III: If at First You, um, Succeed, Try, Try Again
Star Wars Episode VI: The Return of the Jedi
As I noted or at least alluded to earlier, there’s one serious problem I have with what was, at the time, the final movie, and which, even now, with six others in the can, still stands as the end point and conclusion of the entire, now fifty-year story. The problem is that it’s almost unnecessary. Return of the Jedi is indeed a return, in so many ways. It’s the return of the bloody Death Star (didn’t we blow that thing up already?), the return of Darth Vader, last seen watching Luke fall to apparently his death, minus one hand, and no doubt thinking “****ing ungrateful kid! I offer him the galaxy and what do I get?” and even the return of the bloody victory parade and awards ceremony! It’s really hard not to see it as being a copied, slightly tweaked (and I mean slightly) version of the first movie, and to be fair, after waiting six years for the “final part”, I think we had a right to expect something better than a rehash of the first one. But that’s what we got.
This would, of course, be the final movie to feature the full original cast. To my knowledge, the only one to go on and have a part in the later movies would be Han Solo (I think played by Harrison Ford, but we’ll see; I haven’t even seen the “third” prequel movies once) with our hero Luke Skywalker, his sister, the two droids and indeed Darth Vader (as we knew him) all written out. This is of course due to the fact that Lucas goes back in time, so if the first trilogy was set “a long time ago” then the other six take place in a time even further back, all of which we’ll come to. But the point I’m making here is that the characters we had grown up on and come to love and even identify with (yes, even you, Vader, one of the truly great evil characters of science fiction, or indeed of any drama) bow out in The Return of the Jedi, and for me, they kind of make a bit of a balls of it.
Not that that’s their fault, neither actors nor characters. That’s all down to George, and why he couldn’t have made the effort to end the series better is a question I guess we’ll never have the answer to. My own belief is that, having scored big with the first two movies, he sort of took his foot off the pedal and cruised through to the end with a final movie that, in my opinion anyway, far from deserves its reputation and disappointed me as a conclusion to the story.
But before I get too down on this movie (really, Trollheart?) let’s be fair here: there is a lot to love about it. The daring rescue of Han from Jabba the Hut - the appearance of, and rather quick disappearance from existence of said Hut, who up to now has just been mentioned as a kind of shadowy underworld crime boss figure (given his size it’s quite a considerable shadow he casts, too!), Luke’s final face-off with his father and the surprising turnaround which almost saves the soul of Anakin Skywalker (oh come on now! You already know: how is that a spoiler?) and does for the Emperor, the death of Yoda (with much cheering, at least from me) and the reappearance, if only as a ghost, of Obi-Wan, to say nothing of confirmation of the relationship not only between Luke and Darth Vader but between him and Leia, and of course the return of everyone’s cocky hero, Han Solo. Oh, and Chewbacca is in there too somewhere, but who cares?
It would be grossly unfair to say the movie is a copy of the first one (hey wait a minute, TH! That’s literally what you said a moment ago! - don’t you have somewhere else to be, pal?) though it does reuse and recycle a lot of plot elements; after all, it would not get away with just being a clone (sorry) now would it? But I just wish there had been, for instance, a new threat rather than the tired old Death Star being hauled out of retirement and, rather like the bowl of petunias in Douglas Adams’ The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy groaning, “Not again!” or even, hell, a different end scene! And don’t even get me started on ****ing Ewoks, the chilling first tendrils of merchandising directed at the really young market touching the franchise, fingers which would soon be all over the next movies, with characters that could only be explained by saying they had been created in order to sell toys, and not the other way around.
