Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
Director: Irvin Kershner (FINALLY! SOMEONE ELSE)
Writer: Leigh Brackett, Lawrence Kasdan, George Lucas
Starring: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels, David Prowse, Peter Mayhew, Kenny Baker, Frank Oz, James Earl Jones
Reason for watching: Showing Jane the Star Wars movies
Number of times I’ve watched it: Probably 10+
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NOW THIS IS THE BEST STAR WARS MOVIE…………..if you care about that kind of thing.
There’s a great two part youtube series (linked here and here) from one of my favorite film essayists, Mikey Neumann; and he goes into incredible detail about how each Star Wars movie up through The Last Jedi was received upon release. Please go watch it. But the reason why I bring it up is there is a very clever line Mikey brings up about how at some point or other, every Star Wars movie has at one point or other been slated as the second-best entry in the franchise behind The Empire Strikes Back. And when you line up this movie next to its predecessor and its sequels, you can see why.
Sequels are hard to pull off. Especially when it involves pre-existing property like something in the MCU or a Lord of the Rings movie. Stakes are high because often times the budgets are higher and the tension on the movie is raised because the directors, producers, and writers have to create something that is on par with the original and somehow expand the universe. A New Hope had a budget of $11,000,000, and Empire Strikes Back had $18,000,000 to work with. Pressure was there for the movie to meet expectations. And Empire exceeded those expectations because it shifted the paradigm of these kinds of movies.
To start off here, the plot of the movie is not that unexpected, but it does the job. But that’s the only criticism I have story-wise (and I’ll spare my criticisms in this post), and it still works because this movie is the second act in a trilogy of movies. There’s supposed to be an issue for the heroes here. There is supposed to be a setback for them, and this whole movie is full of setbacks. Luke gets abducted by the abominable snowman. Han’s ship won’t take off. Lando (Billy Dee Williams) betrays Han. Luke doesn’t understand the nature of the force. Leia and Han are separated right after they get together. And Vader is right on our trio’s tails the whole time.
That’s not how this movie breaks the trilogy paradigm. It changes those rules of franchise storytelling because it shows that the movie was not scared to take our favorites from us or change the relationship between our heroes and our villains. Good villains need to have something intriguing about them, and knowing the massive, scary, dark lord of the sith is our little farm boy’s father…that changes thing. It changes the story because now a story about an imperial army vs a group of rebels is about the family struggle between them. Now when Luke thinks about Vader, he think about the possibility of following in his father’s footsteps and falling to the dark side. That’s why this movie is the best, because it was the first Star Wars to do that.
Before I wrap this up, here’s a few specific positives. Vader’s presence in the fight against Luke blows me away. He takes your breath away with how frightening he is. The world building of Hoth, Degobah, and Cloud City expands our horizons a little more, which is standard George Lucas fair here. Yoda is a unique and interesting contrast as a force master to Obi-Wan Kenobi. All of these things add up to make…THE BEST STAR WARS MOVIE!
8/10
Until I see another one