I was thinking about the Star Wars movies and the colors they present. Obviously, every movie has to change up the visual palette now and then to keep it from getting boring, but I'm just focusing on the colors of the representative scenes from the movies, for me at least.

TPM- Colorful. Naboo, which has the blues and light browns of Theed, the green grass. The sands of Tatooine, Senator Palpatine's red office. There's a lot of diversity.

AOTC- Orange. When I think AOTC, I think Geonosis, followed by Tatooine. Which are both predominantely rock orange/brown. There are other environments, Kamino, Coruscant, but scenes that define AOTC for me are all orange. Even the fireplace scene on Naboo is pretty orange.

ROTS- Yellow, with plenty of darkness to contrast. When I think ROTS, I think Mustafar and Utapau. Utapau has a greenish brownish yellow thing going on, overall. And Mustafar was nothing but lava contrasted by dark rocks, Darkness and shadows were a very consistent visual theme throughout the movie (which is certainly appropriate).

ANH- Dull. There are really only two environments in ANH. Dusty Tatooine and cold grey outer space. Color does not dominate this movie.

ESB- Blue. ESB, for me, is HOTH and the duel at Bespin. There are some chunks of orange here and there, but the big parts belong to different shades of blue. Dagobah is mostly dark and neutral, not much more green than it was blue.

ROTJ- And now we've circled back to colorful. Tatooine has a lot of red, brown, and reddish brown, although Luke's green lightsaber sticks out in my mind as an important visual feature of the entire sail barge scene, perhaps because it was a unique color. But after Tatooine, things get mized up, with the important space scenes, and of course Endor, the big green forest. ROTJ is pretty much the only movie where I think of all the environments as being the important ones. Tatooine, Endor, and the Death Star are all crucial, and they all stick out, and together, they make a relatively colorful movie.


Now for the part where I read too much into this

TPM was a happy time. Aside from an outer rim trade dispute, the galaxy was pretty okay.

But in AOTC, civil war broke out. Violence and aggression were the new norm in the galaxy. Orange was the color of the Clone Wars.

In ROTS, the Clone Wars finally ended when Grevious died on Utapau. Utapau was dull and faded, with shadows everywhere, much like the War itself had become after the initial flash fire had settled into prolonged, weary conflict. Then there's the dark side bubbling and surfacing like lava, in the galaxy and within Anakin. It did explode, and darkness overtook the galaxy.

Then in ANH, we're right in the middle of "The Dark Times." The galaxy is a cold, unfriendly place.

But by ESB, something's happening. Light is fighting back against the dark. Dull grey gives way to a more commanding, but still shadowy blue.

Then, in ROTJ, as the Rebels start their multi pronged attack to save their friends and to end the dark threat of the Empire forever, color returns to the galaxy along with freedom and hope.


Thoughts? I'm curious if other people even agree with my perception of what color each movie "is," since those were just based on my personal opinion of which colors were important.