THE IMDB TOP 50 CHALLENGE #16 Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

My review of Star Wars: A New Hope brought mixed feedback. Whilst some people threatened to eradicate me from their lives, others agreed that the film has aged badly and is overrated. Almost everyone, however, expressed the view that The Empire Strikes Back is the best of the original trilogy. And they were right. But that’s hardly a huge achievement.

Following Luke Skywalker’s (Mark Hamill )destruction of the Death Star, the rebels are found hiding on the ice planet Hoth – and attacked by Darth Vader’s (James Earl Jones) evil Empire. In the confusion, Luke flees to the Dagobah system to be instructed in the mysterious Force by legendary Jedi master Yoda (Frank Oz). Meanwhile, Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) seek refuge with Han’s old gambling pal Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) – only to be ambushed by the Empire shortly after...

Empire is certainly a more mature film than its predecessor. There is a dark streak running through it, and some of the original’s more cartoonish characters have been replaced by more menacing and multifaceted characters like Boba Fett (Jeremy Bulloch) and Lando Calrissian. There remains an element of camp silliness, though, in the form of the ultra annoying C3PO (Anthony Daniels). Yoda is slightly less irritating, but it’s very difficult to take him seriously as a great warrior when he can’t even construct a sentence correctly.

Luke’s struggle with the ‘dark side’ is also hard to swallow. Thanks largely to Mark Hamill’s limitations as an actor, his rage and anger are more akin to teenage petulance. As a result, it’s impossible to imagine him succumbing to his darker urges – and even harder to imagine him as an evil, Vader-like figure.

His showdown with his father is, of course, a classic film moment. Their light sabre duel is beautifully choreographed, there is a genuine sense of danger (not least when Luke’s hand is chopped clean off) and it ends with one of cinema’s most famous revelations. The howl of anguish which follows it is, sadly, utterly unconvincing. Hamill really is awful. 

Happily, the same cannot be said of Harrison Ford. His charismatic presence is (again) the best thing in the movie. His sarcastic wisecracking brings the whole enterprise back to earth; his cockily arrogant relationship with Leia crackles with electricity and his fraught friendship with Lando is entirely believable. If only George Lucas had built his films around the most interesting character he created.

As it is, Empire is full of memorable moments, one iconic battle and one of movie history’s finest improvised lines (Han’s presumptuous “I know”). It’s darker and dirtier than A New Hope, but is still a deeply flawed film which relies entirely on the notion that Luke is ever tempted to follow in Darth Vader’s footsteps. Unfortunately, that never seems likely. Not only that, but Lucas wraps up far too many loose ends ahead of Return of the Jedi, patronising his audience by leaving very few unanswered questions.

THE IMDB TOP 50 CHALLENGE #18 Star Wars: A New Hope

As a kid, I had a lot of Star Wars toys. As an adult, I can’t really remember what the appeal was. Perhaps it was the dire prequels which soured my affections for the franchise? Perhaps it was George Lucas’ shameless attempts to monetise it? Or perhaps it’s just growing old? Whatever it was, I certainly don’t share the love many of my friends and peers do for Luke Skywalker and The Force.

For the uninitiated, the story is essentially a space Western, with the evil forces of Darth Vader (the voice of James Earl Jones and the body of David Prowse) gathering power for an attack on the universe’s more civilised life forms. A rebel alliance, led by the semi-mythical Jedi Knights must put a stop to this by pooling their powers and facing evil head on.

Watching the film again, it was impossible to ignore its many obvious flaws. The opening act features huge amounts of clunking exposition: not content with a written credit sequence, numerous characters talk at length about the state of the galaxy and the destructive power of the Death Star. This mightn’t be so bad but it’s extremely pedestrian and the dialogue is honkingly bad. It seems that Sir Alec Guinness is the only actor aware of this – his tongue seems to be firmly in his cheek.

