“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." Watching the Star Wars films

[Mel O'Drama]

Preface
​

As a kid I never really got the appeal of the Star Wars films. I remember watching the first film on TV with some cousins. It probably wasn’t the first time they’d seen it, and I dare say the first sequel was in cinemas before this time which fuelled their excitement but either way they loved it, with laughs and excited cries which peaked during the sequence with the X-Wing fighter in the gulley.

Despite being into comics, Star Wars simply wasn’t my cup of tea. I was in primary school when both original sequels hit cinemas and I remember kids in the playground discussing characters ad nauseam, most of which went over my head. Since we didn’t wear school uniforms in primary school, Star Wars t-shirts were omnipresent, and there were the lunchboxes and the inevitable action figures, masks and toy range. Oh, and the Ewoks cartoon, of course. The merch that time is actually my main frame of reference and much of the iconography from the Star Wars series is in my psyche from that time and makes me nostalgic by osmosis.

Star Wars (or one of its sequels) actually gave me possibly my earliest encounter with the concept of a deleted scene. Such material was, to my memory, rarely even discussed at the time, much less actually made public. But I remember an older relative who was really into the series playing an audiotape for me and some cousins. It was a bootleg cassette he’d acquired which featured a scene of Darth Vader torturing some character for information, demanding to know where something or someone was. With there being no visual, my fertile imagination ran riot and with Vader’s heavy breathing and the cries and whatnot I’m sure it sounded far more horrible than it actually was. Plus, at that age and sheltered as I was this was probably also the first time I’d heard of torture. If nothing else, my imagination was fired.

Despite hearing and reading many good things about the series over the years, I never did watch beyond the 1977 original film and this journey is about rectifying that. I’m expecting it to be a journey of peaks and troughs: The Empire Strikes Back has a reputation as one of those classic sequels that is better than its predecessor (and yes, of course I know about that revelation which is a pop culture classic). While The Phantom Menace, Jar-Jar Binks and Darth Maul seemed to be on people’s lips for all the wrong reasons. I’m expecting the prequel films to be a bit of a struggle.

When thinking about doing the Star Wars films I’ve been minded in recent years to begin with the fourth film (Episode I) rather than the first film (retroactively titled Episode IV), however as with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I wanted to take the chance to enjoy the series more or less as it would have unfolded for audiences who’ve followed the films from the start. Since my main memory of the series is from a time when I’d seen the first film of a single trilogy it simply makes sense for that to be my starting point.

As much as possible, I’ll try to use the terminology that was true to the film at the time of original release, and so I’ll begin my journey with a film simply called… Star Wars.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY





Star Wars (1977)

As mentioned, this is the sole film I’ve previously watched in the franchise.

To the best of my memory I’ve only watched it once and that was probably the best part of four decades ago. And so it was surprising to find that a number of scenes were very clear to me. It’s difficult to say if this is because I have such a good long-term memory, have actually seen it more often and recently than I’d thought or simply because many of these scenes are extremely iconic and part of popular culture.

The first twenty minutes or so, with endless scenes of C-3PO and R2-D2 wandering round, gave me that niggling feeling that this was going to be an absolute trial. Looking back on it even half a day later I can see that those scenes all formed part of the whole and weren’t wasted, so I’m glad I persevered and didn’t bail to watch The Love Bug as I briefly considered doing. All the same, the tone of the film did feel rather juvenile and a little cartoony, probably exacerbated by the fact that this comes in the middle of watching Luke Cage.

Things started to spring to life for me with Luke Skywalker’s arrival. It wasn’t Luke himself that did it, but the interactions between he and C-3PO as they started to connect and piece together the beginnings of the mystery with Leia’s message (that hologram and her repeated words being one of those memories that’s remained crystal clear for me and looks exactly as I remember it).

I must confess I haven’t thought of this film in terms of plot and don’t really remember there being one, other than the traditional rescue and final battle. With it being pretty much a blank slate, I found it satisfying to see that this is actually an origin story: Threepio and Artoo meet Luke. The three of them meet Old Ben Kenobi. The four of them meet Han Solo and Chewbacca. And the six of them head off to rescue Leia and save the world.

