I’ve been calling this oneBrian Wilson’s Acid. It’s a remix of Beach Boys music … so it naturally has lyrical content about bedroom antics, Star Wars, and Chris Farley.
Repost I guess? It’s kind of out there…
Anybody who knows me well also knows that my favorite Star Wars film is the Empire Strikes back. I consider it to be one of the best science fiction films ever made (my complete list extends to Blade Runner, Alien, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but we’ll leave those for another day). Something never sat right for me in Jedi, and it has always been difficult to articulate what it is without referring to the Ewoks or the silly musical number from the Special Edition. As Mike Stoklasa’s Red Letter Media Review of the Phantom Menace addressed, Jar Jar Binks wasn’t really the problem with the Phantom Menace, and in the same fashion, the Ewoks were not really the problem with ROTJ (though I still will talk about them in this review). In my analysis, I will discuss four problems I have with ROTJ. I will, however, afterward talk about all the things I love about ROTJ and why it is still a satisfying conclusion to the Star Wars movie mythos.
Problems With Return Of The Jedi
Too Many Assumptions Are Made/Are You Stupid?
As much as I love when R2-D2 shoots Luke’s lightsaber into the air, it leaves me with a few questions. How did Luke know that R2 would be on the sail barge? I suppose Lando must have told him that R2-D2 would be in position, but it goes a little farther than that. Luke makes too many assumptions about what Jabba will do with the droids. Jabba could have easily scrapped R2-D2 and C-3P0. Whoops, looks like you’ll have to build another lightsaber, Luke.
ROTJ also makes me appreciate the benefits and drawbacks of good and bad communication respectively. Please tell me if I missed something, but why was the Rebel Fleet never in contact with the strike team, and why is the strike team never in contact with each other. Now, I understand the importance of radio silence, but with the technology available to the Rebels, they could have some kind of encryption on their signal. I mean, good gracious, Lando was leading the fleet into a dogfight without direct confirmation that the shields were down? I can’t count on my fingers how many times Lando says, “Han will have that shield down soon!” It’d be nice if he could have asked him.
The strike team themselves hold even more blame than the Rebel Fleet. Once again, radio contact would have been a great asset in the event of conflict, or a disruption of the plan. For this, I do not simply mean with the rest of the fleet, but with each other. If everyone were carrying a comlink, the aftermath of the speeder bike chase would have been Han or Luke giving Leia a call and regrouping at the shield generator. Tell me if I’m crazy please.
Oh, and someone please tell me why Luke allowed the Command Team of the strike team to be taken prisoner by Ewoks. This is often overlooked, but it doesn’t make any sense for Luke to tell Han to put his blaster away and let the furry bears take them all away. Do not tell me that it was the will of the force that they were captured so that they could be reunited with Leia and suddenly have an army of superhuman, stormtrooper-killing monsters. At the time of the scene, befriending the Ewoks should have been a low priority, as they were working in a limited time frame to destroy the shield generator.
Ewoks
Though I said above that the Ewoks are not the glaring problem with this film for me, I still would like to address the reason why I dislike them. This will be brief. If the Imperial Troops on Endor were the Emperor’s “best men”, then why did Ewoks decimate their forces? It may have been the incompetence of the generals or the overwhelming number of Ewoks, but something seems wrong. I understand the commentary of technology vs. naturalism, but it could have been illustrated just as clearly with a planet of Wookies. An army of Wookies and Sudo-Stormtroopers fought once in another film, actually.
The Relationship Between Han and Lando
Lando Calrissian was never a villain. Just like Han Solo, Lando in a bit of a sleaze-ball with a heart of gold deep down. It’s not hard to see why these guys can be great friends, but still have their rub. In the Empire Strikes Back, their introduction spoke volumes for this character trait. Leia and Han hit the nail on the head in an intimate scene directly preceding the famous dinner-scene. Leia says, “I don’t trust Lando”, to which Han retorts, “Well I don’t trust him either; he is my friend.” You really got a feel that their friendship was always an uneasy one. It really didn’t help when Lando betrayed him. Chewbacca tried to strangle Lando; I wonder what Han would have done after becoming unfrozen if he could get his hands on Lando.
