Why "The Empire Strikes Back" is the Best Star Wars Movie

[parappa]

Sorry, couldn't resist a bit of a rant. I was looking at some of the polls and noticed that Phyco thinks Ep V sucks. That's cool an' all--I'm not trying to troll or anything--but like many I've been a Star Wars fan for a long time, and I'm strongly opinionated on this point. Don't let that stop you from ripping my opinions to shreds, if you like. Constructive feedback is welcome.

There are going to be tons of spoilers here, in case you somehow haven't seen all of Star Wars dozens of times already.

Without further ado, my Top 5 reasons why Ep V is best:

#5. Boba Fett

Before the prequel movies messed with him (and even somewhat after that), Boba Fett was the most badass looking bounty hunter in sci-fi movie history. The costume design is excellent (that helmet!), the low raspy voice, Vader telling him off personally ("no disintegrations!"), and the way that he stalks the Millennium Falcon to Bespin were all details that made a huge impact on fans, otherwise he might never have been more than a bit character.

It's a small part of the movie, after all, but it's so well done that the imagination of fans went wild over it. The next thing you know, he's a huge part of the cannon. I'm willing to bet that prior to Ep V being released, Boba Fett wasn't a major character in Lucas's vision for the prequel movies. It's hard to say, though--Lucas makes some pretty amazing claims, and I haven't researched this at all.

#4. The Battle of Hoth

Okay, yeah, no epic space battle in Ep V to match what Eps IV and VI offer, but the Battle of Hoth is what we get instead, and it measures up. I've had Star Wars friends who liked The Battle of Hoth even better than Yavin or Endor (personally, I liked Endor better) and it's a widely shared sentiment, as evidenced by the many times that the Battle of Hoth has been depicted in Star Wars merch, including video games like Shadows of the Empire. This is also one of the few focal Star Wars battles that the good guys ultimately lose, which lends to the overall dark tone of the movie.

Also keep in mind that Lucas's production reference for the battle scenes of Ep IV were from World War II footage, particularly of air combat in the Pacific Theater. The Battle of Hoth continues in this vein, somewhat, by trying to define what the equivalent of ground/trench warfare in the Star Wars universe looks like. It's ambitious, and maybe it didn't hold up in some ways three decades onward, but it blew a lot of minds at the time.

#3. Luke & Vader

The confrontation between Luke & Vader in Ep V is thoroughly satisfying in this movie, and in my opinion much better than the fight they have in Ep VI. Of course, if you're looking for the uber-ninja Jedi lightsaber fighting of Eps I-III, and I know how much we all love and crave that stuff, then you're going to go home empty-handed. Lucas's original vision for lightsabers / laserswords was for them to have a heavy center of gravity and be very dense, and besides that I don't think any directors thought that a martial arts style Hollywood stick-fighting movie could be made at that time. Were sci-fi fans even ready for that back in the early 80's, I wonder?

But what you do get is a poignant battle of wills, with Vader being genuinely terrifying, and the environs of Bespin feeling creepy and industrial. Mark Hamill's reaction to the news that Vader is his father is perhaps the only time in the whole trilogy that he actually pulls of a natural-looking performance, thereby cementing that scene's place as an iconic moment in movie-making history. It's the scene that non-fans of Star Wars are most likely to know about.

#2. Yoda

Yoda is only truly Yoda in Ep V. It's the first movie to have Yoda in it, and it's the movie that best characterizes him. He's wacky, sagely, playful, and dark all in this movie. No other Star Wars movie has Yoda show this much emotional range.

He's not just an small old guy with Jedi powers in Ep V--he's somewhat alien, too. When the audience first encounters him, it's not immediately clear how friendly or dangerous he might actually be, but you can't help but love him almost immediately. I just don't see him having that kind of charisma in the new trilogy.

Most of the best Yoda lines come from Ep V. "Do or do not," "the force is my ally", etc. And that bit where he sends Luke into the trial cave? Totally badass.

Also that Yoda puppet is amazing. He looks perfect in this movie.

#1. Han & Leia

The love story between Han & Leia in Ep V is the best love story in the whole Star Wars saga. From them bickering on Hoth, Leia worrying that Han won't come back after he goes out to rescue Luke (because, really, you can tell enough to suspect that she doesn't actually feel that way about Luke), them being forced together in the asteroid field, and building to that grand finale where Han is frozen in carbonite, the whole arc is a perfect sci-fi love story. Both Han and Leia have their best lines in this movie (well, Han is arguably better in Ep IV, but still, it's close.)

