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)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)
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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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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With Return of the Jedi, the Star Wars saga reaches its climax, and the film's story takes on the highest quality and consistency. For me, the third (sixth) episode of Star Wars is the best ever made. Everything is perfect, I wouldn't want to repeat myself, but the plot, the special effects, the production design, the music, the costumes and make-up effects are (for their time) flawless. In short, an incredibly spectacular ending to the most famous space saga that deserves one of the brightest spots in cinematic history.
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The Skywalkers definitely don't limp to the finish line, but there are a few stumbles along the way. The very slow introduction of the main characters on stage, in fact, misses the desired effect, and it's not until Luke takes the lightsaber in his hand that I finally got the atmosphere of the classic Star Wars. However, what Return of the Jedi loses in the beginning, it gains in the end. The final hour with the ultimate clash of lightsabers, non-stop action, final revelations, and inevitable goodbyes captivates and moves you at the same time.
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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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