Directed by:
Richard MarquandComposer:
John WilliamsCast:
Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, Ian McDiarmid, Frank Oz, James Earl Jones, David Prowse (more)VOD (4)
Plots(1)
Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Lando Calrissian and their small army of friends rescue Han Solo from the clutches of the menacingly ugly Jabba the Hutt and go on to do battle with the Empire, even after Darth Vader has broken off in his own rebellion. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (11)
It’s too bad that Marquand didn’t have his turn until after the brilliant Episode V. In Return of the Jedi, unlike in the preceding episode, Lucas became heavy-handedly involved in this, and his little live Monchhichi almost buried the movie. Although, compared to what Lucas gave us in Episode I, here we get only a tolerable dose of childish lameness, however annoying it is. Compared to the preceding episode, the pace at the beginning of this is overly relaxed while at the end the pace is overly rushed. In any case, this is a respectable end to the original trilogy, although it could (and should!) have been significantly better.
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This film seems to be setting the scene for the infantile boom from Episode 1, yet the ending and fateful duel with Darth Vader and the Emperor are among the highlights of the series. It is simply clear that Lucas was slowly succumbing to the size of his fiction world and its possible flexible adaptability to viewers of different ages. A slightly weaker link, yet he still has enough to keep in touch with the peak of science fiction...
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A pretty uneven climax to the most overrated story in the history of cinema. The scenes with the Emperor and Darth Vader are great, the events on the forest moon are unnecessarily ruined by the childish Ewoks, and the opening half hour in Tatooine is almost unbearable. It’s decent fun, but putting Star Wars at the level of other fantasy and science fiction worlds is way too much.
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The conclusion of the saga brings the return not only of the titular Jedi, but also of Lucas’s lack of seriousness, as well as his playfulness and naïveté. Though fans don’t want to admit it, the frolicking with the Ewoks was not a misguided diversion or a departure from the intended development of the style. On the contrary, The Empire Strikes Back is the anomaly in Lucas’s fairy-tale space opera due to director Irvin Kershner’s fanfiction approach. If the fifth (originally second) episode, constructed the pillars of Star Wars fandom, then the sixth (third) inevitably arouses the resentment of fans, as the style reverts back to the naïveté of the first film, as it literally states that it is targeted at children and inadvertently undermines everything that is sacred to the fans – an example illustrating all of this is Boba Fett, who is transformed from a cool badass into a ridiculous fool who suffers a belittling and undramatic demise. The greatest hatred has been borne by the cute Ewoks, who have been bumped out of first place on the fans’ hitlist only by Jar Jar Binks. The Ewoks became the personification of the series’ childishness and thus the embodiment of Lucas’s supposed betrayal of his supposedly adult fans. But as frightful as it sounds, if anyone deserves to admonished, it’s Irvin Kershner, who did the worst thing possible – he showed the potential that the Star Wars saga would have had if it hadn’t been in the hands of George Lucas, who always conceived it as a spectacular sci-fi fairy tale for the whole family.
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The episode where George Lucas's imagination was perhaps at its best – unfortunately. My impressions are aptly characterized by the well-known story of David Lynch (yes, that David Lynch); he was Lucas's main candidate to direct episode IV, and the two met in person before production began. Lucas started talking excitedly about all the weird SW characters and worlds, and Lynch, who wasn't interested anyway and only met him as a courtesy, told him it would be best if he directed it himself. And so a total unknown Richard Marquand was brought in and the viewer got a bunch of funny elves at the end of the greatest space saga of all time, among whom Harrison Ford, Hollywood's biggest dude, looks a bit like Mr. Bean driving a Ferrari. On the other hand, the storyline around Luke works just fine, the aura of the dark side is very tangible (even if it contrasts with the goofing around with the Ewoks), and the special effects are clearly the best of the trilogy, so we do get an exciting experience. I really wonder what it would have been like with the master of depression Lynch at the helm, but actually, thank goodness for that enthusiasm – without him, Star Wars probably never would have been made, so how else would it have ended? The new millennium will give us an ironic answer. 75%
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Gallery (188)
Photo © 1983/1997 Lucasfilm Ltd. & 20th Century Fox
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