Subject: REVIEW: STAR WARS: RETURN OF THE JEDI (SPECIAL EDITION) (1997)

From: [email-masked] (Ram Samudrala)
Date: 18 Mar 1997 17:03:40 GMT

STAR WARS: RETURN OF THE JEDI (SPECIAL EDITION)
                       A film review by Ram Samudrala
                        Copyright 1997 Ram Samudrala

After /Star Wars: A New Hope/ and /Star Wars: The Empire Strikes
Back/, it was clear that George Lucas had something hot in his hands.
At this point, Lucas was under some pressure, and it would've been
easy to produce a followup that was a disaster and everyone down.
/Star Wars: Return of the Jedi/ shows Lucas' ingenuity: he combines
the best elements of the previous two episodes and produces a movie
that is not only technologically advanced, in terms of special
effects, but ties the loose ends together in a consistent whole.

The plot is similar to /Star Wars: A New Hope/.  The Evil Empire has
built a new killing machine, much more powerful than the Death Star
(even though it has the same weak points as far as blowing it up is
concerned).  The Rebel Alliance must destroy it before it destroys
them. 

Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), along with Princess Leia (Carrie
Fisher), Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee
Williams), C3PO (Anthony Daniels), and R2D2 (Kenny Baker) tie up the
first loose thread by the rescuing Han Solo (Harrison Ford) from the
clutches of the evil Jabba the Hutt (Toby Philpott).  Then Luke
returns to the Dagobah system to finish his training (thread number
two) with Yoda (Frank Oz) and makes it there just in time. The
nine-hundred-year-old Jedi Master dies and joins Obi-Wan Kenobi in the
great beyond.  Luke learns from Yoda that he has a twin sister and
must confront Darth Vader before he can become a proper Jedi Knight
(and that's two more threads tied up for you).  

Meanwhile, the Rebel Alliance begins planning their attack on the
Empire's weapon.  Luke and his friends are responsible for destroying
the shield protecting the new weapon so Lando and the Alliance crew
can destroy the revamped Death Star.  As they approach Endor, the moon
containing the shield controls, Darth Vader (David Proust, voice of
James Earl Jones) and Luke sense each other's presence.  Luke then
confronts Darth Vader and tries to convert him to the good side.

Up till now, the most fearsome villain in /Star Wars/ was Darth
Vader.  But Lucas manages to create an even more impressive one, just
as he begins to change Darth Vader into a good guy.  The new villain
is Darth Vader's master, the evil Emperor (Ian McDiarmid), who looks
feeble and old but possess extraordinary Jedi powers (presumably from
his alliance with the dark side).  When the Emperor realises he cannot
convert Luke to the dark side, he begins to slowly and painfully kill
Luke.  Darth Vader, seeing Luke lying helplessly on the floor while
the Emperor exhibits pure evil, feels a spark of compassion and kills
the Emperor (a little too easily, but it's better than having a
sustained fight).  In doing so, he finally redeems himself and joins
Obi-Wan and Yoda.

Burning questions remain: how did the evil Emperor rise to power?  How
did Darth Vader convert to the dark side and become his slave?  How
were the Jedi Knights wiped out? It is good that we see the middle
three episodes first, before the prequels, as a lot of suspense about
Darth Vader's and Luke Skywalker's origins would've been removed.
George Lucas timed the release of special editions well.  After seeing
/Return of the Jedi/, I can't wait to see the prequels.

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