Despite the otherworldly, other-timely setting, it’s the character of Luke who gives this film its everyman. He’s just going about his daily business with his farmer uncle while his aunt - who says little but who hides the secrets of the world behind her eyes - serves up refreshing grey-blue milk when they arrive home. All of which is turned upside down when his aunt and uncle are killed and their farm destroyed in a bid to find the droids, propelling Luke (the “us”) into a world of adventure (with and against “them”) which would have been unthinkable at the beginning of the story. His very presence lends the film a credence that makes it accessible and almost aspirational. With such a starting point, it’s easy to see why young kids - particularly boys, if we’re being gender stereotypical - would become so attached to the saga.

continued…​

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Star Wars

continued
​

In a film with a remarkable main cast, Shelagh Fraser as Aunt Beru is perhaps my favourite of the smaller roles. A proper character actress with a warm, expressive, almost pained face. She has that look of someone who might have appeared in an early episodic episode of Dallas. Even at the point this was made she has an impressive CV of film and TV work going back to the mid-Forties, and it looks like she appeared in small roles in practically every main British drama series of the Fifties and Sixties, as well as a number of comedies. Everything about her performance here tells us there’s more to the story. It makes me want to know more, but it also comes with the suggestion that to find out might spoil things and take away some of the precious mystery. It’s possible - probable, even - that she appears in the prequel triology, but I’m kind of hoping she doesn’t, because - as Shelagh proves here - less is more.

Shelagh is one of many Brits who seem to frequently steal the show. There’s Anthony Daniels as Threepio whose questions and concerns at the very start of the film echo our own, making him something of a narrator. Many members of the council have British accents, while both Artoo and - famously - Darth Vader are played by Brits physically, if not in voice (I’ve seen that infamous footage of Darth speaking in a Bristolian accent and thought it quite charming).

Probably the two most highest profile Brits present are Peter Cushing and Alec Guinness. When I think of their names, I think of Hammer and Ealing respectively. Both are so well-known to me for their earlier film work that Star Wars is far from the first association I’d have on hearing their names, though I can understand many fans of the Star Wars series may not have seen them in anything else.

I’d forgotten - or hadn’t known to begin with - that Peter Cushing was in this film. He’s as reliable as ever, delivering his lines with a classic RP - complete with tapped R-sound - that is possibly perceived by many as sinister, but which I find terribly (or should I say “teddibly” reassuring). His character didn’t leave a huge impression on me, but I’m so glad he appeared because he brought a real gravitas (and I’ve just read that he later quipped that a Grand Moff “sounds like something which flew out of a cupboard” which gave me a huge laugh).

Alec Guinness in particular is a classic example of an actor taking on a somewhat definitive role later in life. He’s as wonderful as ever here and definitely one of the best things in this film for me. Though I’d urge anyone who knows him only from Star Wars to seek out his other work. Kind Hearts And Coronets is a masterpiece of comedy thanks to his numerous roles in it.

One slight irritant (and it’s a bugbear of mine) was that, in line with British acting etiquette of the time, the dialogue is delivered verbatim. And while this means we don’t get all those annoying “you know”s and “I mean”s and “OK”s which now saturate scripted drama, it also means that the Brits were probably too polite to change Americanisms in Lucas’s script. Fortunately, Guinness manages to make words like “gotten” sound rather more like archaic British usage rather than the Grey Squirrel Kills Off Red Squirrel thing that permeates today, which goes to show how truthful his delivery makes the wording on the page.

continued…​

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Star Wars

continued
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Compared with the Brits I noticed how much more quickly the American actors spoke - to the point that I struggled to pick up the dialogue at times. This isn't necessarily a geographical thing. The onscreen American cast are primarily younger and less experienced than the British character actors. Carrie Fisher in particular surprised me with how youthful she sounded.

