All good things must come to an end...

Rating: 8/10 (7 October 2016)

"Return of the Jedi" always struck me as the weakest of the trilogy but after the groundbreaking first opus and its spectacular sequel of Shakespearian undertones, I wonder if any third film wasn't deemed to be the lesser one anyways, if only be default. In many aspects, its status equals its chronological rank, but that doesn't say much. It is compared to masterpieces, it's nothing short of a masterpiece itself as far as sequels go, and it's still better than all the prequels put together. Still, I didn't like it at first.
And I knew to which direction I could point an accusing finger: the Ewoks. I thought the film lost all its credibility with these cute cuddly creatures that look like a crossover between the CareBears and the Gremlins. I couldn't believe that the evil galactic army would be defeated by a fistful of rebels helped by tribal furry warriors. As a matter of fact, I had a hard time taking seriously all the grotesque creatures populating the film, especially in Jabba's territory. But what does "to take seriously" mean anyway? I blamed so much Nolan for being so pompously dark in his film that I should only praise Lucas for not taking himself seriously, always finding the right balance between fun and gravity.
This is a trilogy that miraculously appeals to children and grown-ups, adults become like children again marveled by the visuals while children can also appreciate the coming-of-age of Luke. The film doesn't provide the visual space opera extravaganza and the action is mostly on the ground from the battles in Jabba's dungeon to the sand creature and finally, the chase sequence across the forest, but the whole texture is different. The first sequel was mostly made of black and white, the second is all in brown and green tones, it exudes more adventurous vibes and if the film had lost the epic scale of the previous battles, and the rebellion turned more into a form of guerrilla, it's a credit to Lucas for having renewed the material while still keeping faithful to the heart of the story.
Everybody's still here, and when the film begins, with another iconic introduction, we feel like meeting friends again, and this time, it seems like the relationships are all set up. Leia is in love with Han, Luke isn't the boyish Jedi wannabe but a mature warrior waiting for his time to come. And even Darth Vader seems to have evolved from the ruthless evil Lord to the fallen hero under the spell of the evil Emperor (Ian McDiermid). There's richness in both the backgrounds, the effects, the characterizations and the plot, and all these elements converge to a spectacular confrontation that never reuses the same material. The light saber confrontation was unavoidable but Lucas find the little twist to make the scene memorable, and ever since, it inspired countless parodies.
So, something happened that I didn't expect, watching the film again, I actually enjoyed it. And the enjoyment was driven by an experience that was nowhere like "The Empire Strikes Back". The first sequel completed the initiation of Luke Skywalker and deployed more visual effects than the original; it also introduced us to Master Yoda as the driving Force of Luke. But what "Jedi" does is to reassemble all the pieces of the puzzle without giving that impression, and it took the exotic backdrop of the forest and the Ewoks' world to provide the film with its memorability stamp. But that still doesn't say why I suddenly enjoyed the film. Well, something changed in the Jabba's sequence.
Jabba's voice and jargon and the translation from cowardly C3PO they made me feel this was a real language spoken and I had the exact same impression with the Ewoks. After all, isn't the film set in a galaxy, far far away, this is the best MacGuffin the film can have, anything is possible but Lucas find the way to make everything, if not believable, strangely plausible and maybe the mistake would have been to overlook these elements and keep it visually "sci-fi". I suspect George Lucas was a little carried away by the success of Indiana Jones and found the right way to differentiate "Jedi".
And you can tell by the enthusiasm of Harrison Ford playing Han Solo, the little thing he does with his cheek when he smiles and his expressive eyebrow,s you can tell he has fun playing Han Solo, even when he's supposed to demonstrate anger. Ford injects a vitality and fun in the film that contrasts with the seriousness of Harmill; but even Harmill exudes a sense of maturity that confines to virile magnetism, something has changed in his eyes. As for Leia, she has her shining moment, and I'm not just talking about the bikini, but she's the one who defeats her ten-times her size Jabba, proof that girl power didn't wait for the Force to awaken.
And at the end, Luke finally confronts his father and we get to have the inevitable unmasking moment, I wasn't sure I wanted to see Vader but ultimately, this was the film's highlight, after having bid farewell to Yoda, revealed the truth to Leia, he can watch his father one last time and his tender smile was perhaps his best acting in the trilogy, the proof that there was more than space opera in the film, it was also a Shakespearian father-and-son tragedy, there's "Star Wars" and there's "The Godfather", Michael Corleone and Anakin Skywalker, the most fascinating characters' arcs of Cinema's history.
With this film, Lucas makes history again, closing the greatest trilogy of all time, scale and tone wise. The celebration at the end strikes for its anticlimactic and modest setting but it is comforting and emotionally rewarding, six years have passed since the first films, these characters evolved and became part of American myth and Cinema itself wouldn't be the same, forever.