CT Can someone please explain why Episode V is considered the best?

I have no idea... my sister loves it, but it's always been at the bottom of my list. Not because it's a bad movie, just because it's kind of like... enh... Maybe because I already knew that Darth Vader was Luke's father so the main thrill of the movie was lost... not sure...

 

Agree with this. I think the middle section of the film with Han and Leia is too slow and thus what we end up with is the space slug scene which I find (imo) is one of, if not the weakest scene in the whole OT.

I do love ESB, but i enjoy both ANH and ROTJ more!

 

Personally, I also could have done without that scene. I don't find the movie "too slow" though. In fact I have always also enjoyed "slow" parts in movies, don't want nonstop action. Some consider the Tatooine parts in ANH "slow" as well, but I never did. I consider the first two movies almost equal, though I enjoy ANH more, while I always found ROTJ to be somewhat inferior, but that's just my opinion.

 

When I first saw ESB I was 11 and I did find the middle a bit slow and I did not like romance and kissing and all that. I stileld liked it but not as much as the first film, which was just Star Wars at the time.
As I grew older I saw a lot of qualities that my 11 year old self did not.

I too hold ESB and ANH about equal but for different reasons.
ANH is more fun and exciting and Lucas does a lot of world-building and setting-building without getting bogged down in exposition or overly wordy scenes.
And it had the good kind of political plot, short and simple but still interesting.

ESB is overall better made and is more ambitious and isn't just the same movie as the first one, which is typical for sequels. The same movie again but only bigger, louder and faster.
I didn't catch all that when I first saw it but I became more appreciative of the the film as I grew odler.
While the reverse happened to RotJ, first I liked it better, more action, more fights, explosions, less romance no cliff hanger and the good guys win.
Later the flaws of the film grew more noticeable to me.
It is still good but not great.

Bye for now.
The Guarding Dark

 

my two cents

 

Everything has already been said, but I love it because it feels the most operatic, the most like an intimate theatre performance on a stage, especially the Dagobah scenes. The very operatic score full of memorable leitmotifs help of course. If you listen to the end titles, you can almost imagine a stage performance where the actors come back out at the end of it to their own musical theme one at a time to take a bow.

Oh, that score. With the soaring harps and choral sections. Yoda's theme, The Imperial March. At the beginning of the track "Carbon Freeze/Darth Vader's Trap/Departure of Boba Fett" listen to how Williams weaves the first part of the main theme three times with three instruments and responds to it with the second half played four times. He was at the height of his powers here imo. Wonderful.

As subversion of expectations go, putting the huge battle at the beginning rather than the end as the climax was genius, but from then on I feel that it becomes a very small and intimate, character driven film.

I get why it is often labelled the "dark" episode of the saga, but for me it is simply the episode where the stakes are laid bare. The episode with an underlying current of menace and disaster all the way through it. It has this air of dread and fear that runs all the way through it that is hard to explain.

Harrison Ford is superb in TESB and I always feel that it is his movie (ROTJ is Mark Hamill's, particularly the third act)

It is hard really to convey why I love it so much. But as I have already said, it was lightning in a bottle for me. Everything just worked to create this absolute timeless classic.

 

The TIE chase through the asteroids is the most beautiful spaceship shot of the whole Trilogy and they did it with models.

 

As much as I love the asteroid chase I think the assault on the DS2 in ROTJ trumps it in every way.

 

The Imperial March is one of Williams' best compositions.

 

It's almost balletic, the way the ships weave and dance between the asteroids.. They become almost characters in themselves. Beautiful is the right word.

 

TESB also has some really unusual planets for Star Wars. Just think of how many desert planets there are. We get to see 1) Hoth, a planet in the midst of an ice age, 2) Dagobah, a swampy world, and 3) Bespin, a gas giant. Somehow, the beauty and peculiarity of these planets mesh well with the dramatic story.

 

Dagobah in particular is my favourite, because the sets used are very theatrical. You can tell it’s a soundstage but that somehow adds to its surrealism. It’s hard to convey what I mean, but the closest analogy I can find is like how Tim Burton manages to concoct these little vignette scenes that look like they should be in a snow globe. Think of the quirky little park with the bridge at the beginning of Batman Returns, or the cornfield scene with the scarecrow at the beginning of sleepy hollow. They look like miniature scenes from the top of a cake. Dagobah evokes the same kind of feeling.