Mark Hamill has a touch of the California surfer to him at times, which might not scream “moisture farmer”, but who knows what a young moisture farmer on Tatooine even looks and acts like. Plus it all contributed to Luke’s young everyman quality. There’s something of the naïve innocent to him that stops the right side of whiny brat, but also the requisite determination. Based on this film, I wouldn’t say he’s a great actor, but I’d say he’s exactly the right actor for this role.

Harrison Ford is terrific. He’s an actor I’ve mostly watched in more recent films (Nineties onwards) and whom I find engaging and intense in all of them. I’d wondered how I’d experience him here, and I was pleasantly surprised at how gruff and unlikeable Han was allowed to be. I kept seeing Wolverine (his appearance here of course pre-dates the film version by over two decades, but comes a couple of years after the comic version was introduced, and around the time he was gaining huge popularity as a member of the “All New, All Different” X-Men team just introduced). Even here, it’s plain to see he’s a very good and very charismatic actor and it doesn’t hurt that he’s extremely handsome. Young me would probably have been crushing on nice, unthreatening, blonde Luke, but nowadays I’m Team Han all the way, similar to the evolution of my preferences between Jon and Ponch in “CHiPs”. But I digress. Long story short, I’m looking forward to seeing this anti-hero do his thing over the next couple of films.

All in all, Star Wars still doesn’t feel particularly meaningful after this rewatch. But, just as the overall film is far better than the first twenty minutes would have me think, I’m hopeful that the franchise overall will feel more meaningful than watching this single film in isolation. I’m certainly not going to bail out without watching the original trilogy, and I have particularly high hopes for The Empire Strikes Back. Let’s hope it lives up to the legend.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Star Wars

An observation about revisionism
​

Watching this film on Disney+, the big disappointment for me is that the only version available is the revisionist, airbrushed, CGI’d, re-titled version. I knew I was in trouble when the opening text described it as Episode IV: A New Hope.

As a purist, I’d rather see this film as it was originally seen. Clean it up and restore the film by all means. Tweak colours for consistency if you must (the Blu-ray restoration of Jaws is the benchmark of how it should be done with films of this era). But the idea of explicitly adding new elements and scenes and enhancing effects is an anathema to me.

Even not knowing the film at all well, there were numerous examples of special effects scenes very clearly having been freshened up with CGI, and this greatly diluted the experience for me, making me constantly question (and I mean in practically every scene) whether I was seeing a moment as originally shown or some revised crap.

Looking at the film’s Wiki page afterwards, it’s clear that the changes affected the story with the whole “Han Shot First” debacle. The most unforgivable change for me was the inclusion of a CGI Jabba The Hutt - a character originally first introduced in the third film (I didn’t know this when I watched, but the scenes still jumped out to me as feeling malapropos and artificial).

Sadly, this impacted my experience overall making it feel less authentic and far from ideal. I fear this will continue to be at the back of my mind as I continue watching. To say it’s disappointing that I won’t be watching something approximating the original Seventies and Eighties versions is an understatement.

 

[Jock Ewing Fan]

Star Wars

An observation about revisionism
​

Watching this film on Disney+, the big disappointment for me is that the only version available is the revisionist, airbrushed, CGI’d, re-titled version. I knew I was in trouble when the opening text described it as Episode IV: A New Hope.

As a purist, I’d rather see this film as it was originally seen. Clean it up and restore the film by all means. Tweak colours for consistency if you must (the Blu-ray restoration of Jaws is the benchmark of how it should be done with films of this era). But the idea of explicitly adding new elements and scenes and enhancing effects is an anathema to me.

Even not knowing the film at all well, there were numerous examples of special effects scenes very clearly having been freshened up with CGI, and this greatly diluted the experience for me, making me constantly question (and I mean in practically every scene) whether I was seeing a moment as originally shown or some revised crap.

Looking at the film’s Wiki page afterwards, it’s clear that the changes affected the story with the whole “Han Shot First” debacle. The most unforgivable change for me was the inclusion of a CGI Jabba The Hutt - a character originally first introduced in the third film (I didn’t know this when I watched, but the scene jumped out to me as feeling malapropos.

