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Challenging The Original "Star Wars"-- The Empire Strikes Back

Updated: Jun 22, 2023

It goes without saying that as a filmmaker, once you make what is literally a perfect origin story that ends with a satisfying third act and doesn't really advertise any sequel, the toughest task is, you guessed it, crafting a sequel. And making a sequel that challenges the previous movie and goes beyond the themes it presented and is a daring feat? Oh, boy, that is literally the most daunting mission you can undertake. And that, sometimes, might not be advisable to do on your own. Which is exactly what George Lucas followed with The Empire Strikes Back. Directed by Irvin Kershner and supervised by George Lucas, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is the biggest movie of 1980 and probably one of the most influential movies of all time.





After the Battle Of Yavin in A New Hope, Luke and the Rebels are hiding out in a remote icy planet to ensure their survival whereas the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader is adamant about turning Luke to the dark side of the Force. Luke, Han, Leia, Chewie and their droid friends R2-D2 and C-3PO must embark on another space-roaming adventure, not to fight, but solely for surviving.

Or, if you want to boil down the plot to one word: Survival. The key thing about The Empire Strikes Back is that it goes way beyond what A New Hope established. Characters are way more fleshed out, with more flaws dictating over their actions leading them to their suitable consequences, pressuring them to make choices they wouldn't make in normal conditions, leaving them at a precipice from where they will reach their ultimate arc in Return Of The Jedi. Locations are also vastly improved, with all-new planets, none reappearing from the previous movie. Set design is also more impressive this time with even more capable visual and special effects. From an artistic standpoint, this movie is basically flexing the financial success Lucas garnered from A New Hope.

Everything is bigger, better, more impressive than the first one.

It's also darker than the first one. The Empire Strikes Back really, excruciatingly challenges the mindset and tone established in A New Hope. In some ways, Empire is more of a perverted love letter to Hope. This movie really pushes the characters to their absolute limits, places them in unforgiving circumstances. In a sort of morbid way, the heroes can be perceived as the villain, with the actual villain towering over them, like a hero usually does. Speaking of villains, Darth Vader, wow.

In A New Hope, Darth Vader was introduced as this dangerous, angry warlord. But The Empire Strikes Back really catapults the character complexity of Vader to a very unprecedented precipice. Audiences will be left shocked in the third act, and Darth Vader's name etched in their mind. It's no doubt that Empire's far more complex writing than the more upbeat, innocent one of Hope, put Vader top among the most memorable of movie villains. Vader, in unexpected ways, steals the spotlight in Empire.

It's no surprise that Vader is so much loved by people throughout the world. Kershner and Lucas did a charm with Vader and in a broader way, The Empire Strikes Back. (Even though Lucas reportedly wasn't all too happy with how Empire turned out, signifying that he had different plans than Kershner.)

Kershner's directorial magic painfully sears through ever frame of the movie, its shot beautifully, the cinematography, framing choice, lighting tricks, everything molds together beautifully in a passionately crafted, pleasingly structured movie. It's almost like a well-orchestrated symphony.


The pacing is also top-notch. Not one moment, not one frame feels dull or unnecessary. And its beautiful to look at. Every location is crisp with charm, and vigor to it. Kershner did some crazy magic with this movie.

So did the absolute powerhouse of a cast. Returning stars Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew and David Prowse/James Earl Jones as the excellent Darth Vader, with newcomers like Billy Dee Williams and Frank Oz really bring a scale of charm, nuance and complexity to the characters and due to the complex writing of Empire, a whole new layer of empathy. Especially James Earl Jones and Frank Oz, whose excellent work I won't talk about to avoid spoilers. (Even though Empire is one of the most iconic and talked-about movies of all time and every scene from it has already been dissected to great lengths.)

And how can we talk about a Star Wars movie without John Williams? A New Hope already had a memorable score. To outdo that would be impossible.

Well, Williams did the impossible.

But then again, The Empire Strikes Back outdid A New Hope in many ways, so the aspect of soundtrack isn't that far off. Williams revolutionized the orchestra of Star Wars forever with the composition of heavy-hitting tracks like "The Imperial March", "Yoda and The Force", "Carbonite Chamber." The soundtrack is blaring with brass, bass, solid orchestra, and really peaking beyond the stature of legendary.


The moment that revolutionized Star Wars forever, and gave the audience a glimpse of how big of a narrative impact it can leave.




With all the praise I am throwing at the movie, you would think that the movie was received positively by the audience. Well.......

Here's the thing: The Empire Strikes Back was the biggest movie of 1980, riding high off of the success of and anticipation from A New Hope, but its reception was a mixed bag. People weren't accustomed to the notion of sequels that much back then, and A New Hope was a perfectly written movie, so people didn't know what to expect from the sequel, other than a rehash of the first one that ends with giddy march and medals all around and whatnot. But the notion of irony would have it otherwise. Empire ended on a note that was, and this is not my verdict but from people directly after coming out of a screening, a cliffhanger. (Here's the thing: whether a movie ends on a high or a low note, I never perceive it as a cliffhanger unless the filmmakers are intentionally advertising a sequel. Now, yes, Empire had a follow-up movie, Return Of The Jedi, but the ending of Empire was an absolute, so if Star Wars ended there, it would've been a not pleasant, but a hard-hitting ending.) There was even backlash regarding the movie's ending, and it wasn't received well by the vast audience. That is until Return Of The Jedi came out. After Return's release and upon years and years of dissection, Empire slowly climbed up to the stature of legendary, one that had an absolutely shocking ending, careful pacing, well-written characters and whatnot, and finally became the industry-revolutionizing film, a title it earned sometime in the 90's, and this achievement still rings true. The Empire Strikes Back affected the craft of filmmaking in many ways. A lot of directors, writers, producers take inspiration from this movie to create something close, if not equal to its legacy.

Whenever someone asks me about Star Wars and whether they should watch it or not, I always tell them to watch at least the Original Trilogy, if not all the 9 movies, and that is hugely due to the effect that The Empire Strikes Back has on it. I can't recommend this movie enough. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back remains one of the most carefully-crafted, visually-pleasing, narratively-tight-written movies of all time.

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