The opening crawl to The Phantom Menace is decidedly dull. Where the crawls to the original trilogy spoke of civil war, the dreaded Imperial Fleet, and a second Death Star, The Phantom Menace opens with a discussion of the taxation of trade routes. Maybe the crawl gets interesting later on? Nah. There’s no evil Galactic Empire here, instead a “greedy Trade Federation” has blockaded the small planet of Naboo. It’s all so banal for Star Wars, for a story about, well, wars in the stars. Gone is a galaxy at risk, in its place is macroeconomics.
But, that’s arguably, part of the point with The Phantom Menace. This is a period before the Galactic Civil War, before the fall of the Republic and the rise of the Empire, before the need for rebellion. It’s a time of peace, when the biggest fear of the moment is a corporation mad about tax practices. This is where we find the Jedi: they’re being sent to negotiate trade disputes. They’re not commandos fighting wars, they’re mediators, doing, well, boring peacekeeping stuff.
The opening crawl sets the stage for a Star Wars movie, letting you know what’s going on and allowing the movies to open in medias res without having to explain in the narrative why the Rebels are on Hoth. So in 32BBY, when The Phantom Menace takes place, there really isn’t that much going on. The galaxy is a boring place and the opening crawl, that harbinger of what’s terrible and dangerous, has little to say except for, well, taxes.
And it’s brilliant. Look, the prequel trilogy has its flaws (up to and including the disappointing portrayal of Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side in Revenge of The Sith), but man, the movies are trying something. The prequels are meant to be a tragedy, they’re about the rise of the Empire. But, as in any story, the normal world needs to be established, and the normal world of Star Wars at the time of The Phantom Menace is one of peace, a time when taxes and blockades are the biggest issues. By having such a low-stakes opening crawl, The Phantom Menace, in theory, shows the viewer everything that is to be lost.
Essays, Not Rants! 