For a great while I put a bunch of posts on the Empire Strikes Back: The premier of suspicions of grand alternative theories, The delving into the uninspiring script, The suspicion of the director’s and actor’s input due to commentaries, The confirmation of some suspicions due to a book, a bunch of analyses of the film using the tri-fractal approach (beginning scenes…), finally a “how it should have ended” post, and finally this consideration to the overall project. I rewatched it this weekend and will say this–if Star Wars (IV) was brilliant, then the Empire Strikes Back was a brilliant mess. Brilliant, because it had so much potential, so many leads on to other more brilliant ideas but overall such a big hot mess.
Too many cooks spoil the broth, and not only was there Lucas with his little Brackett and Kasdan script, but Kershner with frothing ideas, Ford with his enigmatic persona, but there was Fisher with her script-doctor sense–and both acting careers needed to press forward. Unfortunately brilliance doesn’t usually happen this way, with too many hands at the wheel–and it didn’t happen this time. So many people say that this movie is “deep” or “important” (according to IMDB) without being able to explain why. That’s because it was almost–but was not. And it was not due to several plot points:
1. No strong moral message by inconclusive endings. We sort of know Luke was right to try to save his friends because a few got saved, but we’re not sure he was right to go to Yoda’s place and learn all that weird meditation stuff. We sort of know Han was a jerk for advancing on his friend’s gal (and a princess) because he got frozen, but we’re not quite sure it was necessarily correlated to his actions–and he certainly didn’t apologize. We sort of know Leia did the right thing in saving Luke at the end, but she weirdly doesn’t talk to him at the end either, leaving him confused and led on. And we certainly don’t know what happened to the princess’ backbone or why she is weirdly (and unhappily) dependent on men the whole time–And frankly we’re not sure she knows by the end of it.
2. We do not know if the main character is improving or being led astray. The main character seems caring for his friends and loyal to his old master, till the end when his masters tell him not to stay loyal to his friends but he does anyway. Then he gets tempted to eradicate evil by confronting it but then gets tempted by an offer of power which he refuses. Does this mean he is compromised (by having his hand cut-off), or that he is vindicated (by being saved without the help of his masters)? We don’t really know.
3. It did not fully summarize whether Yoda’s teachings were morally right or morally wrong, by leaving it vague and ineffectual. Luke keeps disobeying Yoda yet strangely still respecting and somewhat believing him. Meditation “almost” works 3 times, yet causes 3 problems: him to feel evil and have an evil vision, his ship to sink, and him to have a scary vision that will make him worried for his friends and unable to help. People want to know what the movie is saying by the end of it, even if it’s complex and Yoda is only partly right. Unfortunately by the end of the film, we are not sure that anyone is right.
4. We lose connection with what was right in the old movie, the self-sacrificing master. This is the really sad part of the movie–is Ben Kenobi, the old master of the hero, really good anymore or is his spirit not reliable? In the old movie, he was reliable and did for the hero the best thing he could teach him–self-sacrifice. In this movie, the master’s spirit tells the hero not to save his friends for the sake of the cause. Is this really why he died in the first movie, because he thought the odds of them getting out there alive outweighed his genius? It sure didn’t look like it. It was all about hope, love, and trust in an ultimate “force” or providence that honored the honest and self-sacrificing. Strangely, we are not even sure if he is right–or if his ghost has any connection with the old at all. His final abandonment to Luke seems bizarre and manipulative. If the force works with Leia, why couldn’t it have worked with Ben?
5. After so much discussion of the force, we’re still not sure what the “force” is, if it’s right or wrong, or if it’s just a form of telepathy. Luke has a vision–out of hallucination or calling? He goes to a swamp, with a nut or a genius? He hears and sees things in the swamp–conjured by a magician or reality? The badguy does the same telepathy and abuses the hero. The hero calls out spiritually to his girlfriend–supernatural or instinct? Then he hears the badguy’s voice–lies or truth? We still don’t know. In fact we don’t know anything except that there’s a lot of creepiness in the galaxy.
6. We’re not sure what the Princess and the Thug’s or the Princess and the Hero’s relationship is by the end of the movie. It starts out weird, it turns into harassment, it is interluded with comedy and affectionate insults, it becomes defensive play to the “new guy”, it seems suddenly dramatic and ended, yet we are interrupted by the hero, and then the princess keeps looking out the window as if she’s thinking about the other guy. weird.
7. We’re not sure if C3-P0 is an ignorant nuisance or a wise and abused moral guardian. C3-po became the awkward chaperone to the Thug and the princess, and at first the princess is glad of his interrupting the thug, but later she turns him off in the heat of battle. He suffers so much abuse for his advice, but he never gets rewarded by anyone for his good behavior. Maybe such is life, but we’re not sure if the moral is to listen to him or to ignore him by the end of the film. Was he stupid for being suspicious in cloud city, or should he have been regarded with more esteem? Obviously he could fluctuate between helpful and less helpful comments, but isn’t there something to say for someone who actually notices impropriety than just ignores it? It sounds silly, but the fact that he is not apologized to or rewarded (besides a renewed love and friendship with Chewbacca) actually really bothers me at the end of the film, particularly his relationship with the princess. It seems he is the only one (besides the hero) with a sense of nobility at the end–will the princess accept her guardian, or cast him off?
So this film was an almost but not, and remains a brilliant mess. It almost corrected the thug for his behavior towards the princess, it almost rewarded the moral guardian of the princess, it almost rewarded the hero for loving his friends, it almost implied Yoda was right but it mostly implied he was wrong, it almost implied the princess loved the hero at the end, it almost implied the hero was right for following his master–but it mostly implied his masters were wrong, and it almost…was a good movie.
If you want to know what it could have been, or what other brilliant issues it has, read my other posts on the subject.
Jubilation 