As ROTJ demonstrated, Han would do nothing. The first time Han hears Lando’s voice is during the sail barge sequence, before which he was not told of Lando’s involvement (wisely kept discrete to conceal Lando’s identity to Jabba). Han jumps at the opportunity to save his friend. Instead of the dialogue, “Don’t move Lando, it’s all right, I can see a lot better”, I imagine Han saying, “MOTHERFUCKER!” with many exclamation points.
The problem from my end is that the audience has been given buffer time that the characters have not. The audience is comfortable with Lando now, but Han should still be unsure of his intentions. Han shouldn’t trust Lando completely and be wary of another betrayal. It would have made for great tension in the film if Lando and Han were unsure if they could rely on each other to execute their responsibilities to the rebellion. The ending would have seen them uniting as friends after having made amends.
Yoda and Ben Contradict The Jedi Doctrine
Until this point, I have only griped about my minor grievances; time to get serious, bitches. This section might piss people off the most.
Before I continue, I’d like to take a look at character motivations between Luke, Obi-wan, and Yoda. Luke’s motivation for becoming a Jedi Knight comes from common character tropes. He is a hero with a birthright of Jedi Knighthood. Until he discovered the true identity of his father, to him, becoming a Jedi would bring him spiritually closer to his father, to whom he admired and aspired. “I want to learn the ways of the force and become a Jedi like my father.”
Obi-wan Kenobi wanted to bring Luke to his full potential. He knew that Luke needed guidance and wanted to mentor him in the path of the light side of the force, to keep him from darkness. “Your father wanted you to have this when you were old enough, but your uncle wouldn’t allow it. He feared you might follow old Obi-wan on some damn fool idealistic crusade like your father did (chuckles).”
Yoda did not want to train Luke. He was basically forced into it by Obi-wan, in assurance that Luke would finish what he began and not give into the dark side as his father had. Yoda warmed up to Luke, but was not initially a supporter of Luke’s drive to become a Jedi. “Adventure. Excitement. A Jedi craves not these things. You are reckless!”
Things that are said in done in ROTJ characterize Yoda and Obi-wan as men with ulterior motives and deceitful to Luke, which is unfortunate because they were never portrayed this way before. Of two contradictions that annoy me, the least offensive is the way that Obi-wan handles the identity of Darth Vader. I actually think that what Obi-wan told Luke in the original Star Wars was appropriate. Luke wasn’t ready for the burden and needed someone to believe in. This was, of course, Yoda’s explanation for the situation. “Not ready for the burden were you.” Obi-wan’s explanation to Luke immediately afterward, however, was horseshit. It doesn’t matter from which “point of view” he was speaking. He lied to Luke to protect him, and should have acknowledged the fact and admitted fault, as a mentor should.
I assume that my next point should naturally be about Luke’s kinship to Leia. However, my second grievance actually has nothing to do with this subject. I felt that it was foreshadowed enough in ESB to be plausible. I have no problem with this. My second grievance concerns both Obi-wan and Yoda, and deals with the responsibilities of a Jedi and a certain notion about destiny. For this, please refer to the character motivations above.
Luke is told, “A Jedi uses the force for knowledge and defense, never for attack.” by Yoda in ESB. Luke’s training in ESB is also a result of the three main character motivations. Luke wants to fulfill his birthright and become a Jedi. Obi-wan wants to lead Luke on the path of good. Yoda decides to help fulfill Obi-wan’s obligation in his stead. Never is there a moment in which Luke declares, “I must avenge my father” or Obi-wan and Yoda say, “Fulfill your destiny and destroy the Sith (though the word Sith is never uttered in the original trilogy)!” No, the reasons for Luke’s training seem noble and true, which makes me question the following dialogue from ROTJ.
