By far the best and darkest of all Star Wars films

Rating: 10/10 (4 August 2014)

When we all sat down to watch "The Empire Strikes Back" for the first we figured we knew what would happen in the rest of the trilogy. At the end of the second film we assumed Darth Vader would beat Luke in a lightsaber duel and then at the end of the final film Luke would finally kill Darth Vader. But then in what is still one of the biggest one-two punches ever aimed at an audience Darth Vader cuts off Luke's right hand and stuns the audience with the revelation "I am your father." Suddenly the idea that Luke was going to kill Darth Vader went from absolute metaphysical certainty to something very much in doubt. The thought that it would be three years before we found out how this would play out drove us absolutely crazy (remember the wonderful speculation that Boba Fett was a clone of Obi- Wan?).
I have to admit that I never really believed that George Lucas intended for Darth Vader to be Luke Skywalker's father from the very start. If he had then we would not have had that "What I said was true...from a certain point of view" from Obi-Wan Kenobi in "The Return of the Jedi" to explain the statement that Darth Vader killed Luke's father in the original "Star Wars" (change the name all you want, it is still "Star Wars" to me). But for a plot twist it certainly floored audiences. I went to the first showing the first day for all three "Star Wars" movies and since my brother made the mistake of flipping through the comic book version and stumbling across the film's big revelation (which he immediately shared with me) I was not surprised at what happened. But I still remember the audience gasping twice when Luke lost his hand and Darth Vader said his big line.
"The Empire Strikes Back" is far and away the best of the "Star Wars" movies, whether you are talking the original three or all of the prequels as well. It is a very dark film in which things are constantly going wrong. Luke is attacked and almost killed by a snow monster, the base on Hoth is attacked and evacuated, the Millennium Falcon end up inside a giant worm, Luke abandons his training with Yoda too soon to help save his friends, Lando betrays Han who ends up a frozen statue, and then Luke loses his hand and learns the truth about daddy. The only real bright spot in the movie is when Leia and Han fall in love (the comic relief with C-3PO does not count) and even that ends on a major downer. There is nowhere to go but up at the end of this one and it is rather amazing how many people would go back repeatedly to see a movie whose idea of a happy ending is that nobody is dead yet.
George Lucas again wrote the story but the script by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan brings the level of the dialogue up to a more adult level than the Saturday morning serial feel of the first film (ultimately, they might be the ones who most deserve the credit for making this the best "Star Wars" film). Director Irvin Kershner draws stronger performances out of the entire cast, which is precisely why he was picked for the second film. The result is an much more ambitious film where the characters have more depth, helped by the dramatic turns at the end that up the ante considerably on the story. Luke Skywalker is no longer the fresh-faced kid he was when we first met him, having to grow up really fast because of what happens in this film. But when you get audiences to take a Muppet as seriously as we take Yoda, then you are really accomplishing something. Even after all this time this film still works.
This movie also reflected a great leap forward in terms of the special effects that were the hallmark of the first film. When we saw "Star Wars" one of the things we fell in love with what how far special effects had come since "2001: A Space Odyssey," the obvious reference point in the field of science fiction films. But that was nothing compared to what Industrial Light and Magic came up with three years later in "The Empire Strikes Back." No wonder Lucas wanted to go back and fix some of the special effects shots in his first "Star Wars" film, especially with the X-wing fighters in the final attack on the Death Star. Compare that with the chase of the Millennium Falcon through the asteroid field in this one, which gets outclassed three years later by the Rebel attack on the new Death Star in the final film.
When it comes to the second in a film trilogy "The Empire Strikes Back" is the standard by which such things are judged. Granted there are not many of them, but "The Attack of the Clones," "The Matrix: Reloaded," and even "The Two Towers" do not rise to the challenge. Ironically, "The Empire Strikes Back" was so good that it made it difficult for "The Return of the Jedi" to be better, especially since the final film was going to be more upbeat (and that was before all those cute Ewoks showed up). When I think about walking out of a movie theater with the words "To be continued" in my mind, this is the movie that epitomizes that thought.