Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back

Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Director: Irvin Kershner

Writers: Leigh Brackett (screenplay), Lawrence Kasdan (Screenplay), George Lucas (story)

Cast: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels, David Prowse, Peter Mayhew, Kenny Baker, Frank Oz, Alec Guinness, James Earl Jones

Synopsis:

After the destruction of the Death Star, the rebels flee to their hidden base on the ice planet of Hoth. While there, the hero of the Rebellion, Luke Skywalker (Hamill), is visited by the ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi (Guinness), who tells him to seek out Jedi Master Yoda (Oz) on the remote planet of Dagobah. Soon after, the rebels' base is discovered and attacked by the Empire, led by the evil Sith Lord Darth Vader (Prowse/Jones). During the battle, Han Solo (Ford) escapes the base with Princess Leia (Fisher) and C3P0 (Daniels) but are pursued across the sector by Vader's fleet. Meanwhile, Luke travels to Dagobah with R2-D2 (Baker) to meet the mysterious Jedi Master, who turns out to be quite different than the young hero anticipated. After being betrayed by the gambler, Lando Calrissian (Williams), Han and Leia are captured by Vader, which draws Luke away from his training for a confrontation with Vader in Cloud City, where he discovers a new revelation about the fate of his father. 

First Impressions:

This movie represents one of the first great disappointments in my life. It wasn't because I disliked the movie, quite the contrary, actually. No, the disappointment stems from the fact that my Mom wouldn't let me see it in theaters. I was four years old at the time, and I remember my brother, who is a couple of years older than me, was getting ready to see it with his friend. I begged, pleaded and eventually bawled at Mom to let me go, but she felt Darth Vader would be too scary for me and deemed that I should stay home. It took me a while to get over that because I was already a massive Star Wars fan, even at that young age. Thanks to the miracle of home video, I managed to see the movie on the small screen. Eventually, due to the release of the Special Edition back in the late 90s, I was finally able to see it on the big screen (albeit somewhat altered). That's probably why I'm a little more forgiving of Lucas' Special Edition Trilogy because they gave me a chance to see the films of the original trilogy on the big screen, which is something that I was sure I was never going to be able to do. As to my feelings for the movie, it has placed near the top of the list for my favorite movies of all time, but I haven't seen it in many years. Let's see how it stacks up.

*** NOTE: For the purposes of this review, I watched the Special Edition version as it is the only version available to me. While it's not my preferred version, I'm not as harsh about it as others may be. ***

Story: 

"The Force is with you, young Skywalker, but you are not a Jedi yet."

As is often the case in grand epic tales, the second act is the darkest, and that's certainly the case here. The Empire Strikes Back is definitely the grimmest part of the original trilogy and, I think that's why it's often considered the best movie in the series. While the first movie had to do a lot of the heavy lifting as far as setting up the universe in which it takes place, the sequel is free to tell the story it needs to tell. In this film, we see the heroes, who ended the last movie on a high, with their backs against the wall. The Rebel Alliance is routed and scattered following a major battler to begin the story. Han, Leia, Chewie and Threepio are pursued in a broken Millenium Falcon by Vader's fleet, while Luke and Artoo deal with their own trials on Dagobah. When all is said and done, the film ends on a much darker note (but still hopeful) to set up what was, at the time, the final chapter in the story.

I think the reason why this movie, and the whole original trilogy, resonated while so many other entries in the franchise didn't comes down to the story and how it was told. George Lucas had numerous inspirations for these films, from Kurosawa to the old matinee serials. One of those inspirations was the classic western. Like those old films, the original Star Wars trilogy was a mortality play that explored both the struggle against external evils (the empire in Han and Leia's story), as well as the internal struggle between good and evil as shown in Luke's story. That right there is why these films work so well because they deal with primordial, visceral themes that we all deal with as human beings. Lucas tried to duplicate it with the prequels but couldn't capture lightning in a bottle twice (and the less said about the new trilogy, the better). 

