I have finally made it to the one I have been
waiting for. After starting my revisit of the Star Wars
universe with 'Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace', it's
really just been an excuse to get eventually get to the best
of the Star Wars movies, at least in my opinion, and one of
the five greatest movies of all time… 'The Empire Strikes
Back'. And unlike the Blu-Ray version of 'Star Wars'
that I chose to watch over the lower resolution LaserDisk
version, I had no qualms watching the Blu of Empire since the
changes in this one are a little more subtle than those in the
Star Wars Blu, being as how budgetary constraints weren't too
much of an issue for George Lucas and this film back in 1980
considering the insane success that was 'Star Wars'. Not
having seen Empire in almost two decades, is it as awesome as
I remember? Why yes it is my friends. Maybe even
better. With perhaps one slight caveat which we will
talk about a little later.
When we last saw Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), he was blowing
up the Empire's prized Death Star, sending Darth Vader (voiced
by James Earl Jones) and his Tie Fighter tumbling about the
galaxy. Believe me when I tell you that Vader is
PISSED! A few years later, Vader, now sitting in one of
his Star Destroyers, is almost obsessed with finding young
Skywalker and making him pay. And say if you happen to
work for Vader, and you don't succeed in your mission, your
trachea and larynx are finished. Done.
Kaput. But at least if you are next in line, you get a
promotion. And I guess a pay raise. Though I never
see anybody in the Empire ever pay for anything.
Finally, Darth Vader finds out where those troublesome rebels
are hiding and mounts a spectacular assault. Alas, the
people who he wanted on this rebel base, Luke, Princess Leia
(Carrie Fisher), Han Solo (Harrison Ford), and the Millennium
Falcon escaped. You know tracheae got mentally crushed
over that screw-up.
This is the point where 'Empire' splits into
three separate narratives. After getting off the Ice
Planet of Hoth, Luke goes to the swamp planet of Dagobah in
search of the mysterious Yoda (Frank Oz) on the orders of the
spirit of Obi-Wan (Alec Guiness) to complete his Jedi
training. Leia and Han leave Hoth on the Millennium
Falcon only to be mercilessly pursued by Empire forces, but in
between all of that, these two start to get a little cozy with
each other and love is in the air. The third part of our
narrative centers on Darth Vader and his relentless search for
these rebels, made even more urgent when The Emperor (Ian
McDarmid) informs Vader exactly who Luke Skywalker is and his
desire to bring him to the darkside.
Eventually the split narrative merges back into one on the
cloud city of Bespin, run by Han's great friend Lando
Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams)… and with friends like these…
I think I actually yelled out at the screen… 'Han! Don't
let the smooth taste fool you!' But did he listen to
me? No he didn't. Before the bad stuff happens,
Leia makes a proclamation to Han, which he agrees with, and
Vader makes a proclamation to Luke, which he wish he couldn't
agree with, but he has no choice. And little to nothing
is resolved before the credits rolled. Which we will
talk about in a bit.
Why is 'The Empire Strikes Back' regarded so highly by so
many? Well, I can't speak for anybody else obviously,
but 'Empire' takes everything that was 'Star Wars', which was
already a great film all by itself, and simply makes it
better. 'Empire' had a couple of things working for it
even before Team Lucas and director Irving Kirshner loaded up
a single can of 70mm film stock in that it already had a solid
film base in 'Star Wars', meaning there was no need to
backtrack and remind anyone of who these characters are and
the situations that they are dealing with, and secondly, they
knew already that there was going to be a third film so there
was absolutely no need to rush to resolve anything in this
particular sequel. What that leaves us with is more time
to focus on building the story, more time adding depth to
character, particularly Darth Vader who cemented his status as
one of cinema's greatest villains in this film… before 'Return
of the Jedi' ruined all of that… and director Kirshner was
allowed to slightly alter the tone of the Star Wars Universe
to one that is darker, more serious, and more pressing and
urgent. Luke, Han and Leia are also much more confident
as characters as well, and the additions of Yoda and Lando
were lightning strikes of casting and imagination.
It is said that George Lucas didn't direct this particular
episode due to focusing on his company, Industrial Light and
Magic, and other pressing production needs, but believe me
when I tell you that this was time well spent by Mr. Lucas for
in 1980 no one had ever seen anything like the effects we saw
in 'Empire'. The snow battle on Hoth, the presence of
the AT-AT Walkers… still one of the most impractical weapons
ever… the existence of the Cloud City, and of course even more
impressive space battles and space scenes which by this time I
think audiences were pretty much taking for granted.
Eleven year old me was awe struck… thirty plus years later,
recognizing that Mr. Lucas has cleaned up a lot of the effects
for the Blu-Ray version that I saw, the effects still hold up
amazingly well.
If there is an issue with 'Empire' and this is somewhat
debatable… but not really… is that this is a sequel that
relies more on the movie that came before it, and the film
that will follow it, more than any sequel probably in film
history. You don't necessarily have to watch 'The
Godfather' to watch 'The Godfather II' for instance, or even
'The Two Towers' before watching 'Lord of the Rings', and if
you wanted to completely skip 'Return of the King', you could
get by with that. We don't recommend this, but you could
do it. As great as a film 'The Empire Strikes Back' is,
I'm not sure one could just plop down and watch it without
seeing 'Star Wars' first, and then choosing to completely
ignore 'Return of the Jedi'. I mean 'Empire' really has
no true beginning and it definitely doesn't have a legitimate
ending so it needs those two movies
to kind of justify its existence.
But then who wouldn't watch 'Star Wars' and the 'Jedi'?
Nobody I know, that's who. 'The Empire Strikes Back' is
still one the finest examples of storytelling ever committed
to film. Now it's off to suffer through some Ewoks and
Darth Vader completely not being true to the cause.
