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 he first thing you notice about "The Empire
Strikes Back" is just how sophisticated everything is. From the
direction right down to the smallest props, "Empire" marks a giant
leap in narrative as well as technology. No surprise, considering the
mammoth success of 1977's "Star
Wars". After that film, Lucas could have made a $100 million dollar
movie about his grocery list. With money to burn, "Empire"
surpasses its predecessor by leaps and bounds.
Having survived their initial
encounter with Darth Vader and the Empire, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Han
Solo (Harrison Ford), and Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) are knee deep in the
Rebellion. After being chased by the Empire's forces to the ice planet Hoth,
the Rebels find their isolated hideout not so isolated after all, as the
Empire comes knocking. Leading the search is Vader himself, who seems to
have developed an obsession with finding Luke, not to mention an impatience
that keeps getting his officers killed. After a battle on the planet Hoth,
Han Solo and Leia make their escape on the Millennium Falcon with Imperial
ships in hot pursuit. Meanwhile, Luke has gone to Dagobah, a swamp planet,
where he meets Yoda (voiced by future director Frank Oz ("The
Score")), a deceptively powerful Jedi Master.
Technically speaking, "Empire" represents a
major advancement in visual moviemaking. Coming out just 3 years after
"Star Wars", Lucas
and company have outdone themselves on every level. The stop-motion
animation is much more convincing, and the lightsabers actually look like
fearsome weapons of personal destruction. I dare say that you could show
the original "Empire" in 2004 and cinemagoers would be
hardpressed to tell it was made 24 years ago. It's that good.
If the technology has surpassed the original, the
addition of Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan to the writing crew and
Irvin Kershner behind the camera marks two of the best decisions Lucas
ever made. Aside from "Empire's" obvious darker theme, you'll
notice the change that comes with a new director in other, subtler ways.
The hallways are darker, shadows cover more of the character's faces, and
the action is dead serious. The gloomy atmosphere that pervades the film
matches the mood of a Rebellion that's on its last legs. The scenes on
Hoth, in particular, make for excellent gritty adventures.
Kasdan and Brackett's script, working off Lucas'
ideas, gives maturity to "Empire", something that was sorely
lacking in "Star Wars". The inter-personal conflict between the
characters are more convincing this time around for the simple reason that
the characters aren't given hokey lines to say. The image of Luke as a
farm boy is gone, replaced by a harden soldier who is beginning to become
aware of his special place in the universe. Han Solo, though still
roguish, has begun to realize there's more to life or than just rewards.
Even when he decides to leave the Rebellion, he does so reluctantly.
Lucas must have also let Brackett and Kasdan in on
the revelation that Luke and Leia are brother and sister, because
"Empire" has successfully moved the unaware siblings'
relationship away from romance to sibling affection. Of course it helps
that Han Solo and Leia have essentially become bickering lovers. By the
end of the film, all traces of the awkward realization (by the audience in
hindsight) that Luke was chasing his own sister have been excised. The
physical separation of the three main characters for half of the film also
helps to cement the separation between Luke and Leia in the viewer's mind.
More than "Star Wars", "Empire"
benefits from the Special Edition treatment. There are a lot of added
scenes, including an actual appearance by the ice beast that ambushed Luke
at the beginning of the film. The furry white beast is seen devouring
what's left of Luke's Tom-tom as Luke hangs from the ice cave. Also, in
our first view of the Emperor (via hologram) the dialogue between the
shrouded villain and Darth Vader has been altered. The Emperor now
explicitly mentions that Luke is the son of an "Anakin
Skywalker", and also mentions that it was Luke who "destroyed
the Death Star".
The rest of the Special Edition additions are
aesthetic only. There are the usual cluttering of scenes with background
actors and creature CGI. Of particular note are the scenes in and around
the Cloud City, where whole walls were removed and CGI "skyline"
inserted. But as was the case with "Star Wars", and will
probably be the case with "Return of the Jedi", the added scenes
are nothing you could live without. As such, I suppose they really don't
harm the film any, except to remove the "purity" of the original
version -- that is, if one cared about such things.
It's no accident that "The Empire Strikes
Back" is considered the best film in the trilogy, far superior to the
rest in the series (including the CGI disasters "The
Phantom Menace" and "Attack
of the Clones") in every way. The reason the film is so perfect
in tone and writing is because Lucas didn't write and direct. We
all know Lucas is a genius; the man has enough imagination to fill up a
city block. But let's face it, as a writer and a director, he has a lot of
growing up to do. Watching the maturity evident in "Empire" --
and the lack thereof in "Star Wars" -- proves that.
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