Lucas has taken a lot of (deserved) heat over the past couple of decades regarding his ability to craft a good story. He has a vivid imagination and can build up the bones of a good story, but I think he needs help filling in the specifics (particularly in dialogue). For this film, he had Lawrence Kasdan and Irvin Kershner to do a lot of the heavy lifting. That's another reason why it works because people were on hand to save George Lucas from himself, people who understood how to tell a good story.

Acting/Characters:

Another reason why these films are so highly regarded is that there are a ton of great and interesting characters in them played by some pretty great actors. Speaking of, let's start with one of the greatest villains in movie history, Darth Vader,  played physically by the late David Prowse but voiced by the immortal James Earl Jones. Was there really anybody else who could voice this character and still make him a terrifying villain? Probably not, well, MAYBE Christopher Lee, but that's about it. Jones voices the character with such a deep menace that we can't help but fear the heroes he chases.

Of course, if I'm going to talk about the actor breathing life into Vader, I should talk about Luke as well. I'm of two minds about Mark Hamill's performance in this film. I think, for the most part, he does fine as the cocky, entitled youth trying to find his destiny. But then there's that one scene. Anybody who's seen the film knows which one I'm talking about (if you're one of the three people in the world who hasn't seen this movie yet and don't know what I'm talking about, you'll know it when you see it). I'm not sure if it was a bad direction or what, but there is a hefty portion of cheese dumped all over it, and it really taints the rest of Hamill's performance, which is a shame.

The rest of the cast holds up well, from Billy Dee Williams' roguish Lando Calrissian to Kenneth Colley's competent but frequently anxious Admiral Piett, to Julian Glover's stern and stoic General Veers. All great characters ably played.

Visuals:

Once again, when dealing with the Special Editions of this trilogy, there are two sets of visual effects to explore. The original effects from 1980 still hold up pretty well and were improved upon from the previous film, mostly because the ILM folks had more experience under their belts. The miniature work looks better than the previous movie, and the space combat feels much more mobile and authentic. The production design team also brought its "A" game as the sets and locations look fantastic.

 This brings me to the Special Edition effects, which are less distracting than the previous movie. While Episode IV added a lot of extra scenes and digital characters, Episode V added very little. The only digital character added was a full body shot of the Wampa ice creature at the beginning of the film (which actually looks pretty good). The rest of the new effects were devoted to backgrounds to give the locations a broader feel and clean up some of the shortcuts they had to make for the early blue screen shots. All in all, I found the added effects in this entry much better.

Score/Music:

How do you top a masterpiece? By making another one, of course. John Williams' score for the first movie was a triumph, and all he did for the next film was top it. Many of the same musical cues remain, including the opening fanfare, but there are new themes as well. The greatest of these is, of course, the Imperial March. I'm not sure there's a better melding of music to a character than combing that piece of music with Darth Vader. This is evidenced by the movie's opening scene in which we see the evil Sith Lord standing aboard the bridge of his flagship with the march playing in the background. Even if you'd not seen the original film and had no knowledge of the universe, you knew this dude was evil. You just knew it. While not given as much credit as the Imperial March, I have to say my favorite bit of music has to be Yoda's theme. Top marks again for Mr. Williams.  

Action:

There's a ton of great action in this movie, including a battle on an icy planet with walkers and snowspeeders, a space pursuit through an asteroid field and a terrific escape scene. To me, the best in this film was the lightsaber battle between Luke and Vader. Much like the effects were improved upon from the previous film, so too was the fight choreography. It was more mobile, more visceral and felt like there were real stakes. 

Final Verdict:

What can I say? I still love this movie, probably more so than I did before this most recent viewing. Maybe it's because the more recent franchise entries have been hit and miss, or maybe it's because of nostalgia goggles. I think, though, it's because it was like having an old friend you haven't seen in years pop by for a visit, and you spend hours reliving old stories and memories. That's what this was for me, a long-expected visit from a dear friend.