Certification. U
Running Time. 2 hours 4 mins
Director. Irvin Kershner
Cast. Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Billy Dee Williams.
Rating. 87%
With a more developed storyline and a greater definition of characters, many believe The Empire Strikes Back to be a superior film to Star Wars. Director Irvin Kershner certainly invested more time in shaping characters than ever interested George Lucas. As a result, there is an extra depth to The Empire Strikes Back.
However, the freshness of Star Wars still pips The Empire Strikes Back for me. If Star Wars was made as if there would never be another, The Empire Strikes Back was unquestionably made with the next instalment in mind. Indeed, The Empire Strikes Back was heralded as the film that brought the cliffhanger back to the big screen.
The film presented Kershner with a significant challenge as the narrative has ostensibly no beginning and no end. Instead, there is an assumption that the audience will reconnect with the characters and remember the events from Star Wars, and be comfortable with no definitive resolution at the climax of The Empire Strikes Back. At the time, a significant gamble. The audience in 1980 was not au fait with the concept of a franchise.
There is a darker plot in The Empire Strikes Back and it's clearly Darth Vader's strongest film. He's terrifying and has garnered a menacing reputation amongst subordinates, mainly by killing off underperforming lieutenants left, right and centre. In The Empire Strikes Back we also learn Darth Vader was himself a Jedi, a padawan to Obi Wan Kenobi, before being seduced by the dark side of The Force. The Empire Strikes Back best showcases Darth Vader as a character driven by obsession, but equally allows the audience to first glimpse vulnerability, suffering and pain.
The relentless pursuit across the galaxy in The Empire Strikes Back allows George Lucas the opportunity to begin the fascination with creating other worlds, from the ice planet of Hoth to the stylish and sleek Cloud City on the planet of Bespin. However, I feel The Empire Strikes Back loses a bit of momentum when Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) journeys to the Dagobah system to search out Yoda.
The climactic light saber duel between Luke and Darth Vader is perhaps the most iconic set piece of the entire saga. In a film that bathes in metaphors, the final confrontation is like an operatic depiction of hell, as Darth Vader descends a set of sulphuric orange stairs to a lower level.
After The Empire Strikes Back the Star Wars saga would surrender to the overly-sentimental Return of the Jedi, and never quite regain the quality of the first two films. By the time the final three instalments arrived on our screens, the baggage of the ill-fated prequels was too much for many to forgive.
Success will always breed imitation, and those films that followed only served to remind audiences just how good Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back were. Whilst I believe that The Empire Strikes Back isn’t the best film in the Star Wars collection, I'd argue that The Empire Strikes Back is the best made. This was the film when everyone, in front of and behind the camera, were on point.
Sadly, The Empire Strikes Back heralds a high-point in a much-loved series that would never be as good again.
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