Three years after STAR WARS rocked the cinematic world, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK arrived in theatres amidst much speculation and hype as the most eagerly awaited sequel in years.
Although it has been voted the best of the STAR WARS films over the last forty years consistently, it is easy to forget that back in 1980 when the film was first released, it was deemed less successful than STAR WARS and at times an inferior film to the ground-breaking blockbuster, but that is simply because often, as we have discovered with every subsequent STAR WARS release, be it the prequels, sequel trilogy and the two (to-date) STAR WARS spinoff’s, ROGUE ONE and SOLO that it is a near-impossible task for anyone who helms these films to live up to the overwhelming hype and fanbase that the Universe has created.
Sequels were not as common back in 1980 when THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK was released, although we had ROCKY II and the PLANET OF THE APES films released in the early 1970s, so it was more of a rarity and a novelty to see a sequel.
In some ways, looking on it now, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK is a more mature and sophisticated film that has a broader and older appeal at its’ heart than the original, which was made and designed for a younger audience in mind.
The structure of the film is reflective of George Lucas’ first major hit, AMERICAN GRAFFITI in terms of splitting up the various story arcs and reflecting on several characters. In the case of EMPIRE, the focus was more on the growing bond and possible love between Han Solo and Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker’s own path to the true essence of being a Jedi Knight, guided by Ben Kenobi’s ghostly presence who tells him as he lies in the snow that he will go to Dagobah to learn from Yoda.
What’s also easy to forget is that Yoda was irritating to some people as Jar Jar Binks was to people who saw THE PHANTOM MENACE, but the character does evolve with the film.
EMPIRE is a considerably darker film than the first one, given what each character goes through, particularly Han when he meets up with Lando and it is in the early part of the film from the Hoth sequences through to the Asteroid chase that are pretty much in sync with the space action of the original film.
Nowadays, EMPIRE does succeed on a number of levels as the most accomplished of the STAR WARS films, something THE LAST JEDI and THE RISE OF SKYWALKER did try and capture in the last two films. It’s also one of the best designed of the film and George Lucas certainly earned his money back having spent about $33 million of his own money on it, three times the cost of the tighter budgeted A NEW HOPE.
Millions have seen it and there are some who still haven’t, but there is one moment which remains as surprising today for those who first saw it in 1980 which was so against the grain that even some of the people in on the film were never aware of it.
The SPECIAL EDITION added some visual effects, but considering that EMPIRE was more advanced as a film in visual effects techniques, it actually didn’t really any anything to it.