Sadly, this impacted my experience overall making it feel less authentic and far from ideal. I fear this will continue to be at the back of my mind as I continue watching. To say it’s disappointing that I won’t be watching something approximating the original Seventies and Eighties versions is an understatement.

the original Trilogy was iconic and well-made. The 3 prequels had its moments, but the Disney Trilogy seems unfocused and the characters were not written well

 

[Mel O'Drama]

the Disney Trilogy seems unfocused and the characters were not written well

Interesting. I'd got the impression they were well-received, but I hadn't really been following closely.

Thanks for the forewarning. I'll make sure to keep expectations at a reasonably realistic level when I get to these.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I have a false memory syndrome event of watching the original STAR WARS in 1977 and reading "Episode IV, A NEW HOPE" at the beginning of the crawl, and asking "Huh?" and my viewing partner explaining that she'd previously read that this was to be a trilogy of trilogies, and they were starting with the fourth chapter.

Now I'm told this couldn't have happened, because the "Episode IV, A NEW HOPE' thing was added years later.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Despite being into comics, Star Wars simply wasn’t my cup of tea

The merch that time is actually my main frame of reference and much of the iconography from the Star Wars series is in my psyche from that time and makes me nostalgic by osmosis.

It seems we've been in the same frame of mind therefore I applaud you for giving it a fresh, new chance to see what you like - or still don't like.
It's never bothered me that I wasn't into every hype or trend, however, being sort of a 1970s aficionado it's always annoyed me a little that I couldn't enjoy and wasn't interested in one of the most iconic pop culture things of that particular decade.
The STAR WARS title font alone makes me want to like it.

I'm really curious to see what you're going to make of it this time, perhaps it'll encourage me to do the same.

 

[Jock Ewing Fan]

Interesting. I'd got the impression they were well-received, but I hadn't really been following closely.

Thanks for the forewarning. I'll make sure to keep expectations at a reasonably realistic level when I get to these.

Well, I have a subjective point of view on certain things. I don't want to ruin it for you, maybe you will like it.
You seem like a nice person, so I will just say that I found the overall themes/directions of the Disney trilogy to be
mediocre, but others may enjoy it.

 

[Angela Channing]

I'm looking forward to reading your views on the Star Wars films. I watched the original Star Wars (now called Star Wars IV: A New Hope) back in the 1970s and I never really liked it, so such so that I didn't watch any of the other Star Wars films until around 5 years ago. I re-watched Star Wars IV: A New Hope purely because I wanted to see how they digitally enhanced it and if after all those years had past whether my (supposedly) more sophisticated tastes would make me more appreciative of the film. However, time didn't change my opinion of the film and if I'm totally honest I found the film quite boring at times. I do agree with this comment of yours though:

just as the overall film is far better than the first twenty minutes would have me think

The film does get better as it goes on and I would say that is also true for the films in the original trilogy when I went on to watch the other 2 films for the first time.

As a purist, I’d rather see this film as it was originally seen. Clean it up and restore the film by all means. Tweak colours for consistency if you must (the Blu-ray restoration of Jaws is the benchmark of how it should be done with films of this era). But the idea of explicitly adding new elements and scenes and enhancing effects is an anathema to me.

The digital enhancements didn't make a huge difference to the film for me but I think they were worthwhile as they brought the film to a new audience and re-introduced it to people who had seen it originally. George Lucas said they allowed him to make the film he originally wanted to make but the technology didn't exist at the time so in some respects the new "Star Wars IV: A New Hope" is the authentic version of the film but sadly the changes didn't make it any better.

While The Phantom Menace, Jar-Jar Binks and Darth Maul seemed to be on people’s lips for all the wrong reasons. I’m expecting the prequel films to be a bit of a struggle.

I've never gotten around to watching the prequel trilogy but the sequel trilogy (beginning with The Force Awakens) were my favourites of the franchise.

so I’m glad I persevered and didn’t bail to watch The Love Bug as I briefly considered doing.

Part of me is disappointed you didn't watch The Love Bug as the sequel Herbie Rides Again is the first film I can remember watching and I have an enduring affection for it.

