Hoth Off The Press: The Little Moments In 'The Force Awakens' That Make It Truly Great
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The Force Awakens is full of big moments. The Millennium Falcon chase through the Star Destroyer graveyard. “Chewie, we’re home.” Rey calling the Skywalker saber to her so she can confront Kylo Ren in the climactic duel.
These are all great moments, no doubt about it. But, for me, what The Force Awakens does best is the little moments between (and sometimes during) these big, epic moments.
We’re talking about Rey ripping the compressor out of the Millennium Falcon hyperdrive and holding it up for Han Solo, who’s doing his best to seem unimpressed. Or, Kylo Ren sarcastically asking the First Order officer, “the droid…stole a freighter.” And, of course, there’s BB-8 giving Finn a “thumbs up” after telling Rey the location of the Resistance base so he can maintain his lie that he’s a Resistance fighter.
These moments are fun and often funny, but they serve a larger purpose in the story. They show the audience who these characters are. Take the examples above. Rey is capable but seeking validation, while Han does his best to hide his heart of gold behind a gruff exterior. Kylo Ren doesn’t suffer fools and intimidates his subordinates with his intensity. And BB-8 is a fun-loving droid and an excellent heir to the “droid is man’s best friend” throne.
In the grand scheme of things, these little moments are there so that when the big moments happen we, the audience, understand the deeper meaning of them. Take, for example, the opening scene of the movie. In it, Lorr San Tekka responds to Poe Dameron referring to Leia as “The General.”
“The general?” he says with a little laugh. “To me she’s royalty.”
It’s a little moment, a nod to the previous instalments in the saga and the changes the characters have been through since we last saw them, as laid out in the opening crawl. But it also informs what happens next when Kylo Ren confronts then kills him, a big moment.
With that one line, San Tekka’s death takes on a new meaning. He’s not some random guy who found the map to Luke, he’s someone with ties to our heroes from the previous trilogy. He knows Leia. He was a potential ally that our new villain has already taken off the board.
It also helps to form our understanding of Kylo Ren. He’s not just driven to find Luke, he wants to wipe out anyone with a connection to the legendary Jedi master (in other words, “let the past die, kill it if you have to”). It’s something that becomes clearer upon rewatch and Kylo’s lineage and history with Luke is revealed.
Many of these little moments stand out even more on re-watching the film. Some are highlights on opening night, like the aforementioned BB-8 “thumbs up”, but others are often forgotten in the spectacle of the first viewing. It’s only when the shine of the big moments wears off a bit that the little moments come into focus.
It’s not because the audience doesn’t notice them on the first (or second) viewing, it’s that—by design—these moments are there to inform those big moments. The big moments hit, in large part, because we feel like we know these characters, and we care about them. And that’s the job of the little moments.
We understand why it’s a big deal for Han to offer Rey a job (a big moment) because we saw her watching the older woman on Jakku doing the same job as her, wondering if that’s her future (a little moment). Finn’s defection from the First Order (a big moment) is foreshadowed by his inability to fire on the defenceless villagers (a little moment within a big moment). Kylo’s creepy calm when interrogating Rey (big moment) is made all the more intimidating and unsettling because we’ve seen how unhinged he can be when he lashes out over the First Order’s failure to capture BB-8 (little moment).
Star Wars movies (all movies, really) work best when the big moments and the little moments build off each other. Like balance in the Force. You don’t need to have the same number of big and little moments to achieve this. But they need to inform each other. And when they do, the whole movie is better for it, as is the case with The Force Awakens.