Let’s also nod to the brothers of the galaxy while we’re at it. Two of them. Two. Or, if you only count the first three movies, one. One. A single black man. Talk about your Token Black, huh? One thing Lucas certainly did not have a handle on, at least in the 1980s, was the idea of inclusion, affirmative action, or just the simple premise that the galaxy would not be run, exclusively populated and staffed by white people! We’ve already noted his male-dominated universe, but it seems white male privilege is at a premium, or was, a long time ago and far, far away. I don’t know if this led to any sort of boycott of, or disinterest in the movies by an African-American audience. I guess probably not. Our soul brothers and sisters were already used to being overlooked at this point, unless for comedy effect or in the case of giants such as Poitier, Pryor or James Earl Jones, chosen simply due to the weight of their fame, and luckily later in the 1980s and further on we would get bigger stars such as Washington, Smith and Elba coming up, as well as - finally - some female ones, but in the bleak early eighties there wasn’t much room for - some would say call for - black actors, and whether this figured into Lucas’s idea when casting the first trilogy or whether it simply didn’t cross his mind that there would be “black people in space”, all three - indeed, all six that I’ve seen - movies suffer very heavily from a white imbalance.
I suppose you can give this film some small credit for having a few more women in it, though in fairness we’re talking about exotic dances and slaves/hookers here, so not exactly breaking the glass ceiling and not quite the strong intelligent type of woman, in fact really, featuring the kind of women we get to see fawning over, performing and dancing for a big fat sweating mound of blubbery flesh is pretty much only reinforcing the stereotype of female character that even by the late 1970s was beginning to be cliched and phased out in favour of stronger, more serious ones.
[img]https://images.bauerhosting.com/legacy/empire-
More, I guess, on that later, but for now let’s also look at the somewhat unsung heroes of the first three movies, the droids. Of course, you can’t have an ancestor if you’re a walking hunk of metal, but it’s kind of sad to see there was no room for C3Po and his beeping friend in the prequel movies. After all, they could have been built decades, even centuries ago (is there such a thing as planned obsolescence in Lucas’s world? How long is the warranty on a translator droid anyway?) so it might have been a nice link had they been in the other movies. Hey, maybe they are: as I say, I’ve seen - suffered through, let’s be honest here - the first, or rather, second three (parts I - III) only the once (and never had the desire to repeat the experience) and the final three I have not seen at all, so perhaps, as usual, I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about. Might be as well to hold onto that thought till I at least re-watch the second three and get my first taste of the third.
I hope they are in at least some of them though, because since droids don’t really age (remember Marvin the Paranoid Android? “The first ten thousand years was the worst. And the second. The third ten thousand years I didn’t enjoy at all. After that, I went into something of a decline.” ) there’s scope for them to have been in the service of, oh, maybe Obi-Wan Kenobi or even a young Anakin Skywalker at some point. Would they, then, remember their old master when they were sold to his son, I wonder? Might be awkward. Oh yes, sir! You’re the one whose father became the Dark Lord Vader, and is a Master of the Sith. Sorry, sir: have I said something wrong?
Okay but seriously, is this not taking it a little far? The opening scene is almost identical to that of (sigh, all right then if you insist) A New Hope. We see the by-now-familiar words scroll up in yellow letters, then the camera angles downward, this time to the still-under-construction Death Star II: The Next Generation, and then that star destroyer does its pass over the screen. Admittedly, this time it’s not chasing a rebel ship but dropping off Lord Vader for some much needed r&R (no, not rock and roll - rest and recuperation) or at best a surprise inspection of the new deadly battle station. Anyway, as I may have mentioned, ROTJ becomes the first science fiction movie, possibly even the first movie of any kind to follow directly on from its previous incarnation, becoming in effect part two of a two-part movie. In many ways similar to the original four-movie arc that wound through the second, third and fourth Star Trek movies, ROTJ and TESB can almost be viewed as one long film, as to some extent can ANH, but as I already noted, that can be viewed as a standalone movie, whereas these two very much depend on each other.
