First off, when I saw this in theaters, I was floored by the complete rush of emotion I felt, especially for such a simple scene. The only two ther times I had that feeling were the funeral of qui-gon and the end montage in AotC. And it's the powerful combination of George Lucas' incredibly powerful directorial eye (in the scenes without talking) and John William's persistently incredible scores for these movies, that make these scenes work.
I think because both the music, and that kind of scene, were such a departure from regular Star Wars that I felt so moved by it. It just seemed so eerily important. More important than anything before or after it. That might not be true, but at the moment, it felt so powerful. The visual look of the scenes was so incredibly fitting to the music and emotion. It seemed so sad.
Evertime I hear that cue from Williams, I basically stop what I'm doing and listen, and I get the same emotion. It's perfect "calm before the storm" music. Like everything is going to change after it. It could be put in lots of situations or movies.....or something.
Now, don't get the wrong idea hear. I, for the most part, do not enjoy the prequels. I like TPM for the memories I have of when it came out, and I like ROTS cuz it's the closest we'll get to good Star wars again....AotC had Across the Stars....thats about it for me. The OT will forever be the best, and I'll never watch them 1-6.....ever.
But Goerge has his incredible moments. Moments of pure cinematic genious, profound emotion were I can tell he really cares about these movies enough to not cut them. And I know I'm not the only one that felt this way about those scenes and to be able to work up those emotions in other people means to have done exactly what you envisioned and executed it perfectly.
/end fanboy rant.