Return of the Jedi (1983) 20th Century Fox/Sci-Fi-Action-Adventure RT: 134 minutes Rated PG (sci-fi-action violence) Director: Richard Marquand Screenplay: Lawrence Kasdan and George Lucas Music: John Williams Cinematography: Alan Hume Release date: May 25, 1983 (US) Cast: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, David Prowse, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Peter Mayhew, Frank Oz (voice), James Earl Jones (voice), Sebastian Shaw, Ian McDiarmid, Alec Guinness, Denis Lawson, Kenneth Colley, Warwick Davis, Jeremy Bulloch. Box Office: $309.1 million (US)/ $475.1 million (World)
Rating: ****
I consider Return of the Jedi, the concluding installment of the original Star Wars trilogy, to be the best of the three movies. Simply put, it ROCKS! That’s not to say it’s a perfect movie. I think the Ewoks are a bit too cutesy and an obvious merchandizing maneuver on Lucas’ part to introduce that year’s must-have Christmas present a la Cabbage Patch Kids. I don’t hold this against Return of the Jedi at all since this has become a common practice for filmmakers like Lucas and Steven Spielberg (all that E.T. junk!). I have another complaint about Jedi, but I’ll reserve it for later in the review as it has to do with one of Lucas’ later alterations.
I went to see Return of the Jedi opening weekend (Memorial Day) in 1983 and it blew me away! I already knew it was going to be great. Unfortunately, I also already knew about the surprises it had in store for fans thanks to a newspaper article that revealed everything about the plot. The article was published about a month before the movie’s release. I’m still kicking myself for reading it. Despite this, I absolutely LOVED Return of the Jedi. I still do. It’s one of the most exciting sci-fi movies that I’ve ever seen thanks to a great script by Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan (The Empire Strikes Back) and the expert direction of Richard Marquand (Eye of the Needle). What’s interesting is that David Lynch (The Elephant Man) was originally supposed to direct, but decided to do Dune instead. Can you image how it would have turned out with Lynch at the helm? I guarantee you it would have been a much different movie.
Now for the plot! This one hits the ground running top speed with Luke Skywalker (Hamill) and the gang making a rescue attempt at the palace of Jabba the Hut on Tatooine. As you undoubtedly recall, Han Solo (Ford) was frozen in carbonite and taken to Jabba for failing to repay a huge loan. They manage to free their friend from his frozen prison, but Jabba refuses to let them get away without a fight. It’s an awesome sequence with Luke fighting a huge slimy monster in Jabba’s dungeon and a scantily-clad Princess Leia (Fisher) strangling the space gangster with a chain. They all get away with their lives and once again go their separate ways.
Luke returns to Dagobah where a dying Yoda (Oz) confirms that Darth Vader (Prowse) is his father. The spirit of Obi-Wan (Guinness) appears and drops another bomb about his family history. Meanwhile, Han and Leia rendezvous with the Rebel Alliance to take part in their final assault on the evil Empire. It seems that they’re in the middle of constructing a new Death Star and that the Emperor (McDiarmid) himself is overseeing the project. The plan is to destroy the new Death Star, but in order to do that, they must first destroy the station’s shield generator located on the forest moon of Endor inhabited by a race of furry little creatures called Ewoks. Luke, Han, Leia, C-3PO (Daniels), R2-D2 (Baker) and Chewbacca (Mayhem) lead the strike team on Endor while Lando Calrissian (Williams) leads the air squadron in the Millennium Falcon. Upon sensing that his presence on Endor endangers everybody else, Luke goes to confront Vader face to face. Vader convinces the Emperor that he can turn the young hero to the Dark Side. Yeah, that might happen!
Like I said, Return of the Jedi is freaking awesome! BUT, I do have one point of contention about the updated version. Remember at the very end when Luke looks over to see the spirits of Obi-Wan, Yoda and Anakin Skywalker watching him? Why oh why did Lucas find it necessary to digitally replace original actor Sebastian Shaw with Hayden Christensen, the young untalented actor that portrays Anakin in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith? Is it for the sake of continuity? Personally, I prefer consistency over continuity. Lucas should have left it alone. My motto is “Darth Vader, NOT Darth Hayden”.
Regardless, Jedi is a very satisfying conclusion to an incredible sci-fi-fantasy trilogy. It rates a perfect score in terms of acting, character development, special effects, music score and excitement level. It’s so great that you overlook little things like the speeder bike chase through the Endor forest. Why not fly above the trees to avoid crashing into them? I’m just saying.
Now I’d like to discuss something that I noticed about all three of the original Star Wars movies. It has to do with the evolution of Luke’s character. In Star Wars, he’s dressed in white. In The Empire Strikes Back, he wears gray. In Jedi, he wears black. Obviously these colors reflect what’s going on inside Luke. They’re an externalization of his inner conflict. Think about it.
Like its immediate predecessor, Return of the Jedi succeeds on every level. The special effects are even better in this one; it’s the first film to utilize THX technology. The bottom line is that this is one fantastic movie! It’s a reminder that summer movies used to be true events. Whenever I watch these Star Wars movies, I feel like that dorky teenage movie freak that lived inside theaters all summer long. Again I say, pure magic!
TRIVIA TIDIT: The original title was Revenge of the Jedi, but was changed to Return after it was pointed out that revenge goes against a Jedi’s beliefs.
