Directed by Richard Marquand
May 25, 1983 (United States)
The Empire has begun construction on a new Death Star and Luke is forced into a final confrontation with Darth Vader and the Emperor.
This is quite possibly the most perfect ending of any trilogy you could ask for. Each dangling plot thread gets resolved in some way. The characters fates are set on a future that fits with the film universe. The main villain of it all gets his just desserts. And there is even redemption in the character of Darth Vader.
We are introduced to some significant new characters in this film too. Characters that become an important part of Star Wars mythology. Name a film series that managed to introduce new and important characters that audiences remember in each film. I will wait.
Jabba the Hutt (like calling Han Solo “Han the Human”), another character that was only mentioned before, makes a full-on appearance in the final trilogy film (special edition of A New Hope not withstanding). And he is truly one of the most alien characters to ever hit movies up until that time. He was the culmination of what was first seriously tried with Yoda (voiced by Frank Oz) in the last film. Puppetry like Yoda or Jabba was not really done to the best of my experience in science fiction movies beforehand and I am not sure if it was done that much afterwards. Filmmakers are a little cowardly in that regard. Some genuinely alien aliens could be created that way. Just check out Farscape and what they did there. Creators never really ran with it unfortunately.
The Emperor (Ian McDiarmid). A character that was mentioned in the first film and seen briefly in the second film becomes a full-fledged character here. He is all evil and because of his connection to the Force one step ahead of the good guys the whole time. And he is a bit of a dick. Really. His comment to Luke about how operational the Death Star is and the fate of his friends is probably one of the jerkiest deliverances of lines of any bad guy line in film. It made him very punchable.
Aside from the late comers, there were a few minor characters that have become well known after this movie. Jabba the Hutt’s distinctive looking aide Bib Fortuna (Michael Carter performing and voiced by Erik Bauersfeld). Admiral Ackbar (a puppet who was also voiced by Bauersfeld). Lando’s Millennium Falcon copilot Nien Nunb (portrayed by Richard Bonehill in costume for full body shots and a puppet operated by Mike Quinn and voiced by Kipsang Rotich). Salacious B. Crumb (a puppet voiced by Mark Dodson). Wicket (Warwick Davis). These are all memorable B Characters that are easily remembered by even many casual fans.
The rescue of Han Solo (Harrison Ford) from Jabba’s Palace was just great. In the context of the film, they have all their bases covered but when you think about it was the plan to get everybody captured so they were in a good position for the actual rescue? Or were R2-D2 and C-3PO Plan A and when they failed was Princess Leia Plan B and when she failed was Luke Plan C with his lightsaber in R2-D2 just in case? Something I always wondered about when it came to the movie. Still the battle on the sand skiff at the Sarlacc Pit was just great. A perfectly crafted bit of old school daring do in a science fiction setting.
Luke (Mark Hamill) sensed good in his father. Exactly where that came from is a little fuzzy. It bothered me back then but given that Luke was also a space wizard there were any number of points that he could sense that. And this was a story about redemption. The main villain is not irredeemably evil. He just lost his way. Something to take with you in life: not all bad people are beyond redemption.
Luke is much more serious here than he was in the previous two films. He understands the gravity of his position and how important what he must do is. At the end of Empire, he understood how serious his position was, but this film is the only one where the weight of it comes into play.
Obi-Wan Kenobi’s (Sir Alec Guinness) honesty is exposed as famously fluid with the truth. Or you could take it as him simply trying to protect Luke from a horrible reality. After all Darth Vader was one of the most feared beings in the galaxy and I am not sure if most people could handle that well. Plus how many people might want to strike at Vader through Luke?
The confirmation of Leia (Carrie Fisher) being Luke’s sister was not quite as impactful as Luke being the son of Darth Vader, but it did nicely explain her force abilities that were implied at the very end of Empire. After all she could sense Luke dangling from the bottom of Cloud City and there was Yoda mentioning that Luke was not the only option they had. When he said that he did not seem too bothered that Luke just might be going foolishly to his death. They had a spare so screw Luke if he died.
I have heard some complaints about the Ewoks over the years. I am not sure why some people are really bothered by them. I know they are cute teddy bears but so? They were a different type of alien species. They did not have a bunch of individuals running around in weird costumes on this forest planet. They actually made them look like something non-human that might live there. These were primitive beings successfully taking on a superior force. It has happened in real life.
