Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi
Directed by:
Richard MarquandComposer:
John WilliamsCast:
Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, Ian McDiarmid, Frank Oz, James Earl Jones, David Prowse (more)VOD (4)
Plots(1)
Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Lando Calrissian and their small army of friends rescue Han Solo from the clutches of the menacingly ugly Jabba the Hutt and go on to do battle with the Empire, even after Darth Vader has broken off in his own rebellion. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (10)
One film legend says that there was a fundamental difference in the approach to the world of cinema among the three most influential filmmakers of the 70s, namely Spielberg, Coppola, and Lucas. While Spielberg and Coppola literally lived for movies, exhaustively watched the performances of acclaimed film classics in film clubs, passionately discussed cinema with similarly affected individuals late into the night, and tried to push the world of film forward, Lucas was an enthusiastic reader of outdated comics, a viewer of 1950s TV space operas, and film theory was inherently foreign to him. However, he was able to capture the essence of popular culture and the transformation of the film audience from the 40s to the 70s, when the average age of cinema-goers continued to decrease. At the same time, due to sociological processes and the enrichment of society, there was a change in the perception of film. The infantilization fully manifested itself and the concept of a family film with a lower standard prevailed to be understood by a wider range of potential viewers. This is how Star Wars came into being, where a fairytale was wrapped in cosmic technology and the nonsense of the then-popular New Age movement. Lucas filmed it as visually and naively as possible, and precisely because of that, it had such a penetrating success. What succeeds attracts attention and the desire to imitate, and at a certain stage, when it becomes a cult, it is practically unquestionable and by itself carries the seal of quality regardless of its content. I saw the first three films of the famous series at an age when I found the motifs and execution, especially the "intellectual superstructure," laughable. Otherwise, the course of events is such that you see it for the first time at the age of 8-9, and then with an iron regularity, so you grow up with it and it has emotional and nostalgic value for you. Even if I grew up with it, I still would have most likely become a fan of the Star Trek series, which, despite its clichés, naivety, and the ideological basis that stems from multiculturalism, represents an honest work from the sci-fi genre. Star Wars only shares the space settings with the sci-fi genre. It is a fairytale fantasy that is neither clever nor innovative nor brilliantly directed. The later three episodes of the series are loaded with bombastic special effects, but they are more childish than anything, and they also lack the confident ironic detachment that emanates from every smirk of Han Solo. His portrayal by Harrison Ford somewhat resembles the much more pronounced ironic detachment of the Indiana Jones character. Personally, the entire series has nothing to offer me, and although there are understandably significant nuances between each film, what bothers me, such as the frenzied waving of lightsabers, the babbling about the Force, and the cute plush creatures as extraterrestrials, are typical of all the episodes. Therefore, this commentary applies to all parts of the Star Wars series. Overall impression: 20% for the set design.
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When someone says "Star Wars," I usually think of this movie because I feel like I saw it first. As a child, I liked the Ewoks, so I guess they enchanted me. Nowadays, however, this is the weakest part of the original trilogy for me, even though the final battle, where the fate of the entire war is decided, is still impressive and beautiful. No, not the space where weapons are fought, but mainly the one between the three characters, where emotions and the Force are mainly fought.
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This film seems to be setting the scene for the infantile boom from Episode 1, yet the ending and fateful duel with Darth Vader and the Emperor are among the highlights of the series. It is simply clear that Lucas was slowly succumbing to the size of his fiction world and its possible flexible adaptability to viewers of different ages. A slightly weaker link, yet he still has enough to keep in touch with the peak of science fiction...
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It’s too bad that Marquand didn’t have his turn until after the brilliant Episode V. In Return of the Jedi, unlike in the preceding episode, Lucas became heavy-handedly involved in this, and his little live Monchhichi almost buried the movie. Although, compared to what Lucas gave us in Episode I, here we get only a tolerable dose of childish lameness, however annoying it is. Compared to the preceding episode, the pace at the beginning of this is overly relaxed while at the end the pace is overly rushed. In any case, this is a respectable end to the original trilogy, although it could (and should!) have been significantly better.
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Apart from the fateful ending, it's just a childish and terribly stretched borefest with a weak production design, bad effects and long dialogues. In addition, there is almost no editing (a similar flaw from the other old episodes), so we get several minutes-long sequences connected into a long and pseudo-fateful film. Thank God for the new episodes. This is almost laughable and cannot be compared artistically. If it wasn’t for the sentimentality, it would be rated significantly weaker, even considering how long ago it was filmed, because the effects are by far the least of the problems.
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