“Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith” & “Born Into Brothels”

S & I spent some time on this rainy weekend watching “Born Into Brothels” and “Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith” (how’s that for a double feature?!).

“Born Into Brothels” was billed as “Uplifting” on the DVD case, which I had my doubts about, given the subject matter. It’s a documentary about a photographer who spent a prolonged time in Calcutta’s red light district, teaching the children of prostitutes how to take photographs.

Uplifting it was not, unless you consider the fact that of the 8 or 9 children subjects, a whopping two managed to get into, and stay in, a boarding school for a chance to leave their old lives behind. Cinematography was good, and the children were very sweet – it was difficult to hear them describe their circumstances, and to hear the way they were referred to by their parents & relatives.

Many of the photographs taken by the kids are very good indeed – such a pity that so many of them will likely not rise above their circumstances and seem destined to a life of prostitution and/or pimping.

“Star Wars Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith” proved vastly better than the wretched “Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones” – still cheesy enough to be worthy of the franchise, but with less wooden acting (and no Jar Jar at all).

Some opportunities to follow Anakin/Vader’s progress were missed, though – some of my favorite scenes from the original Star Wars were the ones where Luke was learning to control the Force. Here, Anakin/Vader’s power get stronger and stronger, but we never see him training or being instructed by Palpatine or Kenobi. Lots of action and good fight scenes abound, and it was neat to see how they tied things into the first movie, so long ago (storm troopers, Tattooine, Wookies, etc).

I found myself a bit sad that Lucas has said he will not film the last three movies (it was intended as a 9-picture series at one point).