 

[Crimson]

I have a false memory syndrome event of watching the original STAR WARS in 1977 and reading "Episode IV, A NEW HOPE" at the beginning of the crawl, and asking "Huh?" and my viewing partner explaining that she'd previously read that this was to be a trilogy of trilogies, and they were starting with the fourth chapter.

Your memory is only partly false. "Episode IV" was always there, intentionally giving the impression that this was the middle of an ongoing saga. Only "A NEW HOPE" was added later, to give some specificity between STAR WARS the movie and STAR WARS the franchise.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

I have a false memory syndrome event of watching the original STAR WARS in 1977 and reading "Episode IV, A NEW HOPE" at the beginning of the crawl, and asking "Huh?" and my viewing partner explaining that she'd previously read that this was to be a trilogy of trilogies, and they were starting with the fourth chapter.

Now I'm told this couldn't have happened, because the "Episode IV, A NEW HOPE' thing was added years later.

Reading up on it today on a certain wiki which has a whole page dedicated to changes in re-releases I was surprised how early the subtitle was added:

The first film was released in 1977 under the title Star Wars. The subtitle Episode IV – A New Hope was retroactively added to the opening crawl in a subsequent release. Lucasfilm dates the addition to the theatrical re-release on April 10, 1981. This change was made to bring the original film in line with the titling of its sequel, Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back.

Given the passage of time and how many people watched it I wouldn't be surprised if there was a whole Mandela Effect around it.

"Episode IV" was always there, intentionally giving the impression that was the middle of an ongoing saga. Only "THE NEW HOPE" was added later, to give some specificity between STAR WARS the movie and STAR WARS the franchise.

Now I'm even more confused.

But I did find this:

I'm really curious to see what you're going to make of it this time, perhaps it'll encourage me to do the same.

Fingers crossed, Willie. Now that a certain iconic pop culture piece from the Sixties has clicked with you, perhaps the same will happen with Star Wars.

I've actually never seen any of the films beyond the first so I'm hoping for good things.

Well, I have a subjective point of view on certain things. I don't want to ruin it for you, maybe you will like it.

Thanks. I'll keep an open mind, and I'll be interested to hear more details of your views on those films when I reach them.

I found the overall themes/directions of the Disney trilogy to be
mediocre, but others may enjoy it.

Absolutely. It would be a very boring world (and forum) if we all felt the same way about all these films and series.

I watched the original Star Wars (now called Star Wars IV: A New Hope) back in the 1970s and I never really liked it, so such so that I didn't watch any of the other Star Wars films until around 5 years ago.

Oh wow. It seems I'm five years behind you on all counts. I watched the first film in the early Eighties and the rest will be all new to me this year.

The film does get better as it goes on and I would say that is also true for the films in the original trilogy when I went on to watch the other 2 films for the first time.

That fills me with (A New) Hope.

George Lucas said they allowed him to make the film he originally wanted to make but the technology didn't exist at the time so in some respects the new "Star Wars IV: A New Hope" is the authentic version of the film

I do understand his reasoning, but I just really love products being of their time. Jaws (so often my point of reference since I know it so well) would be a much worse film if all the technology had worked for Spielberg, but he worked with it and not only is it far better than anyone involved could have thought, it's also completely authentic to the period. As technology's evolved, I'm sure he could have revisited it and given us more realistic looking shark or floating body parts but I'm glad he didn't.

I've never gotten around to watching the prequel trilogy but the sequel trilogy (beginning with The Force Awakens) were my favourites of the franchise.

Already at this point I'm glad I chose to watch in the order they were made rather than starting with the prequel series, but I'm glad the final film in the timeline is also the last one made.

Part of me is disappointed you didn't watch The Love Bug as the sequel Herbie Rides Again is the first film I can remember watching and I have an enduring affection for it.

Similarly, one of my earliest memories of visiting the cinema was going to see Herbie Goes To Monte Carlo.

I do hope to watch all the Herbie films in the next couple of months, and I'm looking forward to that.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Your memory is only partly false. "Episode IV" was always there, intentionally giving the impression that this was the middle of an ongoing saga. Only "A NEW HOPE" was added later, to give some specificity between STAR WARS the movie and STAR WARS the franchise.