The rescue of Han Solo is handled well, and it’s good to see Luke has really been practicing those Jedi moves, though again Chewbacca is there pretty much as bait, while Leia forms a sort of bait herself, enabling her brother to come in and rescue them all. I have to wonder (and I cant’ remember; I’m watching it as I write) if the “rescue” was all planned to fall apart so that Luke could get into Jabba’s palace? I mean, if not, it was a pretty poor one, wasn’t it? How did they think they would get away with it? Yeah, has to have been a kind of false flag operation to open the door to the Skywalker kid, no other explanation. Man, I hated that little alien dog thing Jabba had, the one that kept laughing like a hyena. Hey! The big monster in the pit is called a rancor! No, I’m going to do it, just watch me - so if he’s out one day, is the cave without rancor? Sorry, sorry. I do think the idea of one of Jabba’s henchmen crying over the death of his pet is a bit silly. I mean, humanise monsters all you want, but what’s wrong with a dog, cat or a budgie?
There is a touching scene when Solo and Chewbacca are reunited, though I’d have to say the way the Wookie paws him it looks more like he considers Han to be his pet than his friend. Here’s a point though: if Luke is such a powerful Jedi Knight, why did he have to hurl a rock at the control to close down the big portcullis on the rancor? Why couldn’t he just have used - oh, what is it again? That force that binds all living - oh yeah: the Force. Why couldn’t he just have willed it closed? Some Jedi master. I will say, it’s good to see Tattooine again, and those Banthas. Haven’t seen any Sandpeople yet. Hey at least Leia gets to act out the fantasy of every poor girl enslaved and/or abused by a scumbag. Choke on that, pal!
Kind of hard to imagine though that Luke had, as he says “taken care of everything”. How could he know exactly how things would turn out? Does the Force allow you to see the future? And what’s with the Sallac? Luke lived on this planet and never mentioned a huge alien venus flytrap thing that lives in the desert! Look, I’m sorry: I know it’s meant to be moving, but the death of Yoda does nothing for me. Never liked him, never will. Hey, is this the first appearance of the emperor? I think it is. So now I guess that thing in the cave, where Luke was fighting himself, makes some sense: he has to face his father, as well as the dark side of him, in a battle that will decide once and for all yadda yadda yadda right I get it now. And they even recreate the swinging-across-on-a-rope scene from the first movie. Sigh.
Oh look! Another woman! And this time she’s not dancing around in a skimpy costume. Well, I guess they might frown on that sort of thing over at Rebel HQ. Yeah, for once - and perhaps the only time so far, with the exception of one princess who’s lost her planet - it’s a woman in charge. She’s telling the boys what to do. Ah but she doesn’t last long. I think this may in fact be her only scene. Oh, and if you’re going up against the might of the Imperial fleet, it’s always been my strategy to follow a fish. Step forward, Admiral “It’s a trap!” Ackbar. Can I get an Allah stuck onto the front of that? No? All right then: just an idea.
Here’s a question though: last time we saw them, Lando Calrissian had sold out Han Solo in Cloud City to Jabba. Now, without, so far as I can see, much of an explanation, they’re the best of pals again. As they used to say in the seventies probably, what gives, daddy-o? Speaking of that, what’s with Vader suddenly going all medieval? “What is thy bidding O Master?” Huh? Surprised Palpatine doesn’t turn around and say “what the f**k you talking like an extra out of Game of Thrones for? Not that I would know what that is, as it hasn’t yet been televised, but seriously dude, what the f**k?” Think Lucas got a little carried away there!
The landspeeder/hover bike thingy chase through the forest is pretty cool (though you’d seriously have to ask yourself where Leia learned to ride like that; surely her daddy the king of Alderaan wouldn’t have allowed his precious little girl to have one of those dangerous things?) but you can again see the idea of marketing this to the video game market. This, again, something new: Star Wars was probably the first movie, never mind science fiction one, to spawn a whole slew of merchandise beyond the standard lunch boxes, posters, figurines and comics. I’d be willing to bet my completely inconsiderable salary that this was the first time a computer or video game was derived from a movie. Now, it’s common practice, but back in the seventies and eighties, not so much. Mind you, that might have been because there were still hardly any personal computers, but even in video arcades you had the standard Space Invaders, Frogger and Pac-Man, but I doubt there was one game based on any movie before this franchise came along.
