CT The Empire Strikes Back 40th Anniversary

Luke getting his hand cut off was shocking. No one expected that to happen. ESB was nothing like anyone predicted. It's really nothing like ANH. They are both great.

 

Just got done watching it on Disney+ (which I got my free trial after much wrangling with the website), and that being the blu-ray version as I understand, it really showcases how well most of the film holds up visually after 40 years. The Imperial fleet still looks damn cool.

Otherwise? What can I say that hasn't been said? The Battle of Hoth is still damn awesome.

The asteroid chase is still damn awesome.

Yoda, and how he's revealed, is still damn awesome.

Vader is especially damn awesome.

C-3P0...is slightly more annoying than I remember him being. But not to any massive detriment to the whole.

So yeah. It's still the best of the OT, still holds up for the most part, and deserves its spot among other great scifi sequels--or great sequels period--like Aliens, Terminator 2, Wrath of Khan, and so forth. Long live Empire.

 

Amazing film. There are no other words to describe.

 

I really want to add my voice to the chorus here on this anniversary. ESB is my favorite Star Wars film, and my favorite motion picture.

A New Hope (or as we called it then, Star Wars) was fine. I remember being intrigued that so many of the grown ups were really excited by what, seemed to me, a kid's movie. I was a kid, and so it sort of felt like a great leveler to me- a rare, shared interest between generations. The movie was exciting and pleasant and I liked it. I got really interested in the toys, went to kindergarten and first grade, and finished off the 1970s.

I'd heard that there was going to be a Star Wars 2, although I really wasn't familiar with the concept of movie sequels at that point. I thought, "Oh, they're going to have another fun adventure. That's interesting." I thought that it was going to be like a TV series, and we were going to have the same characters and the familiar places, and maybe the new movie would start with the main characters still in the throne room, looking at their medals. So, we'll see the Rebel base, and maybe they'll all change back into the clothes they'd been wearing for the first part of the movie, go to Tatooine, and maybe they'll do some more stuff with Jawas. There'll be some problem, but there'll be a big space ship fight and then another medal ceremony. That's what happens on TV shows- you have the same characters doing somewhat different stuff, and wind up with the situation going back to normal.

At some point, the Time magazine arrived. The article had plenty of pictures, and none of them were of Tatooine. Snow?? They're not wearing the same clothes. I suppose if there's snow, they got to wear something different. What's Luke doing with the little guy in what looks like a swamp? Luke looks a little worse for wear, sitting on the ground there. Maybe the Falcon was flying over this planet and he fell out and this person is helping him. The caption on that picture says it's Han Solo, but he's all, what, covered in stuff. Well, in terms of appearances, it really doesn't look like Star Wars.

So, for my brother's birthday party, we were going to see Star Wars 2. I was prepared for there to be differences. Han's got sleeves on his jacket now, Luke doesn't have his white thing on, and there's snow. Also, according to the TV ad, Luke goes down a tunnel. The last clue I had that this wasn't going to be a reconstituted version of the first movie was when I saw the poster at the movie theater: Look at Han Solo and Princess Leia, like, horizontal. It makes it look like they're in love or something.

This is all to just describe what my 8 year old thought process and expectations were like. This movie wasn't like the one I'd seen 3 years before. It wasn't, well, pleasant. Everybody was having a hard time, but that makes it more interesting. There was just so much more emotion in ESB. And the good guys really suffered. And it just ends with most of the characters safe, but with kind of a whimper. The story's not finished! How can it end?

 

Its a shame that I forgot about who Luke's father was at the time of my first viewing. Being 4 and a half doesn't help with movie spoilers.

 

Caught the watch party of TESB tonight featuring Sam Witwer. He totally gets it, on a Filoni type level.

 

I have very nostalgia laden memories of watching it on TV as a kid during the Christmas holidays. It was always on at Christmas, and I always watched it again and again. To this day I can remember the ITV1 television link announcer guy who would announce it like this...

"And now on ITV1, get ready to blast off with Luke Skywalker in our Boxing Day movie, George Lucas' space fantasy epic "The Empire Strikes Back"

 

I was 9 when I saw TESB. The vision of Vader on Dagobah, when Vader falls off the carbon freezing platform after Luke waves his lightsaber at him, I thought those were robots that Luke killed that Vader sent after him. I do not have a memory of the "I am your father" moment or reaction.

 

Aren't these just the most beautiful things?

 

T.E.S.B, The G.O.A.T of all things Star Wars !

 

My favorite line in SW, and I think in any movie:

 

Chilling. James Earl Jones is such a great voice actor. The things he does with his voice. It's so much more than a deep voice.

