazing volcanic planet is as impressive, in its line, as anything in "Lord of the Rings." And Yoda, who began life as a Muppet but is now completely animated (like about 70 percent of what we see onscreen), was to begin with and still is the most lifelike of the non-humanoid "Star Wars" characters. A word, however, about the duels fought with lightsabers. When they flashed into life with a mighty whizzing thunk in the first "Star Wars" and whooshed through their deadly parabolas, that was exciting. But the thrill is gone. The duelists are so well-matched that saber fights go on forever before anyone is wounded, and I am still not sure how the sabers seem able to shield their bearers from attack. When it comes to great movie sword fights, Liam Neeson and Tim Roth took home the gold medal in "Rob Roy" (1995), and the lightsaber battles in "Episode III" are more like isometrics. These are all, however, more observations than criticisms. George Lucas has achieved what few artists do; he has created and populated a world of his own. His "Star Wars" movies are among the most influential, both technically and commercially, ever made. And they are fun. If he got bogged down in solemnity and theory in "Episode II: Attack of the Clones," the Force is in a jollier mood this time, and "Revenge of the Sith" is a great entertainment. Note: I said this is not necessarily the last of the "Star Wars" movies. Although Lucas has absolutely said he is finished with the series, it is inconceivable to me that 20th Century-Fox will willingly abandon the franchise, especially as Lucas has hinted that parts VII, VIII and IX exist at least in his mind. There will be enormous pressure for them to be made, if not by him, then by his deputies. 4.5/5 - Rodger Ebert
Vlad Ulbricht2017-05-14
★ 5/10
Having seen the first movie when it reached France as I was about 10, it left a vivid mark on my imagination, and I kind of treasured the little bit of fantasy it brought to me among probably millions of other people. I think the reason why episodes IV to VI became timeless classics is that they were simply fairy tales in sci-fi clothing. You had heroes and princesses actually doing their heroes and princesses things on the screen, but most of the coolest bits happened somewhere in the recesses of your own imagination. Struggle of good against evil. Quest for the father. Passage from childhood to adulthood through a series of trials and challenges. All the stuff chivalry stories are made off, presented in a minimalist way that stuck to the essential elements of the plot. All the rest, including top notch SFXs and the excellent Solo-R2D2-C3PO trio was just cleverly fleshing out this very strong backbone. Just a few lines from a dreamy-eyed Sir Alec Guinness about the clone wars while young and clumsy Luke had his pants burn by a floating tennis ball were enough to flare your imagination in depicting an epic struggle between dark empire forces and a few heroic Jedi knights overwhelmed by sheer force and treachery. A few words about Leia and Luke's past were enough to evoke the moving fate of orphans afraid to uncover the hidden truth about a father shrouded in menacing mystery. Stuff dreams are made of, really. Sadly oh so sadly, it looks like nowadays a blockbuster will never get the green light until some kind of quality insurance comity makes sure even the slowest 10% of your average audience will never be left wondering about anything that goes on for more than 2.5 seconds. I guess some marketing genius managed to convince the producers that leaving anything to the imagination of the customer seriously threatened the return on investment or something. The last 3 episodes were unfortunately born in this disastrous context and proceeded methodically with the extermination of the slightest bit of magic that populated the 3 previous movies. Everything is laid bare in front of our eyes like some specimens on a dissection table. No, not even that. More like pieces of hardware broken down into component parts on a sterilized workbench. So the Force is just something you catch like a flu. The mythical clone war is just 15 minutes of a ridiculous "plan 66". The mighty Vader is just a poor boy with an over-sized ego and an IQ reduced to 2 digits figures by an excess of testosterone (or midichlorians or whatnot for that matter). The mighty conflict that flares through the galaxy is just the outcome of desperately trivial political plots. The Jedi council a bunch of pathetically weak over-aged muppets. Yoda a preposterous 10 inches tall kung-fu master. The epic spirit of the first trilogy has been judged guilty of sales-threatening capital crime, quietly dragged behind the marketing barracks at dawn and shot in the back of the head. As if to make good for this assassination, the last 3 movies drown us into a squirming pool of special effect and fan service that go light years over the top. Hysterical scenes flashing past before you really could decide where to focus your gaze just make the cheesy plot-advancing ones look miserable. Here again I feel the invisible hand of the marketing staff, managing to cram about every single second or third rate characters from the previous trilogy into an already bloated plot, stretching even further the already badly mauled consistency of the scenario in the process. Frankly, what could this stupid "average viewer wants facts" assumption bring but bitter disappointment? The result is not only boring, but really, really sad.
Gimly2019-12-30
★ 5/10
Truly the best of the bad Star Wars movies, Revenge of the Sith doesn't make a whole lot of sense, both when viewed as self-contained, and when seen as a part of the Star Wars whole, but at least Lucas bothered to put a whole movie in here. Final rating:★★½ - Had a lot that appealed to me, didn’t quite work as a whole.