Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983)
The Empire falls!
Brief Backstory
After six long years and two beloved instant classics, Lucas was ready to finish the original trilogy (though he intended to make nine to twelve movies in the saga initially). In 1983, the year of the game crash and the birth of Mario’s brother Luigi, Return of the Jedi (later retitled Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi) slammed into theaters which showed the fall of the Galactic Empire.
Unfortunately, reception was not as high as the other 2/3 of the trilogy due to several concerns such as the Ewoks and Boba Fett’s “death” but generally Return of the Jedi, while still not as highly acclaimed, is still considered to be an instant classic and like the rest of the trilogy is considered to be one of the greatest movies of all time.
Story
Luke and his pals stage a liberation attack against Jabba the Hutt and his thugs to save Han Solo. Afterwards, the gang meets up with the rebels to attack the new death star, which is in the middle of construction in Endor. Along the way, Luke ditches the rest to try to talk some sense into his father, Vader, but it doesn’t work. Instead, Vader drags him to Darth Sidious, where he and Sidious are trying to turn Luke over to the Sith.
Random Facts
Ranked as the weakest of the original trilogy, although each one of the films are nearly equivalent in quality. The complaints often go toward the Ewoks, but I never found them damaging.
Early onwards, the title was “Revenge of the Jedi” but given how the Jedi aren’t ones to seek revenge, the title was altered for the better.
A deleted scene shows Luke finishing up on his new lightsaber, which explains why it’s green.
In earlier releases, Vader had eyebrows and didn’t show up as a force ghost of Anakin prior to his near fatal duel against Obi-Wan.
On the tape I have of this classic, Yoda is on the front cover, although he doesn’t show up for very long.
This was the first time we heard about who Luke’s father really was: Anakin Skywalker. The prequels would showcase Anakin’s fall.
Like in the other two original trilogy movies, “Sith” isn’t mentioned. BUT the Sith goes as far back as A New Hope, so people were likely well aware of what the “dark side” was known as in one word: Sith. The Super Star Wars trilogy (one of the greatest series of games on the Super NES) mentioned Vader being a “Dark lord of the Sith” on at least two of the games’ manuals.
Ian McDiarmid voices Darth Sidious aka Palpatine. Palpatine was mentioned as a name as far back as I think the time when the novel to this classic came out.
The first film to being produced in THX, although the sound quality isn’t any better than A New Hope…
Until a blu-ray release in 2011, Vader kept his mouth shut when Palpatine was attacking Luke. A lot of Vader’s best moments are when he shuts up. See Rogue One for an example on this.
Random Opinions
There is nothing “cutesy” about the Ewoks. You don’t fuck with those things.
Despite Lucas’s claim in a 1995 interview on Empire Strikes Back, I find Return of the Jedi as the darkest. Think about it; the rancor, Jabba’s death (which I always found kinda hard to watch), Sidious’s seduction, etc.
Endor fits pretty well with the high fantasy tone that Star Wars somewhat fits in. Not one to judge but I view the Star Wars series as quite medieval.
I do not consider the sequel trilogy to be canon. As a whole those three are nothing more than fanfiction.
If you watch Revenge of the Sith prior to watching Return of the Jedi, you might know why Vader threw his lightsaber at Luke instead of trying to hop onto the catwalk that Luke was on.
In my eyes, Vader was not fulfilling the whole “Chosen One” prophecy mentioned in the prequels. As evident from the previous film, Vader wanted Luke as his apprentice, but he ended up fatally damaging himself. Prior to him knowing he wasn’t going to survive, he was bent on killing Palpatine (in Empire Strikes Back he tells Luke “you can destroy the Emperor”) implying that Vader’s plan was to have Luke or himself murder Palpatine and then they turn the Empire into some sort of mafia. Revenge of the Sith somewhat confirmed that.
Out of the OG trilogy, Return of the Jedi to me suffered the worst (although A New Hope is around that level too) of the 1997 vandalized editions (special editions). Did we really need to replace Anakin’s force ghost with Hayden and replace the Jabba Palace song number with some badly aged CGI freaks? Is it necessary to drag out the celebration scene (let alone have someone sounding like JAR JAR BINKS screaming “wesa free”) and replace the little song at the end with an out-of-place orchestration? Feel free to disagree with me on this but going back to the special editions (and later edits) is HARD as as hell when watching the unaltered trilogy.
Luke is ten times the Jedi Anakin was.
Pros
- The Luke vs Vader duel is improved from the original, although not as long.
- Ewoks > Gungans
Cons
- Surprisingly, nothing wrong with this one. As long as you’re not watching the vandalized edition (aka the late 90s and later versions).
Rating: 10/10 – Perfect
Return of the Jedi, despite its’ flaws, has just enough to be equal to the other two in terms of quality. Anything I’m critical of in the original trilogy is trivial, including the Ewoks.
One response to “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi”
-
A 9/10 for me. My only gripe is how the Ewoks managed to use their traps to penetrate imperial walkers. Don’t get me wrong, Return of the Jedi ended the Original Trilogy on a high note. If you’re up for a challenge, how about watching and reviewing other trilogies?
The Dark Knight Trilogy
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Extended Editions)
Mission Impossible 1-3
Mission Impossible 4-6
The Matrix Trilogy
John Wick 1-3
Back to the Future Trilogy
The Godfather Trilogy
Leave a Reply