the love impulse very frequently reveals itself in terms of conflict

Rating: 8/10 (10 April 2020)

For a generation that grew up in the 80s and 90s, here is the nightmare of childhood and the emotional scar upon the life of many a middle aged adult. The gulf between good and bad, the black and white of youth and innocence has been riped apart in a moment of time and all that is left are the shades of grey. "You killed my father" shouts Luke as he battles Darth Vader "no Luke Skywalker" he replies "I am your Father" So the enemy is not with out, but within.
The Empire Strikes Back is the second film in what will probably, since Disney has no intention of slowing down, become the longest running serial in film history. Serial here is the key world, not that Star Wars was originally coincided as such by it's director, although Lucas had his hopes and lots of ideas on paper. The original film was thought to be a risky one off or so the studio thought. Only a hint towards the end of the production that success and a sequel could be at hand saved Darth Vader from being blown up like a firework by the Millennium Falcon. Lucas might have hoped that Star Wars would be such a success that he would be given a chance to make another but to keep making them and to make nothing else was beyond even his imagination.
The concept behind Star Wars, how it worked in Lucas' own imagination, is that Star Wars would be rather like a Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers serial. These were made of a number of individual episodes about 20 minuets long with each one ending with a cliff hanger and starting with a miraculous escape. The plotting was sometimes so desperately week the show just about managed to scrape along from one end to another. They were cheap to produce ( although Flash Gorden was the most expensive of them all) and aimed at young children and the Saturday morning picture show. They were made quickly with out to much thought and with sets and music borrowed from other films. Put together by people who were ether glad of the work or would have wished themselves else where. They where rich in corn and low in production vales, totally lacking in pretension and made on the the understanding that every thing in it was disposable and forgettable. Of course no child of any age has ever forgotten a single moment of every episode and certainly made an impression on Lucas. The original Star Wars film was only pretending to be a weekly episode some where in the middle, (episode 4 actually) in a run of films. So that at the start you are immediately thrown into the action. What has come before is related on the now very famous script that scrawls sharply away from the picture frame just as it did at the start of each successive episode of Flash Gorden. the screen wipes and the general air of pulp fiction in Star Wars comes from the serials as well. Like many American film makers of his generation, Lucas was creating a future world by reliving his past.
But The Empire Strikes Back really is a midway episode. Dropping you directly into the action with the attack on the ice planet. our band of heroes divide into two groups and take two separate story ark's to Dagobah and the cloud city, allowing the film to play off one against the other and introduce new characters in each story line, before winding back them back together for the finale at which point the film oddly just comes to a stop, with every one backed away from the camera and looking out of the window, with out even a cliff hanger ending, the only unresolved situation is having Han Solo encased in carbon with his fate unknown. Perhaps Lucas just lost his nerve about copying the old serials but couldn't work the story up a dramatic full stop, so things just hang in the air and then the titles role

The Empire Strikes back has some brilliant and ground braking special effects we are still in a an age before computer generated imagery every thing is optical and physical including a stunning chase through a asteroid field. We follow the path of the Millennium Falcon between objects that have their own independent trajectory and bounce off each other. We learn the advantage of have regular service checks on your vehicle and the benefits of having every space craft made from the same airfix parts We are also introduced to new characters including a smooth and swishy Lando Calrissian, Muppet sage Yoda engaging in Hollywood's life long flirtation with Eastern philosophy and mysticism. A menacing villain in the Emperor played by Marjorie Eaton and voiced by Clive Revill (always good to hear the English actor on repeat viewings). The film benefits from not having the burden of a beginning or an ending and with nothing weighing on either side the film just shoots along. Neither Lucas nor his writers could think up an ending for The Return of the Jedi that was not just a slight rehash of the first film and from then on it would hugs and kisses at the end of every adventure. So perhaps it is an advantage that this film just comes to a stop.
The reason why The Empire Strikes Back story flows concisely and logically could be because Lucas has taken a back seat to the rough trade of direction to concentrate on co-production. handing the reins over to Irvin Kershner a solid talented professional but not to original or individual a director. Lucas turned to professionals again for the script. Employing Lawrence Kasdan who would go on to work on Raiders of the Lost Ark and it's interesting to note that Leigh Brackett wrote an early draft. She goes back a long way and was greatly admired and often used by Howard Harks, who thought her pulp detective fiction (his favorite reading matter) was amongst the finest, he asked her to screen write the screenplay for The Big Sleep. Asking professionals to work with him on the script may explain why this episode feels the most mature, there are no Ewoks, no Ja Ja Binks here thank you very much. Leigh Brackett died in 1978 and not much if any of her work remains in the finished film but she would have recognized the type of dialog runing between Solo and the princess. It was first pioneered by Hawks in screw ball comedies during the thirties in films like Brining up Baby where it is noted by a pompous psychiatrist that " the love impulse in men very frequently reveals itself in terms of conflict" Lucas really was borrowing widely from everything he loved about the cinema of the past.
Because of a driving accident just before filming started Mark Hamill's very visible facial scars needed to be explained in the plot, so the film starts with a mini adventure where Han Solo has to find Luke Skywalker who has been lost in the frozen landscape, before nights falls and the temperature drops. This intimate drama was concocted on the spot and yet look at how useful it is at underling the relationship of the characters have with each other right where it is needed at the start of the film. Han is reckless, fool hardy but all so decisive and focused. He is the first to realize that Luke is absent and he is prepared to risk everything to protect his Friend and because something needs to be happening before Solo can realize Lucas is missing, we see Solo and Leia constantly bickering in Howard Hawks style which continues on even as everything collapses around them. Everybody in the writing team is on the ball here and a unexpected necessity is turned in an asset for the production.
John Williams provides another score for the film, the quality of the music is as high as the first and you might seamlessly travel from one to the other with out knowing you have crossed a threshold. William's score has been highly praised but I think that something is missing. William score for the original film has some wonderful small delicate wistful moments, as when Luke is contemplating his future while watching the suns of Tatooine go down, there is the wonderful cantina band music and that slightly off center rhythmic tic that is played as Han and Luke prepare for the TIE fighter attack. All of which is evidence of William's love of Stravinsky, Mahler and Prokofiev among others. As good as the music is in The Empire Strikes Back there is nothing quite as diverse as that in it's score. But it does have The Imperial March and the The Imperial March is ace. It was a long time before I realized that Williams composed it for the second film. It's hard to imagine that it was ever absent from the saga. It is without doubt the most the additive tune ever put to film. Start playing it in your head now! And see if you can stop from repeating the tune again and again, louder and louder until your lips start to move and your head bops from side to side. If you can manage that without making a fool of your self then you are no Star Wars fan.
The most curious aspect of the film is Lucas' decision to had over the direction to somebody else and to concentrate on the production side. He felt that trying to do both would to difficult so he chose to produce. In no way was he handing over the film for somebody else to make as a director. As the film's producer he had total control over every aspect of the project to make sure it fitted his vision. By choosing not to be the director he didn't have to deal with an irreverence that was getting in the way with what he wanted , the actors. If technology did not allow him to do away with human beings, then at lease there must be a way of making a film with having to discuss acting with them.
Eventually that technological dream would come true.