But..... I.....I...... I think..... I.......

 

[supermanfan]

I love star wars and I can quote return of the Jedi! That is my favorite movie of the original trilogy

 

[Angela Channing]

I love star wars and I can quote return of the Jedi! That is my favorite movie of the original trilogy

I agree. Most people seem to think The Empire Strikes Back is the best of the original three but like you I also rate Return of The Jedi more highly.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

​

It’s forty two years to the week that Empire received its very first public screening at The Dominion Theatre on Tottenham Court Road (May, it seems, was a key month for vintage Star Wars films). It would be nice to say I was there. That I’d seen it over the summer, or on TV or home media in the years since. As it is, the film was barely a blip on my radar, despite being the hottest topic in the school playground with its beautiful iconography (and that gorgeous Roger Kastel poster artwork) appearing regularly on many of my school-friends’ polyester t-shirts and plastic lunchboxes.

Watching a hit film for the very first time all these years later there are outside influences that will colour how I view it. Importantly, there are the inevitable spoilers. Between conversations overheard, pop culture quiz answers and satirical references, I doubt there’s anyone who isn’t aware of the film’s big revelation. I’ve actually seen frame by frame reenactments of key Empire scenes in cartoons.

There’s also the film’s reputation as - depending on your source - the finest of the Star Wars series (though as this thread proves, not everyone feels that way); one of the top film sequel examples in existence; and one of the greatest films of all time (THE greatest, according to a 2015 Empire poll). Not that this film has a lot to live up to or anything.

While I try to keep an open mind, it’s fair to say that hopes were high for this film.

As with Star Wars, the opening act didn’t really do much for me. Once again, it felt quite aimless, but in a different kind of way. Star Wars had been deliberately aimless, with numerous scenes of the droids literally wandering around. Empire seems to attempt to fix that by going for action, action, action. But it felt like all action and no character. Just noisy scenes of people flying round, their shouting and John Williams’s bombastic score competing with each other and ultimately cancelling one another out. JW, by the way, is a composer I consider to be truly brilliant most of the time, but his scores need room to breathe. When it’s all-out action for scene after scene his music can sound terribly generic to my ears. He has some wonderful moments in this film… but they come later.

I mean, you know there’s too much action and too little character when the mind starts wandering and you find yourself thinking that C-3PO actually has quite a nice little bum.

Fortunately (for all of us) it got better.

continued…
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[Mel O'Drama]

The Empire Strikes Back

continued
​

The film wasted little time in bringing back the key players. Han, Luke, Leia, Threepeo, Artoo and Chewbacca were all there pretty much immediately. I was quite surprised how quickly we saw them all as I’d half expected to start over again with the characters having gone their separate ways and needing to reunite, but nope: it seems the film needed us to know they were all present and correct and all together right from the start.

Instead, their later separation became part of the plot. The choice to separate Luke and Artoo almost immediately felt quite unexpected, especially having Luke almost in a vacuum interacting with a robot and a puppet, but it really worked to help create a different tone, as well as allowing for some organic (Organac?) exploration of the sexual tension between Leia and Han which couldn’t have happened with Luke around.

Yoda was a character whose image is familiar to me. And aware I am of the backwards way he speaks. I fully expected to find this aspect a little trying and this concern was reinforced by his initial appearance in which he was a mischievous and hyperactive little nuisance. But as soon as we got back to his little home and I knew he was about to reveal himself to Luke, the character clicked with me. That Star Wars would enter Dark Crystal territory (before The Dark Crystal was even a thing), complete with cute puppet and Frank Oz doing the voice, had never occurred to me. I find it surprising, but pleasantly so. I’d have thought it might be jarring to watch a live actor interacting with a puppet, but these turned out to be some of my favourite scenes. I love how expressive the Yoda puppet was, and it could be viewed as influencing many more film puppets - from those in The Dark Crystal to E.T. to Gizmo the Mogwai - for the next half a decade.

