I was three years old. Though it may surprise some, I used to be able to remember quite a few things from the time that I was three. As I've gotten older, it's been disappointing and a bit disorienting to realize that memories from previous times in my life are beginning to fade.
About all that I can remember now from the theater experience in Wilmington, North Carolina is the light saber battle between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. As I was also a small child, I remember being carried into the theater by my dad.
The film itself is the best of the six that have been made in the Star Wars saga.
I try to talk about positive things in my blog entries. But Episodes One through Three, made during the late 1990s and early 2000s, are a step down from The Empire Strikes Back, which is Episode Five. George Lucas in Episodes One through Three for some reason tries to shrink the galaxy and form ridiculous connections with everything (Boba Fett, a minor character, is the mold for the creation of Storm Troopers, the dignified Yoda has cause to meet Chewbacca before the Wookie hooked up as a space pirate with Han Solo, C-3PO was built by hand by a young Darth Vader on the barren, desert planet of Tatooine- Lucas wrote himself into such a jam with that last one that the solution is to have C-3PO's memory wiped at the end of Episode III- an undeserved cheap cop-out in story telling for such an iconic character.)
The Empire Strikes Back, on the other hand, expands the story and characters into a more epic struggle between good and evil, and we get a real feeling of how grand and encompassing this adventure is.
The late Irvin Kershner was magnificent as the director. The scene where Imperial Walkers approach the Rebel Base on the ice planet of Hoth still gives me goosebumps sometimes, as a rebel soldier looks through his computerized binoculars and spots the gigantic walkers far out on the horizon, slowly moving toward them. Small bits of ice begin to fall on R2-D2 in the underground caves due to the Walkers steady, pounding march. R2-D2 gives an impressed and funny whistle.
The character development is outstanding. The banter between Han Solo and Princess Leia never ceases to amuse me, and fits true to the beginning of a romance. Perhaps the most delightfully funny scene in all of the Star Wars movies involves Han, Princess Leia, Luke, C-3PO and Chewbacca, when Leia kisses Luke to try and make Han jealous. The reactions of all in this scene, from C-3PO's stiff, robotic walk to get closer and study the kiss, to Chewbacca's muffled groan, to Han's nonchalant attempt to hide his jealousy with C-3PO making a polite excuse to follow him out of the room all fit with what we come to expect from these characters.
As I write this blog entry, it surprises me just how much I have to say about this movie. I think I really could continue a blog just on the Star Wars story. My goal is to write about other films as well, though. Blog entries should not be too long, either.
Before I close this entry, though, I will say that I am glad Disney has purchased all the rights to the Star Wars saga.
The story has been a part of my life. When I was child, I have fond memories of playing with Star Wars action figures. My cousin Duane, who is a little older than me, had the coolest Star Wars toys. He had an X-wing fighter that he ended up giving to me, and if I remember correctly, he also had a big Imperial Walker model. In true Star Wars buff form, Duane also corrected me that the proper pronunciation of Han Solo's first name is with a short "a" sound, the way George Lucas pronounces it, as opposed to the "Hahn" pronunciation used by Leia and Luke in the movie.
The original Star Wars movie came out the year I was born.
In the late 1990s when I was in college at Western Carolina University, the original three movies, Episodes Four through Six, were re-released in theater with Lucas's additions and updates to them. I enjoyed going to see them with my best friends from college, Scott and Heather, and my brother, Adam, who was in college with me.
Scott and Heather got married and have a child, now, and I still keep in touch with them in North Carolina.
The Disney purchase means that the stories will go on long after I am gone. While I am grateful for George Lucas, the creator of this, the best science fiction adventure story ever, I am also glad that creative control is now passing to other hands. The best writers, directors and actors in the world should be attracted to work with this material.
Different actors will now try their hand at playing in new stories as Han Solo in the decades to come, the same way that different actors have portrayed Bruce Wayne/Batman and Clark Kent/Superman.
I hope that Disney brings back the original three Star Wars movies the way they were before Lucas altered them in the 1990s.
Digital remastering is fine, but Lucas changed some fundamental things about the films that just don't fit with the feel of the original story- even though they were his creation. It is almost like there are two different George Lucases.
In The Empire Strikes Back (the original release), for example, Lando Calrissian is the leader of Cloud City. When I first began watching the Star Wars movies in the 80s, I took Cloud City to be a rogue outpost in hiding from the watchful eye of the Empire. It was a small space mining operation. And Lando himself, though now its responsible administrator, was not far removed from his roots as an outlaw smuggler with Han. Cloud City would have tough people in it like a frontier town in the old west.
Lucas completely changed the feel of Cloud City, though, by just adding too much stuff through computer graphics and extra scenes. In the remade version, Cloud City is big and bustling, with lots of buildings and traffic, and looks to be a place in some scenes designed for families and schools. It just does not work as well- at least not for me.
But let me stop. Again, I did not realize that I can go on and on writing about Star Wars.
If you have never seen the movies, I recommend watching the original Star Wars (1977) first. If this movie does not move and impress you, then the rest of the saga will not, either. Like I have said, though, I hold up Star Wars as the best science fiction adventure ever created, and The Empire Strikes Back as the best chapter in that adventure to date. I look forward to what Disney will do.
Nathan Marshburn
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