Hype is an overused word in Hollywood but within the context of “Return of the Jedi”, it was entirely justified. For 3 whole years, planet Earth had been on tenterhooks, waiting to search out out what Luke Skywalker’s parentage meant for that galaxy far, far-off, and whether there was any way back for Han Solo after being become a novelty coffee table.
Within the wake of “The Empire Strikes Back”‘s famous cliffhangers, it’s no surprise that “Return of the Jedi” was a box office smash. But not everyone was pleased with what “Star Wars” creator George Lucas and his director, Richard Marquand, had delivered.
For some viewers “Jedi” was just the one with the teddy bears (sorry, Ewoks), a glorified toy advert with a saggy middle act and an excessive amount of sentimentality. It was the one where Han, “The Empire Strikes Back'”‘s MVP, spent much of the movie reduced to a mere bystander, where iconic bounty hunter Boba Fett went out in a blaze of embarrassment, and – in a barely plausible, out of nowhere twist – Leia turned out to be Luke’s twin sister. What are the possibilities?
All of those criticisms are justified. “Return of the Jedi” is undoubtedly the weakest of the unique trilogy, and for the primary 16 years of its life it was considered the worst “Star Wars” movie.
And yet these items are relative, because 40 years and eight movies later, there isn’t any query the sixth instalment of the Skywalker Saga is up there with the perfect Star Wars movies. On the very least, it beats the prequels, “Solo: A Star Wars Story” and the flicks’ current nadir, “The Rise of Skywalker”, hands down.
Getting “The Empire Strikes Back” to the screen had been a torturous process for George Lucas. Effectively the world’s biggest independent filmmaker, he was betting “every little thing I owned” on the movie being a success, and he got here perilously near running out of cash on several occasions. When “Empire” became a runaway success, nonetheless, all those concerns evaporated. That is clear from the ambition of “Return of the Jedi”, where every little thing is greater – often exhilaratingly so.
Luke Skywalker’s home planet, Tatooine, has been a mainstay of “Star Wars” because the original movie nevertheless it’s never been a more exciting place to go to than it’s here. Ruled by “vile gangster” Jabba the Hutt – himself a beautiful creation – this wretched hive and scum and villainy is a feast for the eyes, full of motion figure-ready alien races who’ve frequently cropped up across the franchise ever since.
This variety continues within the Rebel Alliance briefing ahead of the Death Star II assault, by which the old guard are joined by latest faces similar to Admiral Ackbar (a Mon Calamari), Nien Nunb (a Sullustan) and Orrimaarko (a Dressellian). Despite barely appearing on camera, the latter was also immortalized in plastic as “Prune Face” – his closest brush with stardom was arguably this “Robot Chicken” sketch.
The motion set-pieces also rank amongst the perfect in “Star Wars” history. The entire Jabba sequence is the perfect palate cleanser before the story returns to the hurly-burly of the Galactic Civil War, however the pivotal fight above the Sarlacc is the notable standout. A spectacularly chaotic scrap, it harks back to the journey serials that inspired “Star Wars” in the primary place. It’s still a shame what happened to Boba Fett, though.
The much-imitated Speeder Bike chase is an excellent excuse for Lucas to recall his youthful penchant for fast cars, while the space battles really are out of this world. Indeed, Lucas’s in-house effects team at Industrial Light & Magic excelled themselves a lot with their maelstrom of A-, B-, X- and Y-wings – not to say the brand new armored space station much more powerful than the primary dreaded Death Star – that it arguably stays the massive screen’s best ever example of model-based, pre-CG space battles.
The truth is, “Return of the Jedi” all the time looked so good that there wasn’t much Lucas could improve when he gave the film a digital makeover for 1997’s Special Edition and the 2004 DVD release. In comparison with “A Recent Hope”‘s augmented X-wings and “Empire”‘s subtle cosmetic touch-ups, the brand new song-and-dance number (complete with a tour around the most well liked victory parties within the galaxy) and the surprise cameo for the prequel model Anakin Skywalker, Hayden Christensen, felt like change for change’s sake.
With the thawed-out Han more of a bit-part player – he barely even gets to fly the Millennium Falcon – “Return of the Jedi”‘s dialogue lacks the snap of the more quotable “Empire”. Nonetheless, the studious Luke Skywalker finally gets to satisfy his destiny because the savior of the galaxy, and are available the ultimate act, his journey actually lives as much as the billing. That owes so much to Ian McDiarmid’s scenery-chewing performance because the trilogy’s antagonist-in-chief, the new-look Emperor. For his temporary appearance in “The Empire Strikes Back”, Palpatine was played by an unlikely chimera of actor Marjorie Eaton, the voice of Clive Revill and the eyes of a chimpanzee. After which who can forget the pivotal lightsaber duel on the Death Star.
Subsequent ‘saber battles can have been faster and more intricate, but few can compete with the emotional stakes of this battle for the souls of two generations of Skywalker. When Darth Vader eventually redeems himself by chucking his boss down a reactor shaft, it’s one of the vital powerful moments in the whole saga – that you simply’re saddened by the death of a personality who, just moments earlier, was the (second) baddest guy within the galaxy hints at more emotional depth than “Star Wars” is frequently credited with.
But beyond every little thing else there’s one thing that sets “Return of the Jedi” other than every other movie within the canon – its fully functioning ending.
Yes, the story has since been continued in “The Mandalorian” and the three sequel movies, but for 32 years, the triple whammy of Luke earning his Jedi stripes, the destruction of the Death Star and the death of Palpatine were a correct full stop. (“The Rise of Skywalker” tried to do the same job but – just like the movie as an entire – the ending was simply a rehash of past glories.)
“Return of the Jedi”‘s conclusion brought Luke Skywalker’s arc to a satisfying close, but – as subsequent movies and TV shows, not to say a long time’ value of non-canon books and comics, have proved – it also offered up possibilities. After “Return of the Jedi”, “Star Wars” could have gone anyway it desired to. But even when the franchise had left it there, it could still have stood up as outer space’s biggest happily (almost) ever after.
