Lucas, director Irvin Kershner, Yoda puppeteer and voice Frank Oz, and Mark Hamill deserve tons of credit for making it work, and time should not erase just how risky and impressive it was.īut speaking of Yoda’s role within this film, it is absolutely tremendous and beautiful. But it worked, and worked so brilliantly that Yoda has become a fan-favorite Star Wars character. Such is the risk that George Lucas took in Yoda. If this green puppet wasn’t believable as a great Jedi, it would instead become a laughingstock.
STAR WARS EMPIRE STRIKES BACK MOVIE
It’s not a stretch to say that if this didn’t work, the whole movie wouldn’t work. Would you be bold enough to do that? For the entire second act of the film, Luke is away from his friends training with this Jedi. But then you come up with an idea: instead of giving a film in the same vein as the previous one, why not subvert expectations and make a movie that is totally different in feel? Would you be bold enough to do that? More specifically, you have the idea to have the beloved hero, Luke Skywalker, head off to train with a great Jedi Master… who literally is a tiny green puppet. Film franchises at the time were very rare (unlike today), and people would be approaching the sequel looking for much the same excitement and feel as the first one. I want you to put yourself in George Lucas’s situation when sitting down to make the sequel to Star Wars, an instant hit that was (at the time) the highest-grossing movie in history. We continue today with the movie that many consider to be the gold standard in the franchise, The Empire Strikes Back. But without Williams’ music, we don’t have Star Wars as we know and love it.
One note: because I think John Williams’ work on every Star Wars film is fantastic, I’m going to essentially assume that would make every list, thus I’m leaving it out intentionally. That’s not to say there are only five, but I’m limiting myself to five here. I love all Star Wars, so in this series, I’ll walk through each of the films identifying five things I love about it. That wisdom is pertinent for Star Wars fans amidst seemingly incessant criticism, I want to spend time actually liking Star Wars.
Rose Tico once said that we’re going to win not by fighting what we hate, but by saving what we love.
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