To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the theatrical release of The Empire Strikes Back (my favorite of all the Star Wars films), I asked my friend Tony to say a few words about his experience seeing the film…
Forty years ago this week, The Empire Strikes Back–the long-awaited sequel to Star Wars–finally opened to almost universal acclaim from critics and fans alike…well, almost universal acclaim. For as big a Star Wars fan as I was—a follow-up to My Favorite Movie Of All Time was something I thought about every hour on the hour during the three year wait between movies–my initial reaction to Empire was No Thank You, I’ll Pass…I was actually quite devastated.
Now in the interest of full disclosure I knew everything that was going to happen in The Empire Strikes Back a full month before it opened, thanks to my questionable decision to read the film’s novelization, which someway, somehow got released to bookstores early. Reading the book was not a happy experience: the tone was all wrong, this was much darker, scarier—-where was the fun, the Big Victory at the end? Why was this Yoda creature berating poor Luke Skywalker? And Darth Vader’s Big Secret? Completely, totally unacceptable—-I vaguely remember crying while brushing my teeth the night I finished the novel, thinking I waited three years just to wait ANOTHER three years to see if Han Solo—everybody’s favorite Star Wars character–would survive his Carbonite prison. Like I said, totally unacceptable.
Those feelings definitely stayed with me a month later on Empire‘s opening day…But then it was time to see it a second time, approximately 20 whole minutes after seeing it for the first time. Since the Norridge Theatre wasn’t asking us to leave, my group of Weber High School pals stayed put and experienced Empire again—and it was then that the film started to work its way into my skull. The sheer spectacle of the film was overwhelming: the massive land battle on the ice planet Hoth with the ragtag Rebels taking on the mighty Imperial AT-AT Walkers, all happening within the first half-hour of the movie; the chase with the Millennium Falcon through the asteroid field; the epic light saber duel between Luke and Darth Vader on the Cloud City of Bespin; and of course the Jedi Master Yoda, who 40 years ago seemed like the ultimate risk: if audiences didn’t accept this Muppet-like creature who sounded strangely like Miss Piggy, the whole film would have collapsed under its own weight. But Star Wars guru George Lucas and Empire director Irvin Kershner rolled the dice, and today Yoda is a cornerstone of the Star Wars Universe.
If The Empire Strikes Back was truly going to work, however, it had to rely on more than just spectacle. It took me a moment to come on board, but ultimately it is the joy of reuniting with our favorite characters from Star Wars but seeing them in new, unpredictable, sometimes scary situations that make the film so special. And then there are those moments big and small: the appearance of the bounty hunters, including the reptile-like Bossk, on screen for all of 20 seconds but still one of my favorite Kenner action figures…”Wars Not Make One Great”….Darth Vader in full-evil mode, presiding over the massive Carbon Freeze Chamber set…”I Am Your Father”…the Tauntauns, Dagobah, and of course Lando Calrissian—not to mention Lando’s mysterious robot aide Lobot, who has The Greatest Eye Shift in the history of cinema—-all this punctuated by one of composer John Williams’ greatest, most lyrical scores.
It was all too much for this Star Wars fan to resist…and that I think is the true genius of The Empire Strikes Back: George Lucas and Irvin Kershner gave me something I didn’t think I wanted—until they convinced me it’s exactly what I wanted with all their imaginative, risky, typical-sequel-mold-breaking choices. Even with our heroes all facing an uncertain future, waiting another three years suddenly didn’t seem like a bad proposition, it actually fired the imagination…. plus what else was I going to obsess over every hour on the hour?
So, 40 years after its debut, is The Empire Strikes Back the greatest movie sequel ever? Why yes, of course it is—was there ever any doubt?
Tony Letrich
Park Ridge Public Library
May 2020
Some of Tony’s Star Wars collection on display at the Park Ridge Public Library, December 2019.
