Writer/director Rian Johnson has been both praised and criticized for his unconventional approach to
Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Easily the most divisive film in the franchise, Johnson definitely took some risks with the movie. Some paid off, some haven't. One scene in particular, however, has actually forced some movie theaters to intervene.
Warning: SPOILERS For Star Wars: The Last Jedi Follow!
Referred to as a franchise first by
Star Wars VFX supervisor Ben Morris, the scene in question involves a fairly lengthy period of time in which there is absolutely no sound in the movie. The moment occurs towards the end of the film when Laura Dern's character, Vice-Admiral Holdo, crashes a resistance ship traveling at light-speed directly into a First Order destroyer. At the exact moment of the collision, all sound is cut from the film, resulting in pure silence as you watch the scene unfold. It's easily one of the best moments in
The Last Jedi, and possibly one of the most memorable ones we've seen in a
Star Wars flick.
But it appears as though some moviegoers have been caught off guard by the awkward, lengthy. It's unclear if the scene has caused complaints among those not expecting the break in sound, but whatever the case, some AMC theaters have posted a notice assuring viewers that the silence is an intentional creative choice and not a technical glitch or other mishap.
The notice, shared on social media, reads:
"Please Note: The Last Jedi contains a sequence at approximately 1 hour and 52 minutes into the movie in which ALL sound stops for about 10 full seconds,” reads an AMC note to moviegoers that was posted on Facebook by Paul Scheer, among others. “While the images continue to play on the screen you will hear nothing. This is intentionally done by the director for a creative effect.”
Speaking to
Collider, Morris said of the sequence, "We had always hoped that would resonate, both as a story beat and as a striking visual, and when I heard all of the cries and gasps in the silence, it was just fantastic. We realized that it worked. That’s never really happened in Star Wars before."
"On a creative and slightly technical level, it was based on physics photography of cloud chambers and high speed particles colliding with each other," he explained.
"We always talked about how this look would happen, where we’d drain all of the color out of the image. I think it shows strength, if you invert your normal concept of what space shots in Star Wars look like, with a white ship on a black background. For that sequence, you turn it on its head and you’ve got a black ship with white space. That was a huge visual effect."
Rian Johnson may be receiving flack for some of his creative decisions in
Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but many seem to agree this was one of the more amazing moments in the movie. What did you think of the creative choice to cut all sound during the ships crashing?