It’s telling that these scenes I enjoyed so much were truly about character. Yoda himself was the obligatory special effect, but once he’s accepted as a reality (which is easily done) then it’s all about the dialogue, the message and the character arc for Luke.

Another pleasant surprise was seeing Obi Wan back. It probably needn’t have been so surprising to me since he’d already made a post-death audio appearance in the previous film, but for whatever reason (possibly fuelled by the widely-known problems he had with the film, it's "banal" dialogue and his association with it following its success) I had it in my head that Star Wars was Alec Guinness's one and only film in the franchise. He was a very welcome returnee.

There were more cast surprises: Billy Dee Williams has in a prominent role as Han’s frenemy of questionable morals who comes good in the end. And Darth Vader murders a series of terrified Admirals and crew who fail him*. One of the first to go is Michael Sheard, AKA Grange Hill’s terrifying Mr Bronson.

continued…
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* While it seems pretty apparent that Vader’s brutal, despotic regime is modelled on dictators like Hitler, or perhaps your archetypal Bond villain, his revolving door of wide-eyed assistants working in a climate of fear and harassment also drew parallels in my mind with one Alexis Colby Carrington, so I couldn’t help seeing the funny side of these scenes. I do hope this running gag continues into the third film.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

The Empire Strikes Back

continued​

While I’m not a fan of spoilt plots and knowing what’s going to happen in a film I’m watching for the first time, the silver lining is that I found my pulse speeding up with anticipation in the minutes leading up to the big reveal. The imagery of Luke and Darth’s lightsaber battle on the walkway is so iconic* that I felt quite excited at finally seeing it. By the time Luke was hanging on by his fingers with the infinity lights beneath him, I was actually thinking “this is it. This is it. Here it comes”.

And then it happened.

It was, I must admit, a bit of an anti-climax. Once it had happened, I realised it was nothing I didn’t know already, and seeing it didn’t actually rock my world, or even particularly change anything for me. Luke squealing “Nooooooo. It’s impaaaaaagggghhhsible”actually made me laugh inside a little bit because it reminded me of a cartoon I’d seen covering that scene (I’m thinking it was Family Guy) which, as it turned out, hadn’t exaggerated the performance at all.

The general consensus seems to be that Empire is a darker film than its predecessor, and I’d say this is the case overall. Hans’s carbon dunking and Vader taking off Luke’s hand are two key examples of this. As with the first, it’s not as dark as fantasy material that’s come since, and, since I’m concurrently watching the Netflix Marvel series which have some grim and extreme scenarios, Empire can’t help feeling lighter in comparison. But that’s fine. This film takes itself seriously, but not too seriously. Yes, I could do without R2-D2 wheeling about the place with his cartoony sound effects (R2’s beeping and Chewbacca with his constant whining are the two biggest irritants in the series for me), but in general the balance between light and dark is good. It also occurs to me that Luke Cage being dunked in a bath of acid (as watched a night or two ago) is arguably an evolution of Hans Solo’s carbonite treatment.

Incidentally, the carbonised Hans is another very familiar image to me. In the late Nineties, I remember an indie comic shop in my city had a life-size replica of Hans in his enormous carbon surround in their window for some years.

Anyway, Empire is done. Its soapy twists and triangles earning its space opera badges of honour. While the ending gives a little closure there are enough loose ends and little cliffhangers to entice me back, wanting to know what happens next. That’s the bonus of knowing the first is a hit and the second is going to be a hit, I suppose. The powers that be can confidently pave the way for the third knowing it will happen.

And I’m looking forward to experiencing the final part of the original trilogy very soon.





* I’m probably using the word “iconic” quite heavily during these reviews. It is an overused word in general, but when it comes to Star Wars it’s also the most appropriate. There’s a reason for its existence, and there’s simply no way around using it when it comes to the final act.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Peter Cushing was in this film. He’s as reliable as ever, delivering his lines with a classic RP - complete with tapped R-sound - that is possibly perceived by many as sinister, but which I find terribly (or should I say “teddibly” reassuring)

Just for the heck of it I said "teddibly reassuring" out loud and indeed, it sounds reassuringly sinister. I even scared myself a little.