TV Review: "Star Wars: Visions" Produces Its First True Masterpiece with Volume 3, Episode 9 - "Black"
Today saw the release of Volume 3 of Lucasfilm’s animated anthology series Star Wars: Visions, and below are my thoughts on the ninth and final installment from this third batch of short films, entitled “Black” from David Production.
For months now, Lucasfilm has been showcasing “Black” at animation festivals around the world in promotion of Visions Volume 3, and now that I’ve finally seen it I can definitely understand why. I’d have to go back and watch the first two volumes to be sure, but to my mind this is the first entry in the anthology series to really take the concept and run with it, resulting in pure art rather than just another regurgitation of the Hero’s Journey. “Black” is a gorgeously animated 13-minute exploration of the existence of an Imperial stormtrooper, told through a cacophonic montage of destruction accompanied by discordant jazz music and the occasional deathly silence. It’s a nightmarish examination into what it must feel like to be a cog in the Imperial machine– a pawn in Palpatine’s inhuman plans, and the Emperor himself is indeed represented here by an amorphously evil form, ever reaching out to claim the souls of more of his all-too-obliging soldiers.
There have been Star Wars stories from the stormtroopers’ perspective before, with the opening of The Force Awakens being the most prominent example. But “Black” isn’t just a reversal of the point-of-view we’re used to in A Galaxy Far, Far Away. It’s something far more, and I can absolutely see returning to it time and time again in an effort to decipher its often abstract and evocative imagery. There’s no straightforward narrative here other than “hurry up and die for the Empire” but that’s part of what makes it so compelling: much like the other Visions shorts, it uses the familiar Star Wars iconography– the uniforms, the spaceships, the laser blasts– to ground us in what we already know about this universe, and then pulls us inward to the unreal, hellish day-to-day of the Galactic Civil War as it must appear to the mind of a grunt on the front lines. In a strange way, I could almost see “Black” as playing as a companion piece to Andor, humanizing and empathizing with the stormtrooper in a way that live-action series never felt the need to do. Politics aside, in the heat of combat I imagine it could start to feel like everyone is a victim, chess pieces manipulated by the powers that be on a bloody battlefield littered with grave sites. That’s what this film manages to get across, and ultimately the expressive nature of “Black” is what makes it stand out as the pinnacle– so far– of what Star Wars: Visions can be.
My final ranking of the Star Wars: Visions Volume 3 shorts:
1 - Black
2 - The Duel: Payback
3 - The Song of Four Wings
4 - The Ninth Jedi: Child of Hope
5 - Yuko’s Treasure
6 - The Bird of Paradise
7 - The Smuggler
8 - The Lost Ones
9 - The Bounty Hunters
Star Wars: Visions Volume 3 is now streaming in its entirety, exclusively via Disney+.