“You cannot escape your destiny. You must face Darth Vader again,” says Ben Kenobi, to which Luke responds, “I can’t kill my own father.” Ben sighs and finishes, “Then the Emperor has already won. You were our last hope.” My problem is that this dialogue (and similar dialogue from Yoda) turns Luke into a pawn in Obi-wan’s quest to “bring balance to the force” rather than a noble Jedi Knight who is free to choose his own destiny. Luke turns this archetype on its head by proving that Anakin could be redeemed.
My final peace on this point is that the magical nature of the force begins to diminish when faced with prophecy, destiny, and manipulation. It comes off a little bit like the manipulative Jedi council we see in the prequel films. I believe that Yoda and Obi-wan Kenobi were noble Jedi, but ROTJ leaves us unsure in some places.
Everything Awesome About Return Of The Jedi
The Tatooine Sequence
The opening of the film is fantastic. The midsection of the film bogs down pacing wise, but the Tatooine sequence makes up for it. Even with my grievance of R2-D2 and the lightsaber, I have to admit that when look flips back up from the plank and turns on that green saber on for the first time, I get chills. Jabba’s palace is also a great example of set-up and pay-off. As R2-D2 and C-3P0 transverse Jabba’s palace, we are introduced to elements that pay off later. We see the rancor pit, so we feel a sense of danger when Luke falls in later. We learn about Jabba’s temper, which pays off in the sail barge battle. There’s also Princess Leia’s badassery as a bounty hunter and a force-choking Luke. Oh, and there’s Carrie Fischer in the bikini.
The Death Star, Vader, and The Emperor
Making a second Death Star actually makes perfect sense. The Emperor is characterized as obsessive and plain evil. If anyone would try to rebuild a battle station that commits acts of genocide, it would be Palpatine. Vader is also fantastically characterized. His conflict is clear in both David Prose’s body language and James Earl Jones’ vocal performance. You can see that he loves his son, but cannot resist the dark side of the force.
Using The Characters Right
The best part about this being the third film in a trilogy is that there are two previous films to develop the characters. Not only do the filmmakers continue develop these characters, but they also have nods to previously established traits. None of these seem forced and are quite a lot of fun to watch.
We learn that Leia is a Skywalker, which naturally includes a predisposition for piloting. Leia rarely pilots, but when she jumps on the speeder bike with a displeased Luke at her tail, it makes sense. She picks up on it quickly, with Jedi reflexes you might say. Her character trait of “someone’s got to save our skins” also goes without saying here.
C-3P0, who initially claims that he is a mere interpreter and not a storyteller, regales the Ewoks with tales of the rebellion. Han and Leia exchange their famous lines from ESB, but in role reversal. Han gives Lando the “not a scratch line”. C-3P0 sighs and says, “Here we go again”.
Easily the best characterization in ROTJ is Luke Skywalker’s temptation. Luke’s greatest strength and most vital character flaw is his loyalty to his friends. It was used in ESB and is used again in ROTJ. Luke never sought power, so the Emperor could never use it to tempt him. Only when taunted with the threat of the destruction of his kin Luke yields to his inner rage.
It’s STAR WARS DAMMIT!
Goddamn this movie is fun to watch. It feels like a great adventure film. We have great character moments, cool science fiction shit, and the battle between good and evil. The special effect when ships go into hyperspace is just fucking awesome. Luke, Han, Leia, Chewbacca, Vader, and even Jabba have great dialogue that just makes you smile. There is a speeder bike chase through a forest! The dogfight in this film is also, in my opinion, the best visual spectacle in any Star Wars film. It doesn’t look fake and busy like the prequels, and the practical model effects have been perfected to the point of sheer awesome. It’s just great.
In Conclusion …
I love Return Of The Jedi, but it will always be second to Empire Strikes Back in my book. It doesn’t mean it’s bad. I think it’s still pretty damn good. At least it’s not a prequel.
- Furstie