 

Greetings everyone!

I wanted to let you know we are having a group watch of The Empire Strikes Back tonight at 8:45 EST in the SWC social thread known as the Oyu'baat Cafe. (formerly the CCC)

We would be honored if you would join us.

 

That Carbon Freeze set was a design triumph, it is absolutely epic. It is lit beautifully.

This is my favourite dialogue, I think that this is some profound stuff for a kids’ film.

 

Empire plays with a simplistic trope in a way that no other movie really has. You leave Star Wars with the feeling of this being a simple space adventure series. And then Empire starts off with the most simplistic of plots... THE BAD GUY IS AFTER THE GOOD GUY. But by the end of the movie, that simplistic plot premise is so overtly deep that it resonates in your soul. The bad guy doesn't want to kill the good guy, he wants the good guy to join him... because the good guy is his son.

 

Carrie's smile throughout that whole video is truly captivating. Amazing.

 

Irvin Kershner got it, and it is evident in that video above when he says

“Let me tell you about the malfunctioning of the so and so. Who cares about that? Does she love him or doesn’t she?”

He went for a film based on human emotions, something we can all relate to. This is why it remains so good.

 

I did not see ESB in a movie theater when I was young. I have no idea why I missed that opportunity. As a matter of fact, the first time that I saw Han Solo frozen in carbonite and Yoda was in 1983. I vividly remember watching ROTJ in a movie theater in Wildwood, New Jersey, and seeing them for the first time. My family was on vacation at the time. If I had to pick a favorite ESB memory, it would be reading the novelization in my sixth grade class during recess. I remember there being a lot of snow in the story. What ESB memories do you have?

 

Same. I missed it and STAR WARS when they originally came out. I did see Return of the Jedi in 1983.

My memory of first seeing The Empire Strikes Back was in 1984, not long after it was (finally) released (for the first time) on videotape. I liked it a lot, but thought (at the time) the Luke & Yoda stuff bogged (no pun intended) the film down and the romance bored me (I was 12-years-old at the time). Also, the lack of aliens disappointed me - having first seen STAR WARS on TV, when it premiered in 1982, and Return of the Jedi the following year, I was used to seeing lots of aliens in a STAR WARS film. The brief Bounty Hunter parade was good but a poor substitute for the Cantina sequence in the previous film. I was hoping to see the rest of the Bounty Hunters later in the film, but only Boba Fett made a reappearance. I liked him right away, but wished he had more scenes.

At the time, I thought it was a good film but my least favourite after the original and Return of the Jedi. Now, as an adult, it's my favourite chapter.

I finally got to see it - and the original - on the big screen in 1997. A shame it was the dreaded SPECIAL EDITION TRILOGY.

 

I also saw ESB for the first time on VHS, but it was not until 1996. I also saw it for the first time in a movie theater when the Special Edition was released in 1997.

 

My earliest memory of ESB. Me, my sister, and my parents went in 1980. I was already a huge fan. We entered the theater with the closing credits playing from the last show. The Han Leia love theme came on and I was absolutely blown away. I loved ESB from the first time I saw it. The emotion was just off the charts, helped in no small part by William's career defining score.

 

When I was little, I thought it was called The Vampire Strikes Back

 

I remember watching it. I was already excited because my best mate at Primary School brought into school a glossy photo storybook of The Empire Strikes Back before I saw it. I remember being terrified of these pictures.




I watched the movie at the Plaza Cinema in Chorley, Lancashire, now long since demolished. It was one of those fabulous old cinemas which was painted that deep, dark red with matching carpets, and smelled of cigarettes and Butterkist. There were only two screens, one either side of the ticket desk and concession stand, and you went in through those swing double doors with little windows in them. An usher would come round with her torch and tray during the films and you could buy more chocolate and ice creams. I can still remember how hazy it was because of all the cigarette smoke. At the end of some films, the lights would come on and everybody would stand for the national anthem lol


Chorley's Plaza Cinema - Probably late summer 1963 seeing as it is showing Jason and the Argonauts

My grandad took me to see it, and I wore a Han Solo T-shirt, and took my Han Solo figures with me. You can only imagine how distraught a six year old boy was when they put Han into the Carbonite.

I don't really remember the big reveal. But I loved the AT-ATs, and I was blown away by Yoda Dagobah (Yoda Dagobah was the character's name on the back of the Action Figure cards, so that's what we thought he was actually called)

I have better memories of Return of the Jedi, but The Empire Strikes Back burned an indelible mark into my soul for all time.

 

I completely agree about the original score. It is incredible. Bob, that is a great reply. It reads like a blog post. Thanks for sharing.