The
second installment of the original Star Wars trilogy,
Episode V--The Empire Strikes Back is, perhaps,
even better than its predecessor. From its stunning
and transporting opening on the ice planet Hoth and
Luke's hallucination of Obi Wan, the film begins on
a much more substantial tack. This is probably mostly
due to the work of Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan,
the screenwriters for this outing. The Empire Strikes
Back is slick and smart. Lucas recedes to a kind
of creative Presidency and deploys substantial talents
to create the film. Along with Kasdan and Brackett,
Irvin Kershner, a brilliant visualist, is brought in
to helm as director, and the blockbuster box office
take of the original Star Wars brought Episode
V a substantially greater budget.
The
Empire Strikes Back is that rarest of film treats--a
sequel that crystalizes what was great about the original,
raises the import of what we knew then and spins a larger
universe for the first story with the second. Episode
V is a much quieter film; there is no Death Star,
no impending planetary doom. As the middle act of a
three part drama, it's darker and deepens the story,
placing our characters in moral and physical danger
greater than the trenches of a giant space station.
First,
the action set-ups with the amazing (yet totally impractical)
At-At Walkers takes our breath away, as we are confronted
not only with the truly awesome depth and power of the
Empire, but also the plucky, homespun virtuosity of
the Rebels. Leia and Han are in much deeper trouble,
trying not to fall in love and failing to notice that
they missed that boat in the last movie. Han is confident,
roguish and infinitely cool. We learn more about the
Force early on, how Luke has grown to be able to fetch
his saber and save his tail from the snow monster on
Hoth.
Luke
follows Obi Wan's spiritual suggestion and seeks out
the Jedi Master Yoda. There are some hijinks when he
encounters the tiny wrinkled sage who speaks, as someone
once said, like a fortune cookie. Frank Oz does wonders
to bring this puppet to life, achieving the first great
collaborative performance in a film between puppet and
master. Yoda is one of the movie's greatest creations:
part imp and part spiritual master, he is beguiling,
simple and powerful beyond our estimation. His training
of Luke is zen-like, but at times, Yoda shies from explaining
the Dark Side of the Force (perhaps because Lucas himself
had no idea how to explain it himself), and this is
a good thing. It deepens the mystery of the Force, both
its nature and the Jedi's relationship to it.
The
encounter in the cave is one of the movie's most daring
and symbolic pieces, presaging everything in the oddest
of ways. Yoda's training and Luke's resistiveness
are core to his failings as a student and will haunt
him later in this film. Yoda's simple exchange
with Luke about size and power--Luke's sulking,"You
want the impossible," and Yoda's, "Always
with you, it cannot be done"--is followed by Yoda
effortlessly lifting the giant X-Wing from the swamp
and sailing it through air like a parlor trick.
Luke speaks for us in that wondrous moment ("I
don't believe it...") and Yoda, his voice simple
and deep, as if coming from God, succinctly replies,
"That is why you fail." My Lord, Brackett
and Kasdan are good here.
Leia
and Han's deepening romance also gives a more grown-up
feel to this film; the humans are decidedly front and
center as all the whiz bang special effects technology
whirls around them. This, in fact, is the great strength
of the first two films: the world and techno gadgetry
is atmospheric. These films are about deep conflicts,
love and family, good versus evil, the power of ambition
and the obligation to do right. Nothing about The
Empire Strikes Back is weighed down by concept
(with the possible exception of a set piece about a
giant space-based worm).
Vader
returns, terrifying and supreme, the instrument of purposed
evil. He is shiny now, not matte, but every bit as fascinating.
There are tantalizing glimpses of offscreen activity
that are the peak of this movie's taste: the momentary
sighting of Vader's head as a mechanical device plants
his helmet on him. The ghostly apparition of the Emperor,
that root of evil at last gives us the face, or hood,
behind all this power.
Episode
V also marks the first appearance of an African-American
in the Star Wars world, Lando Calrissian. Played by
Billy Dee Williams with a suave swagger, we believe
that he and Han were cut from the same cloth, born of
the same world. Lando is interesting, but he is played
with a flat temerity at times that does not serve the
story. Still, his role as betrayer and redeemer are
well plotted; the film would not work without his presence.
R2D2 is his fun self, a goofball in a dark picture about
the loss of idealism and the testing of beliefs. C3P0
is affable but mostly ridiculous. His constant state
of disassembly is cheap but effective.
This
film is no day in the park. The characters are put through
the wringer in this outing. Luke confronts the horrible
truth, which, to most of us in our childhood came as
the largest shock of all time, ahead of Santa's identity
and the Tooth Fairy's wallet. There is a stunning poetry
in the moment that his parentage is revealed. Luke loses
a hand, something personal and deeply traumatizing,
which symbolically places him on a path toward Vader's
fate of becoming, as Obi Wan once put it, "more
machine than man."
There
is also an offer by Vader which is, on its surface,
stunning. He offers Luke rulership over the galaxy,
as father and son. And Vader is hard to read; we don't
know if this is a subterfuge to defeat Luke and turn
him to the Dark Side or if it's a threat to unite and
decapitate the Empire of its emperor.
Han
faces a fate that is utterly unique, a brilliant invention
that is horrific and dandy for the plot. His exchange
with Leia--her "I love you," his "I know"--is
one for the ages.
The
film is beautifully shot and precisely paced. It looks
amazing, even today, and it runs like the greatest of
big films. It is thrilling, its plot revelations astounding
and it raises the whole universe to another level of
credibility and destiny. It leaves us in an utterly
dark hole, a deep place of somber reflection at what
a dangerous enemy can do when confronted. As Luke stares
at his new hand and Leia pines for a lost Han, we know
that the final chapter, whatever it is, has already
been heavily paid for. What could possibly come next?
Dileep
can be reached at dileep@babblog.com. |