Of course, after all that fast-paced excitement there had to be a comedown, and it arrives in the form of the thrice-damned Ewoks, which for me means that halfway through the movie it’s time to go to the lobby unless you fancy watching ****ing teddy bears down in the woods today (and are you gonna get a big surprise!). Clearly put in not only for the kids but to test the characters out for their own (sigh) short-lived (hooray) series of mini-movies, you’d also have to say that they’re a pretty racist creation. I mean, does nobody draw a parallel between those Ewoks (all dark-skinned, you’ll notice) carrying their captives on poles to their native village? Really? Nobody? Clear as day to me. Oh, and they just happen to elect the big golden robot (a figure of white authoritarianism if there ever was one) as their, um, god. Right.
I see Chewie proves his worth again by getting them all trapped in a net because he’s, as Han says, thinking with his stomach. I like it when Luke says “Han, can you reach my lightsaber?” I keep hearing “Uh, Han? That’s not my lightsaber!” Time for Luke and Leia to share an awkward moment when he tells her who she is, and more to the point, what her relationship to him is. Come to think of it, how did she become a princess of Alderaan? Was she fostered out? Who ever heard of a foster princess? Aren’t they usually all anal about bloodlines and lines of succession? And is Leia really going to be the first female Jedi? Did that storyline ever go anywhere?
Well, to be fair, Leia does have a lot more to do in this last movie than she did almost in the other two combined. Once she gets out of those chains of course. Bit more of an action heroine this time around. It’s interesting how Luke approaches the emperor in black, just like his father. And indeed Palpatine himself. It might have been too much of a cliche for him to have been in white, but is it a case of his being susceptible to the Dark Side if he doesn’t watch it, that he’s not such a goody two-shoes? Okay, so Chewie is some help after all, commandeering the walker, give him that. Nice to see a reversal too of the last words Han and Leia originally spoke, with him saying “I love you” and she replying “I know.” A reversal too for Luke and Vader, as the son pays the father back for taking his hand. You know, an eye for an eye, a hand for a hand?
The climactic fight between Luke and Vader lives up to its promise, and to give him credit, Lucas does a very good job turning what has become one of the all-time movie bad guys into a sympathetic figure at the end, no easy task. I do wonder though how Vader managed to carry the emperor and throw him down into the shaft when he was missing a hand? Hah: bet Palpatine hadn’t foreseen that! The usage of the same theme for Luke’s solo (sorry) vigil at Vader’s Viking-style funeral as when he first watched the twin suns of Tattooine set and dreamed of glory and adventure is a really nice bookend, though if I can sound a note of cynicism here, the funeral pyre could also symbolise the death of the franchise. With the passing of Vader, even though they’ll go back into his history, I think the series lost its main anchor, and remembering that the next six films would be Luke-less, I think in many ways you could say this was the end of an era.
And maybe they should have left it at that. What am I saying? If there’s money to be made, there’ll be sequels. Just look at Speed 2. Or rather, don’t. This idea would then lead to another six movies which, let’s be honest, I really doubt anyone needed. I did enjoy Revenge of the Sith but the other two I distinctly remember as blowing big time, and as I say the final three I did not bother with. For me, and I think for a lot of people, this trilogy was almost perfect: a beginning, middle and end. But we all know how Hollywood works, and in fairness to Lucas it would be another twenty years almost before he would unleash the first of the six prequels upon us. Personally though I’ve always regarded these as the “core” movies, and had little time for the ones that followed.
Nevertheless, they did follow, and so must we. Therefore, in the next instalment, we take you even further back in time, an even longer time ago, but still the same distance away, to a time before empire, and back to the Old Republic.