I don’t know if there’s some kind of cosmic significance to Irvin Kershner passing away at the age of 87 the days after I chose The Empire Strikes Back as my Vault pick, but I do know that this little write-up I was going to do about the similar elements between The Deathly Hallows and Empire now has the capacity to be so much more significant.
As I was saying, as the penultimate film of a popular movie franchise with a downer ending featuring a young wizard raised by his aunt and uncle doing battle against the forces of darkness with the help of his magic wand, Empire and Hallows seem to have dipped into the same magic formula for greatness, although meeting with differing degrees of success. Empire was surely ahead of its time when it was released 30 years ago, while Hallows was likely a little bit behind, adapted from a novel released in 2007. Well, at least Voldemort doesn’t turn out to be Harry’s father… or does he?
The Empire Strikes Back certainly maintains the richest emotional landscape of the entire franchise, with a simmering romance, some family drama, and edge of your seat action, and the stewardship of all that human drama can be credited to Kershner…
In terms of sequels that improved on the quality of their predecessors, The Empire Strikes Back can regularly found on top 5 lists, and much of the credit for that can be laid at the feet of George Lucas for doing the right thing and handing the reins to Irvin Kershner, one of his old film professors. Can you imagine if Lucas had been left in charge of Empire? It would have been wall-to-wall ewoks, a dancing Boba Fett and who knows who would have turned out to be Luke’s father. Lando Calrisian?
The Empire Strikes Back certainly maintains the richest emotional landscape of the entire franchise, with a simmering romance, some family drama, and edge of your seat action (the asteroid scene remains my favourite chase of all time), and the stewardship of all that human drama can be credited to Kershner, the director whom the crew from the first 3 Star Wars films said was their favourite to work with. He was never able to match the success of Empire, but I actually liked Robocop 2, even if I prefer to forget ever seeing Never Say Never Again.
For the true sci-fi fans out there it might be hard to fathom not having seen this movie, but 30 years after its release, many potential fans have fallen through the cracks. That’s why it’s so important for those “in the know” to keep the fires burning for a film that told a science fiction story on such an epic scale that it encouraged future writers to think big, cemented Harrison Ford as a leading man to be reckoned with, and proved to the world that the words “Muppet” and “Blockbuster” can be uttered in the same sentence. A remarkable achievement, and a film just begging to be enjoyed by a whole new generation of fanboys and fangirls.
My brothers are big SW fans and this was their faves of the franchise I believe. Interesting that you just featured this movie and then Mr. Kershner passed away. I kinda felt weird too the fact that I just put the Airplane! trailer on Thanksgiving eve and Leslie Nielsen died a few days later
So sorry to see Leslie go. I wouldn’t pretend to be a big fan of his, having never watched any of the Naked Gun movies, but I still feel a profound loss at his passing.
I feel blessed to have actually watched and gotten into the original versions of all three of the original series. I’m actually probably young enough to where I would have only seen the Lucas-fucked versions and gotten into the prequels instead. Luckily, my parents were fans of good cinema and bought the older VHS’s.
And yes, Empire is without a doubt the best.
Welcome to the Film Cynics, Mark!
If you’re as young as I think you are, you are definitely in the minority for those who know about all the stupid permutations of these films and which ones to avoid. It’s funny how long the drought was for these films existing in the public eye – how the only way to Star Wars it up was the action figures or comic books. These days it’s all over the place – and sadly much of it is inferior quality.
There can be only one SW film (beyond the original of course)…and that one is Empire:)
A masterpiece in all respects, this was spared the stooopid retooling from the Lucas bunch save for one element which actually worked in the film’s favor. Retouching this installment, he succeeded in making Bespin feel larger because of the CG windows. That was pretty cool actually.
Plus a film featuring a believable muppet can only stand up this long if the story was as great as it is (although the Family Guy spoof pointed out some glaring plot holes):P
Too true! And you know what? Having plot holes pointed out 30 years later (and having some of them kind of take me off guard) illustrates that while the script might have been a little light – the story and execution were so effective that they were able to distract you from that kind of stuff. Confession: While I acknowledge this one as the masterpiece of the series, I still prefer watching Return of the Jedi: Rancor, Sarlaac, Jabba, Emperor, speeder bikes, and Jedi Luke is way less annoying that Padawan Luke.
Lucas definitely did the right thing handing the director’s chair to someone more accomplished. If only he’d done the same thing with the prequels! Problem is, Lucas can never leave anything alone. There’s still time for a CGI Dancing Boba Fett Special Edition in 3D.
Welcome to the Film Cynics, Richard!
Yeah, I think that Lucas’ purpose as a filmmaker is different from his contemporaries – or perhaps its the tools he uses to tell a story – relying heavily on special effects to tease out what are essentially simple ideas. It worked exceptionally well for back in the 70s when he was making A New Hope, breaking new ground in FX work. But as time went by, he never got it out of his system to use the most cutting edge stuff to tell his stories. I don’t think he ever got that it was kids using their imaginations to fill in some of the gaps that made those movies so iconic.