If you want
someone to give you death stares, tell a die-hard Star Wars fan the original
trilogy is not perfect. I am however going to take a risk and write that if
there is one major flaw with Return of
the Jedi (1983) is a lack of imagination when it comes to the central plot.
After the good guys blow up the Death Star in the first movie, the bad guys are
almost done building a brand new one, which of course needs to be destroyed
again in more or less the same way. Richard Marquand may be directing this time,
but it was still George Lucas writing. Plot hole aside, as a kid you can’t help
but have fun as the good guys join forces with a tribe of living teddy bears to
get the job done.
Like many people
in their early 30s, I was introduced to the first Star Wars trilogy by my
parents who had recorded the movies, commercials included, when they were
showing one night on TV. Upon first viewing, a few things stick out in the mind
of a young boy watching Return of the
Jedi such as: Jaba the Hut is really ugly, those Ewoks are really cute, and
hello, Princess Leia in a metal bikini. I recently saw a video in which the
late great Carrie Fisher talked about the impact that particular costume had on
many young men’s puberty. She will be missed.
Another way which
in this episode calls back to the very first movie is by going back to a desert
setting to stage a rescue Han Solo (Harrison Ford) from intergalactic mobster
and giant slug Jabba the Hut. It is a slow burn until the big fights since the
main characters one by one infiltrate Jabba’s castle under different disguises
in order to spring into action at the right moment. When that moment indeed
comes it is above a giant pit in the desert that is actually the mouth of a
monster that digests you for thousands of years. It’s a great fight sequence
that starts off great with Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) leaping into action to
grab his lightsaber in mid-air, and is not limited to the boys since inside
Jabba’s ship Princess Leia is busy strangling the ugly slug that put her in
that metal bikini.
Once the desert
showdown is over, it is back to business as the Rebel Alliance gets their ships
together to once again blow up the Death Star. However there is time for Luke
to take a detour to visit his dying mentor Yoda and come to grips with some
serious revelations from the previous film. Yes, big bad Darth Vader is his
father and he might tempted to join him on the dark side, but Luke also
realises Leia is his sister. Wait a minute; didn’t they kiss at the beginning
of the second movie? Oops!
The movie wisely
never addresses this little brush with incest and then moves the action to the
forest of Endor where the Empire is controlling a shield that protects the
under-construction Death Star. The plan is to blow up the shield, open the way
for the rebel ships to blow up the big space weapon, and hopefully kill the
evil emperor (Ian McDiarmid) at the same time. What the rebels don’t know is
the emperor knows they are coming, leading to the now famous and somewhat on
the nose line: “It’s a trap!”
As with most
films in the franchise so far, the highlights are the numerous fight scenes
taking place in the desert, the forest, and in space. The forest fights are
especially fun, such as when the furry Ewoks find creative ways to defeat the
Empire’s walking tanks (All Terrain Scout Transports for you perfectionists),
which resemble metal chickens. The problem with giving your tanks legs as it
turns out is that they can trip on those legs.
The main event is
a more personal fight as father and son have the sword fight of their lives,
although what they are really fighting for is each other’s soul. The emotional
stakes and the outcome of that duel make for a fitting conclusion for one of
the biggest trilogies of cinema history. That is to say, until Disney decided
to restart the franchise decades later, have the remnants of the Empire build
yet another WMD in space, and continue the Skywalker family drama. Still, as an
end to this particular trilogy Return of
the Jedi made me want to watch it over and over again on that VHS tape.
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