So here it is: the best 'Star Wars' film ever made. I can think of no particular fault with this movie - even the original had a few teething problems, 'Return of the Jedi' had the Ewoks and the slightly silly (though totally cool looking) second Death Star, the prequels certainly had their share of fuck ups, and I'm not convinced that the most recent series is totally flawless.
With 'Empire' though, I can honestly only think of one fault, and it's only a fault for some: that dreamlike sequence in Yoda's digs where Luke beheads Darth Vader? It's a little heavy handed, and spoiled the tone of the rest of the scene. It's not really that big of a deal, though, and I can't think of any other part of 'Empire' that I didn't love.
Now that I've gotten that out of the way, the rest of the movie was mess-your-pants enjoyable. We open with a marvelous Hoth portion, which starts slow but builds into a full-on ground battle. Then we get Dagobah and everyone's favourite Muppet, while Han and crew hang out with the second and third coolest guys in the galaxy (Lando and Boba) on cloud city. To top it all of we conclude with Han being turned into a mint condition 'Star Wars' collectible and Luke loosing both his hand and his status as (and this is possibly the most pertinent use of red ink ever) not Darth Vader's son. Crushingly, the movie ends on a cliff hanger, with all our heroes split up and the rebels on the brink of defeat. I think this is the first time that I was ever so enjoyably bummed out by a movie (or any fiction), and I've been trying to recreate that kick ever since.
I mean what a brave ending, eh? Isn't George Lucas a genius? I mean, Ford didn't know if he wanted to be in the next one so that's kinda why he turned into a big Kit Kat for a massive slug, and George did spend much of the remainder of his time at 'Star Wars's's' helm pissing off his fans, but still.
And the rest of the plot was very well organised too. Key is the Hoth bit, where we get to see all three of our heroes doing their thing together so that we can come away from the cinema thinking "aw that was nice, I missed those guys". After that though the plot becomes inspiringly unconventional, and I'm reminded of the allegory of George and his heroic battle against Hollywood, as well as the Vietcong and their heroic resistance of American invasion, which nobody over there seems to have noticed. Ah well, I doubt members of the Empire were comparing their own war with one that was happening in Vietnam in a galaxy far far away either, even if 'Full Metal Jacket' was a movie there, directed by Gorgo Lintface in his heroic struggle against the unimaginative Coruscant film industry.The initial battle of Hoth is one of my favourite movie ground engagements of all time, and the image of the ATATs clomping along over the snow with Snow Speeders zooming about between them and crashing and shit was extremely compelling. The design of everything is perfect without being so distracting that it pulls focus from the natural beauty of the surroundings, and the choreography is handled excellently, pausing on little moments of intense action for just long enough to peak excitement, before moving on to something else.
The images of it all is burnt so heavily into my mind that I can't really imagine not being able to picture Vader striding menacingly through the ruined Rebel base, or the tied up ATAT collapsing onto its face and then exploding. I expect that it's mostly because of my age and impressionability at the time of first viewing, but nothing made since these films has ever struck me in the same way.
And then we leave Hoth, and suddely we go from a WW2 style action movie to the Karate Kid, as Yoda teaches some schmuck the ways of the force while R2 is eaten by a thing because Florida can be dangerous. But not to worry, if that bores you we've also got the Falcon flying around in an asteroid belt and narrowly escaping a massive space slug.
Side note - the coldness with which Vader orders his men through the belt, despite the massive damage to his ships and the loss of life involved, is one of his most little remembered and yet brilliant examples of his evillllll.
And then we're introduced to Cloud City, which wildly contrasts yet again with any local we've seen before. Originally intended to be where Han goes to find his uncle - cringe - we instead meet the awesome Lando, who if you can't tell yet is one of my favourite characters. The whole deception/betrayal theme here and the way it plays out and is presented to the audience is fantastic, and feels somewhat Shakespearean in style occasionally. It all ends tragically as Luke arrives and has his first in-person confrontation with Darth Daddy, but at least we get the consolation of nearly everyone escaping and hiding out with the battered rebels, ready to commit to a daring rescue, another light-sabre duel, and hopefully not any giant teddy bears or anything like that, in the next film.
And wasn't each of those scenes great? As Han is lowered in, and Leia tells him she loves him, and Chewie bellows an upset howl. And then Luke arrives late - what? That never happens! Fantastic! And it all goes to shit. His contorted face as he is behanded and the raw emotion with which he delivers his lines from there on out is intense. None of it is particularly gory, but is all the more horrifying for it.
The feeling you are left with is one of... not sadness exactly, but weariness. We're feeling a little bit of what the Rebels must be feeling, and we've just got to see what happens next now.
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| Oh no look - robot camels. |
The images of it all is burnt so heavily into my mind that I can't really imagine not being able to picture Vader striding menacingly through the ruined Rebel base, or the tied up ATAT collapsing onto its face and then exploding. I expect that it's mostly because of my age and impressionability at the time of first viewing, but nothing made since these films has ever struck me in the same way.
And then we leave Hoth, and suddely we go from a WW2 style action movie to the Karate Kid, as Yoda teaches some schmuck the ways of the force while R2 is eaten by a thing because Florida can be dangerous. But not to worry, if that bores you we've also got the Falcon flying around in an asteroid belt and narrowly escaping a massive space slug.
Side note - the coldness with which Vader orders his men through the belt, despite the massive damage to his ships and the loss of life involved, is one of his most little remembered and yet brilliant examples of his evillllll.
And then we're introduced to Cloud City, which wildly contrasts yet again with any local we've seen before. Originally intended to be where Han goes to find his uncle - cringe - we instead meet the awesome Lando, who if you can't tell yet is one of my favourite characters. The whole deception/betrayal theme here and the way it plays out and is presented to the audience is fantastic, and feels somewhat Shakespearean in style occasionally. It all ends tragically as Luke arrives and has his first in-person confrontation with Darth Daddy, but at least we get the consolation of nearly everyone escaping and hiding out with the battered rebels, ready to commit to a daring rescue, another light-sabre duel, and hopefully not any giant teddy bears or anything like that, in the next film.
And wasn't each of those scenes great? As Han is lowered in, and Leia tells him she loves him, and Chewie bellows an upset howl. And then Luke arrives late - what? That never happens! Fantastic! And it all goes to shit. His contorted face as he is behanded and the raw emotion with which he delivers his lines from there on out is intense. None of it is particularly gory, but is all the more horrifying for it.
The feeling you are left with is one of... not sadness exactly, but weariness. We're feeling a little bit of what the Rebels must be feeling, and we've just got to see what happens next now.
Star Wars Epsisode V: The Empire Strikes Back: 94.9