 

Best score ever. Brilliant script. The sparring between Han and Leia, the teaching of Luke by Yoda. Lando's betrayal, the I am you father twist, Boba Fett appearing like some gunslinger out of a western, the cliffhanger downbeat ending that everyone is trying to emulate these days. The cinematography. Everything about this movie is first rate.

 

This is probably my favourite scene from The Empire Strikes Back (particularly with the original Boba Fett voice)

Boba Fett shows Vader absolutely no fear and Vader in return seems to have a kind of grudging respect for him.

Lando is frantically trying to maintain some form of damage limitation and all the while Han is screaming in the background.

The set design is fantastic too, I love the colour of the corridor. Very Flash Gordon. Wonderful.

 

Yes. Almost like you're right there in the Sky City of the Hawk-Men.

 

I know it has become customary now to be a fan of Boba Fett, almost to the point of making him uncool, but they really did hit a home run with the character. Sometimes, you get something that is absolutely right and I think that was the case for Fett.

It's a shame George felt the need to revisit the character and insert him clumsily into the special edition, then give him a backstory in the prequels.

Less was definitely more.

I wonder if he will make an appearance in "The Mandalorian" ?

 

It's also worth noting how calmly Vader threatens Lando with leaving the garrison in his city. Boba Fett is the only character besides Tarkin and Sidious who feels confident enough to speak his mind to Vader.

 

That's what makes Vader so cool and enduring as a villain. His threats and intimidation are always slightly indirect, but sinister and measured as if he is enjoying himself. He really is a movie baddie to hiss at, but is slightly comical at the same time. Some of his lines are great, and delivered so brilliantly by James Earl Jones.

"I find your lack of faith disturbing"
"We would be honoured if you would join us"
"Good. It would be unfortunate if I had to leave a garrison here"
"Perhaps I can find new ways to motivate them"
"Be careful not to choke on your aspirations Director!"

 

I enjoy ESB quite a bit, but I can see how aspects of it might not appeal to some people. For me, one of its negatives is that there really aren't any moments that make you want to stand up and cheer. Yeah, I know, everybody loves how dark it is, and I appreciate that, too, but there's something to be said for moments that make the theater audience cheer, like when Luke (and Lando) blow up the Death Star. Or when the saber flies into Rey's hand. Or when Jabba's sail barge explodes. Or when Holdo kamikazes into the Supremacy.. Etc, etc. ESB really didn't have any of those kinds of "YEAH!!!" fist-pumping moments. I guess toppling the AT-AT was supposed to give us a bit of that, but it didn't quite achieve it for me.
The other negative for me is C3P0. To be fair, I don't think he bothered me when I was a kid, and the movie is aimed at kids, so I guess that means it worked. But watching it now as an adult... ugh.... it's too much, especially when he won't shut up during the final act on Cloud City.

 

I remember when I first saw this on betamax video (yes I'm that old, but I was VERY young at the time!) and even as a small boy I thought to myself "That was more about people than spaceships and stuff". I think that's why it's my favourite. There's just something human and real about it. If the original is about grand adventure and taking a stand for what's right - then this one is about life in general. Sometimes best laid plans don't always work out - but giving up is never an option.

That's what I take away from it,

 

I've shared this but my family went to see ESB and we got let in as the closing credits were on. Hearing the love theme, it just sounded so emotional and intense. Everything just got taken to another level.

 

When I've shown this one to my kid in the past - I'll often pause and ask them if they get what's going on. If not I make a point of explaining.

 

TESB makes you swim in the pain. This film peels the onion back and you dive into people's emotions.

 

It's not my favourite SW movie, not by a long shot. But if I were to look at the other side of the coin and tell you why I think other people think it's the best:

- It's a very well put together movie, it's clean, the cinematography is good and the camera always in the right place.

- the acting is probably the best of the three in the OT

- The reveal always tops the 10 lists in 'greatest movie moments of all time'

- 'this guy's wise' no not ewoks talking about C-3PO but the green master himself, Yoda

- It's the movie where Vader is the main bad guy without anybody holding his leash, he makes his own decisions and comes across cool as a cucumber doing it.

- it's ending and the anticipation on what happens next.

- Han and Leia romance

- a great duel that lasts for awhile, probably the greatest in the OT

- Boba Fett