This is vital, too, because it's some of the only comic relief that the movie has. Bad stuff is happening to the heroes throughout this movie and the only real upside of it is Han & Leia falling for each other, which makes it supremely bittersweet in the end when the bad guys escape with Han held prisoner. It's like the only refuge of comfort that the audience had is taken from them, leaving a true sense of how cold and bitter the rebel's struggle against the empire is.

Well, that's it, that's my rant. If I had the time, I'd turn this whole thing into a Youtube video.

[Sonic#]

The Empire Strikes Back is my personal favorite too. I think you provide some good reasons for it being great.

I'd suggest that one of the other reasons why The Empire Strikes Back is good involves the way it presents new archetypes and motifs which seem also to be development of prior ones, establishing continuity while setting itself apart as a distinct story.

A couple of examples:
Lando Calrissian. It's tough being the character who turns in Han and the others, but he's also a character who is very much in the Han vein - a _____ with a heart of gold. A gambler turned administrator, he is caught between serving his employees and his company and helping out his friend. He knows that he's made a wrong choice, just like Han does when he leaves with his money at Yavin. Both come back, but in Lando's case it's far tougher to make recompense. He's lost his company and his friend. The betrayal puts a lot of tension into the movie, which refuses an easy happy ending or the morally assured status of the "good guys," and delays Lando's full redemption to Return of the Jedi. It's a strong setup.

The asteroid scenes, which set the narrative pace. Following the Battle of Hoth and the escape from the rebel base, the action does not slacken. Instead, we get an extension and complication of what was so easy in the first movie: escape. After a firefight near the ship (in Tatooine or in the Rebel base), the Millennium Falcon blasts off. It is pursued, a matter of withstanding blasts until the jump to lightspeed. In The Empire Strikes Back, the jump fails, extending what has already been several scenes of tight action into a series of harrowing escapes and entrapments that don't get resolved until they jump away from Cloud City near the end of the movie. Only C-3PO's humor, cutting away to other kinds of scenes (Luke's training; Darth Vader), and the temporary successes of escapes allay the narrative anxiety here. This anxiety also makes for scenes made more memorable by the backdrop, like Han and Leia's courtship while in the asteroid.

In comparison, the other movies of the first trilogy are more straightforward in their narratives. I haven't watched them recently, but my impression of the second trilogy is that it didn't create narrative anxiety as well, tending to focus on too many extraneous events (the killing of the Jedi children; the slaughtering of the Jedi by the clone troopers) to marshal what is more outrage than anxiety. The betrayals are telegraphed more blatantly beforehand without creating as effective a cycle of strain, and the main sources of anxiety are either personal and trite in writing (Anakin and Padme; to a lesser extent Anakin and Obi Wan) or too political and abstract (the always-threatened nature of the late Republic). Mind you, I think that the movies were still enjoyable, but they just didn't capture the same tenor of action and apprehension.

[phyco126]

ESB was actually my personal disfavorite. I mean, I didn't hate it or anything. I just didn't like it that much. Oddly, while many people hate RotJ, I loved it (awesome space battles, kickin' lightsaber duels). Aside from the ewoks. Yeah....

[parappa]

ESB was actually my personal disfavorite. I mean, I didn't hate it or anything. I just didn't like it that much. Oddly, while many people hate RotJ, I loved it (awesome space battles, kickin' lightsaber duels). Aside from the ewoks. Yeah....

My prefs definitely changed as I got older. Before high school, I was more into RotJ. The Battle of Endor is awesome, the Ewoks are kick-ass, and I liked the final show-down with Vader. Ep V seemed like such a downer in comparison.

But as I got older, well... I guess I started to agree with Dante in Clerks. Also the reasons I listed above. I started thinking a lot more critically about movies--less like a typical fan-boy, and more like a literary analyst. Simply put, I became more of a snob and started to realize that not only is Ep V the best Star Wars movies, but in many ways it's the only SW movie that's actually good as a movie. You know, for people who don't love something just for being sci-fi / fantasy, I mean.

Becoming more of a movie snob ended up ruining Harry Potter for me. I could never get into those. Snobbery turns out to be dangerous.

[Monde Luna]

ESB is probably my favorite because of Yoda his character. You can see how he has been affected by III and how cautious he is w/ Luke. But I am a Ewok fan thats one of the reasons why I love RotJ, also an awesome movie. I guess I just have a soft spot for furry characters in SW.