Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980) Directed by Irvin Kershner. With Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Billy Dee Williams.
In 1977 the cinematic world changed with the release of George Lucas’ Star Wars. Few saw it coming but going to the cinema was never going to be the same again. Star Wars set imaginations alight around the globe with its optimistic grandeur and sweeping romantic themes of good vs evil. The Empire Strikes Back ripped up the ‘difficult second album” rulebook when it was released in 1980, taking the fun of Star Wars and furthering it into a captivating tour-de-force of space drama and unexpected character development.
The film fleshes out the characters we fell in love with the first time around adding more depth and humanity. Darth Vader is more ruthless and irritable this time, choking his generals for their incompetence amid his escalating frustrations in tracking down those responsible for the destruction of the first Death Star. The sound of Vader’s breathing mask is alone an ominous one. The script by Lawrence Kasdan and Leigh Brackett has a shocking dramatic sting in its tale that ensured Star Wars was to live on as far more than just a one-hit-wonder.
The lighting, editing, shot compositions, camera work and art design are exceptional, helping to make the lived-in universe of Star Wars once again feel like a tangible, real place to inhabit for two hours. While Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker begins to lose some of his naivety amid a journey of personal discovery, Harrison Ford piles on the roguish charm as Han Solo – bantering and bickering with Carrie Fisher’s spiky Princess Leia between dodging asteroids and the laser-fire of Super Star Destroyers and Tie Fighters.
Once again, John Williams’ score is a thing magnificence, layering the high drama of new romantic themes on top of the already established swashbuckling ones. The Imperial March is a resounding wallop around the ear-holes, projecting dominance and ill-intentioned power with a musical force that would blow away any heavy metal band, even with their amplifiers ‘turned up to 11’.
Then we have the Jedi Master Yoda, a wonderfully eccentric creation and a fine twist on audience expectation. For those overly familiar with Star Wars, it’s worth reminding yourself just how surprising many of the story revelations of Empire were.
So much of what makes Empire so great is its brave story choices. The film chooses character development first yet still whacks an almighty visual punch with ambitious effects sequences that are decades ahead of their time.
Empire is like the perfect middle-act, succeeding in expanding the Star Wars universe out as an endlessly rich source. Dramatically, it is the most resonant of the original films, backed up by some of the richest production imagineable. To me The Empire Strikes Back is a mark of quality that gets better every time I see it. 5/5
Gareth Rhodes Film Reviews 
Yoda!! This is my favorite movie in the original trilogy!
Mine too, although if I want the feelgood factor, I’ll go with the original movie.
Actually my favourite movie of all, I love it so much, it’s damn near perfect.
It never puts a foot wrong and still transports me completely into a galaxy far, far away.
Excellent review. Although I love all three, Empire was always my favorite.
Thank you, Brett. It feels so huge and so human at the same time. If I were a film-maker, Empire would be a lesson in how to make perfect cinema.
Brilliant. Couldn’t have said any of it any better – and it all needed to be said. 😀
Why oh why could the rest of the movies not be as good?
Thank you, I’m hoping/praying that the new film gets us back on track. I’ve been encouraged by everything that I’ve seen, read and heard.
Great review Gareth, Empire is a great piece of epic cinematic SF for all the reasons you’ve cited!
Thank you Chris, I think I could write a series of books on my love of Empire. 😊
This is my favorite SW movie, and it’s actually my all-time favorite movie. It’s a classic that’s still just as good today as when it was released. Hopefully “The Force Awakens” can capture that same magic!
Fantastic review, really well articulated, Cant
wait until im reading the force awakens 5/5 review 🙂
You’ve summed this up perfectly. I forgot how well they build-up Yoda only to reveal the little guy as a Jedi Master!
Thank you, Ben. The over-familiarity with these stories and characters can often veil just how impactful the revelations and developments were. Empire is across-the-board great.