STAR WARS: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (SPECIAL EDITION)
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1997 Scott Renshaw
Starring: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams; voices of Frank Oz, James Earl Jones and Anthony Daniels. Screenplay: Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan. Producer: Gary Kurtz. Director: Irvin Kirshner. MPAA Rating: PG (violence) Running Time: 125 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
If pressed, I think most aficionados of the STAR WARS trilogy would agree that THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK is the best of the three -- the best written, the best acted and the most skillfully constructed. However, it is not nearly as beloved as the original STAR WARS, and though the newly released THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK: SPECIAL EDITION is certain to be a success, it is unlikely to come close to inspiring the mania the return of STAR WARS did on January 31st. So why will the same person who tells you to your face that EMPIRE is the better film only see it once this time around after seeing STAR WARS two or three times? The answers to that question -- and there are several -- are in some ways specific to this film. In other ways, they explain a lot about what people go to the movies to see, what they go to see _again_, and why.
The story in the second installment begins an unspecified number of months after STAR WARS ends, with an Imperial attack on the new rebel base on the ice world of Hoth, then splits into two largely parallel story lines. In one, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) parts with the rebels to study with a gnome-like Jedi master named Yoda (performed by Frank Oz) on a swampy planet in the distant Dagobah system; the other follows Han Solo (Harrison Ford), Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) and C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) as they attempt to elude the Imperial ships pursuing them. The climax finds Luke dueling Darth Vader, Han facing capture by bounty hunters, and the entire cast grappling with unresolved issues as the credits roll.
What makes EMPIRE so extraordinary in retrospect is how many chances George Lucas and his new crew -- director Irvin Kirshner and screenwriters Lawrence Kasdan and Leigh Brackett -- took when they had everything to lose by doing so. No image in STAR WARS is as dark and creepy as Luke's dream vision of his own face behind Vader's mask, and Obi-Wan's vague homilies about the Force in the original become Yoda's extended lessons in an almost Zen philosophy in EMPIRE. Following a film which was the very definition of a crowd-pleaser, EMPIRE concluded with the good guys in disarray, one of them captured and another one crippled (emotionally, if not ultimately physically). Here was a blockbuster which had the audacity to mess with the most successful film formula anyone had yet discovered, a feature film which ended the way feature films just weren't supposed to end: with a cliff-hanger worthy of the old radio serials.
Those twists made THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK exciting and challenging in a way STAR WARS wasn't, but they also made it a less satisfying movie-going experience. STAR WARS ended with a victory for the heroes, a fanfare and a rousing ovation, allowing the audience to leave both entertained and with a basic sense of resolution. EMPIRE was not so generous. It took the simple good-vs.-evil universe of STAR WARS and introduced uncertainty; suddenly, our hero Luke was shown to have the capacity for becoming a villain, and evil was allowed to win victories over good, if only temporary ones. The audience for a story set in that kind of world is smaller than the audience for a story set in STAR WARS' morally bi-polar universe, and it's hard to imagine THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK would have been a success if it had been the first film to feature these same characters instead of STAR WARS. The pure throw-back adventure of STAR WARS was undemanding, but you were almost certain to leave the theater smiling, and ready to hop back on the ride again for yet another chance to come out smiling. Meanwhile, the very complexity which made THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK a richer film also made it a film less likely to inspire multiple visits to the theater. After all, how many times did viewers want to be reminded that it was going to be another three years before they found out if Darth Vader was really...you know?
Fortunately, the SPECIAL EDITION will inspire those who know STAR WARS line for line to take a closer look at THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, and it's not just what was there in 1980 which may impress them. There are fewer new touches than there were in the STAR WARS: SPECIAL EDITION, and those which are there -- a longer, more tense scene in which Luke escapes a Wampa on Hoth; enhanced footage of the arrival on Cloud City -- are both less obtrusive and more useful. It is the sound, however, which is most spectacular in this new incarnation, an awesome demonstration of the kind of experience even a "home theater" can never possibly duplicate. THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK deserves its second theatrical life every bit as much as STAR WARS, if not more, yet there were notably fewer people applauding at the end of EMPIRE. I'm not convinced that means the audience enjoyed it less; I do think it means they will see it less. The amazing thing is that, in a cinematic economy where an unhappy ending is the kiss of death, George Lucas dared to lure the STAR WARS audience into a darker world at all.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 dark Forces: 9.
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