Taking the movies as they are, I see Anakin's youth as a method to play up his innocence and the bond with his mother. With younglings taken years earlier, and someone Luke's age ready to leave; TPM's Anakin loses his mother, and his mentor, (not to mention, a girl he begins to have feelings for), then thrust into the Jedi training, with a newly knighted Jedi master, all at a young age, unable to deal with his feelings.
Kids can be cruel, and it's really unfortunate that a highlight in his life became such a burden.
Oh I agree completely...the same could be said about Hasbro de-militarizing G.I. Joe in recent years and watering it down for the kiddies. I was nine-years-old when RAH came out, and all that true-to-life "NATO and Warsaw Pact small-arms" talk on the uber-realistic file cards captured my little mind and made me believe I had just bought a real piece of the military. Same with Star Wars; you don't have to "dumb-down" things for the kids. I'm just saying why I think Lucas made Episode I the way he did; I truly think he had his son in mind and was making a film for that age group. He tends to do things he wants to do, and if the rest of the world likes it, great. (lol) That's my impression of the man at this point. Does that make for blockbusters that appeal to a broader range of fans? Nope. But I'm not sure Lucas cares about that. His moviemaking is a deeply personal process for him I think, and the mass appeal is just icing on the cake.
I've often wondered if Lucas did it for his son. He's always citing personal reasons for the some of the things he does cinematically, so I think he made Episode I for his son, and a nine-year-old Anakin would perhaps be a heroic character he could look up to and/or relate to maybe, since he wasn't much younger than Jake Lloyd at the time. That's my theory, and I'm stickin' with it.
Even though, twenty years earlier, back then, he made a lot money off of children who adored the original trilogy, what with its twenty-something Mark Hamill and thirty-something Harrison Ford.
I've often wondered if Lucas did it for his son. He's always citing personal reasons for the some of the things he does cinematically, so I think he made Episode I for his son, and a nine-year-old Anakin would perhaps be a heroic character he could look up to and/or relate to maybe, since he wasn't much younger than Jake Lloyd at the time. That's my theory, and I'm stickin' with it.
And another reason why Anakin should have been older in Episode I. This is very unfortunate.
My thought exactly.Typecast anyone?I don't know why Lucas went with a 9 year old for Anakin and not someone that was much older.I still think that was a bad idea.
Article may not be entirely true. He may have retired from acting, but he was in film school a couple of years ago when he did an interview on TPM tenth anniversary. The author may have inaccurately took "retired from acting" as retiring from the industry. Oh well.
The pic that article has of Lloyd is hilarious. He looks quite ticked-off in it while signing an autograph. (lol)
Gosh...as much as I love Episode I, there are times when Jake Lloyd's performance seems so fake and unnatural it's excruciating, then other times it seems okay, or at least adequate. Maybe uneven is better, as if Lucas didn't do enough takes to get it right or something.
Perhaps he's just upset that overall, Episode I is derided so much. Had he appeared in one of the more beloved installments he wouldn't hate and/or resent his situation so much. Me? I'm like Samuel L. Jackson when he said early on he wanted to be in the prequels so bad that he would probably have been thrilled just to be a stormtrooper in the background somewhere. (lol) I would be absolutely thrilled to have been in a Star Wars film and be recognized and adored by the hardcore fans. But then again, I'm not Jake Lloyd, I wasn't in Episode I, and I'm on the outside looking in. I've not walked in his shoes and has had to deal with what he has. I have seen one particular interview where the guy doing it was an idiot, kinda asking veiled questions that were very provocative, and you could tell the guy was trying to get a rise out of Loyd and it was really getting on his nerves, but he remained pretty professional and cool-headed the whole time. I might have slapped the mic out of his hand at some point and said, "This interview is over. Get a life moron." (lol)
i found some of those other kids in the screentests to be less obnoxious
Not that I want to be fair to George Lucas, but I think Jake's problems came from the fact that some kids can be assholes.
It is a shame. He played a text-book Dickensian youth - obnoxiously precocious. It's not his fault Lucas can't write.
