The Empire Strikes Back
released 1980
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“The Empire Strikes Back” is an American, action, drama, scifi film, fifth in the ‘Skywalker Saga’ film series and second film to be released. The impact of this film series on the genre of scifi, space films and the like are beyond description. It was produced by Jim Bloom, Howard G. Kazanjian, Gary Kurtz, Rick McCallum, Robert Watts and the man, the myth, the legend himself Mr. George Lucas who also wrote it with Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan. It was directed by Irvin Kershner and stars a ginormous cast which includes scifi royalty like Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels, David Prowse, Peter Mayhew, Kenny Baker, Frank Oz, Alec Guinness, Jeremy Bulloch, John Hollis, Jack Purvis, Des Webb, Clive Revill, Kenneth Colley, Julian Glover, Michael Sheard, Michael Culve, John Dicks, Milton Johns, Mark Jones, Oliver Maguire, Bruce Boa and so many more. I feel terrible not including everybody because they really deserve it, but for the sake of time and so forth. Basically, in short, if you were to come up with a list of the ten best scifi films that have influenced the genre this film along with it’s previous film “Star Wars” would be on it. This film is very old but it really aged nicely and the story is still very fantastic.

The Empire Strikes Back IMDb webpage

“The Empire Strikes Back” follows the story of the Rebel Alliance against the Empire three years after they destroyed the infamous Death Star. Darth Vader, played by David Prowse, has sent out probes to find the rebels and they are eventually located to the ice world of Hoth. What happens next is something that was unheard of to audiences of the day. The Rebel Alliance, the good guys, suffer a terrible defeat where the base is overrun and destroyed by the Empire, hence the name “The Empire Strikes Back” because they really do strike back. That is just the start of the film and a lot more happens after that. This had so many viewers loving the story, not because they were rooting for the Empire, but because the story was not the predictable fairy tale. It is not the predictable storyline of good defeating evil. And that is a breath of fresh air.

This is also the story where Luke Skywalker, played by Mark Hamill, goes to the planet Dagobah and meets with the Jedi legend Yoda, who is played by Frank Oz. Also, on the planet Dagobah Luke learns some uncomfortable truths about their enemy Darth Vader. He is also warned of the seductive power of The Dark Side and the Sith Order.

Firstly, this film series, notably “The Empire Strikes Back”, has aged very well. I can watch it today and still feel emersed in the world of Star Wars. The world building has not really aged. What a great job there. The light sabers, space ships and all the different races of sentient and robotic beings make this such a rich, gigantic world. The banter between R2D2, played by Kenny Baker, and C3P0, played by Anthony Daniels, is such a funny touch and was brand new to audiences of the day it was released. I can still enjoy it today. It also broadened the standards for what robots were expected to do and behave. I loved the way C3P0 would tell people his CV, so to speak. “I’m speak over …” etc. That’s hilarious. A neurotic robot. How funny. This film is a scifi classic for a good reason.

I also love the way this scifi space drama does not get hung up on space travel/ time travel. It does not do the silly situations where characters go back in time and blah, blah, blah. So many of those stories just get it wrong and the scifi genre community has to understand this.

John Ink2Quill

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