The worst speech comes from the movie’s most irritating character. Camp android C3PO (Antony Daniels) is required to do the speaking for two, talking for R2D2 as well as for himself. He’s clearly designed to be a busybody and a jobsworth, but does his camp preening really need to be so wordy and so irritating? The film’s lead protagonist, too, is more than a little annoying. Luke Skywalker is meant to be a naive youngster, but Mark Hamill’s acting talents extend little further than whining and moaning like a spoilt child. There’s little wonder his post Star Wars career was largely unsuccessful.

Thankfully the film is saved when Harrison Ford turns up as Han Solo. He’s a world weary gambler with a huge debt, a big hairy friend and a clapped out space shuttle. Employed by Luke and Obi Wan Kenobi to transport them across the galaxy, his wisecracking and sexual tension with Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) bring a welcome dose of reality to proceedings.

Sadly, the further Star Wars gets from its initial release date, the less realistic it becomes. The action takes place largely on genuine sets and the alien characters are people in costumes – for the most part. Unfortunately, George Lucas has been unable to resist the temptation to fiddle and faff with his creation, going back to retrospectively add CGI into the mix. It’s wholly unnecessary and destroys some of the charm and solidity the film initially held – not least in a badly misjudged scene featuring a newly slimline Jabba the Hut.

But Star Wars didn’t become an iconic film for no reason, and despite my cynicism there is much here to admire. Darth Vader is a classic cinema villain, John Williams’ rousing score is magnificent and some of the less human characters have become iconic – especially Chewbacca. But I grew up on Star Wars and nostalgia isn’t enough to keep me interested. For newcomers, I really can’t see the appeal of the franchise at all. Sci-fi has moved on and despite Lucas’ best attempts, his film has aged badly.

THE IMDB TOP 50 CHALLENGE #23 Raiders of the Lost Ark

Despite portraying Han Solo and Bladerunner’s Deckard, Harrison Ford is most famous for his role as archaeologist adventurer Indiana Jones in his four silver screen adventures. Famously, the magnificently moustachioed Tom Selleck was first choice for the part – a casting decision which now seems utterly implausible. Perhaps stranger still, given George Lucas’ involvement in the franchise, is that the Indy films didn’t spawn hundreds of toys, branded bedding and other gimmicky nonsense – perhaps an indicator of some of the adult themes contained in the films.

Still, the Indiana Jones films were part of my childhood. I once ‘acquired’ a hand-painted, life size cut-out of Indy (which lived for many years on my parents’ hallway stairs) from a children’s play area I used to work at and only recently re-watched The Temple of Doom – a movie which, as a youngster, I viewed through the gaps in my fingers thanks to its horrifying scenes of voodoo, hearts being torn out of people’s chests and chilled monkey brain soup.

But the story began here, with Raiders of the Lost Ark. Set in 1936, Indiana Jones is an archaeologist and historian who learns that the Nazis (!) have discovered the resting place of the Ark of the Covenant – the casket ancient Hebrews used to store the Ten Commandments. In his mission to beat the nasty Nazis to the Ark, Indy travels via Tibet to pick up his ex-girlfriend before barrelling through Egypt, ancient tombs, abandoned submarine bases, islands and jungles.

Clearly, the storyline is absolutely ludicrous. It matters not one jot. To worry about the plot would be to miss the point; this is old fashioned adventuring and old fashioned filmmaking – albeit with a huge budget. Set-pieces and stunts are the order of the day here. In less than two hours the audience is treated to runaway boulders, tarantulas, chases, double crossing Sherpas, biplane escapes, villainous Frenchmen, dozens and dozens of snakes, gravediggers, booby traps and the wrath of God. Famously, it also features the most memorably one-sided fight scene of all time.

Key to it all is Harrison Ford’s brilliant portrayal of Jones. He’s a chauvinistic, stubborn and arrogant man – but still manages to be bloody charming. It’s testament to Ford’s ability as an actor that he managers to imbue the character with a wry humour – and doesn’t take himself too seriously.

Perhaps surprisingly, it’s also a film which has aged particularly well. This can largely be attributed to the excellent stunt work, set building and locations. In an era where CGI can render anything possible, movies can date very quickly as technology rapidly advances. Here, what you see on screen really happened thanks to amazingly skilful artists and practitioners who created a very real world of absolute fantasy.