Speaking of teddy bears that were going to cook our heroes live, anybody ever wonder where the Ewoks got that dress for Princess Leia? I was not so bothered by their ability to intricately braid hair here as I was about these mostly naked aside from headgear creatures having cloth and knowing how to sow well enough to create a dress. They got the finer points of dressmaking down pretty good for a bunch of bears running nude around a forest planet. And I still get a little choked up during that brief moment in the final battle when the one Ewok realizes his friend has died. That is so incredibly sad to me.
Return of the Jedi is exciting. The final battle shifts between who is and is not winning. It is exciting with plenty of shooting and a little bit of humor and some creativity on the part of our heroes. So much is happening and just escalates throughout.
I admit Return of the Jedi is the weakest film in the original trilogy. The directing is not as strong and there is a little less going on in this film overall as compared to the first two. But in a series where all three films are stronger than most any film out there that is not a bad thing. It is a perfect end to the original trilogy. It satisfies the fans.
Star Wars: Episode VI–Return of the Jedi is a classic film and a classic ending. It is exciting and fun and an all-around great movie. Watch it!
Warren Watched A Movie 
Return of the Jedi is my favourite Star Wars movie, and you sum up a lot of the things I love about it. 🙂
“…when you think about it was the plan to get everybody captured so they were in a good position for the actual rescue? Or were R2-D2 and C-3PO Plan A and when they failed was Princess Leia Plan B and when she failed was Luke Plan C with his lightsaber in R2-D2 just in case?”
Good question. When I was little I thought it was the latter, but now that I’m older I tend to think that everybody getting captured was the plan all along. I guess it could be a little of both? Like, if Leia manages to get Han out, great, but if she gets captured… also great! That’s a pretty good plan, when you think about it, since even apparent setbacks manage to work to the heroes’ advantage.
I wonder if people’s reaction to the Ewoks depends a lot on their age when they first see the movie. I was, like, seven or eight, so I was all about the cute teddy bears! But who knows how I would have reacted if I’d first encountered them as an adult.
“Speaking of teddy bears that were going to cook our heroes live, anybody ever wonder where the Ewoks got that dress for Princess Leia?”
Not when I was younger. And now that I’m older I just file it under, “It’s an escapist fantasy so shut up and stop asking questions!” 😉
“The directing is not as strong and there is a little less going on in this film overall as compared to the first two.”
Is there really less going on in this move than in TESB? I hear people say that, but to me it’s always seemed like TESB is the one with the most minimalist plot. A huge chunk of that movie is, “Han and Leia fly around while Luke sits in a swamp”, with most of the interesting stuff happening at the end. Compared to it, I always thought RotJ kept up a fairly good pace. It has been a while since I’ve seen either movie, though, and maybe I’ll feel differently next time I watch them.
But, anyway, as you say, this is a very satisfying ending to the series, and that’s why I love it. 🙂
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I remember feeling rather betrayed by this film back in 1983. The hype of course was tremendous, and myself and a few friends camped out early in Birmingham for a showing of the film expecting something special, and knowing nothing, really, about it (which was the norm back in those pre-internet days).
As soon as I saw the Death Star v2 at the beginning I was worried, and had every reason to be, really, what with teddy bears etc coming later. The trouble was, many of us Star Wars fans, waiting three years back then between films, had hyped up both the Emperor and Bobba Fett and both were really undermined here, Fett becoming almost a background incidental foe easily dispatched and the Emperor an evil wizard thrown down a hole by a turncoat Vader (who had, remember, been a total badass villain in TESB). One has to remember how grown-up TESB seemed compared to Star Wars and how it was building up the mythology, not setting things up for a perfunctory conclusion. And we twelve/thirteen year-olds from Star Wars had grown up with the saga, six years had passed, we weren’t the audience for Teddy Bear toys.
Time has perhaps lessened its faults (or perhaps mediocre prequels and sequels making it seem better than it did at the time) but I was around back when it was 9 films, not 3, and we expected episodes 7, 8 & 9 to follow ROTJ not everything Star Wars suddenly to grind to a halt as it did (we didn’t know Lucas was getting divorced and wanted away from everything Star Wars, unable to face more years like he had during the making of TESB).
ROTJ should clearly have been two films- one dealing with rescuing Han Solo and getting rid of Fett, and then a second film dealing with the Empire. Indeed, I remember imagining ROTJ opening with Vader going to the Emperor’s throne room and killing the Emperor, taking his throne and ruling the Empire until facing Luke again. The destruction of the Empire should have been Luke’s adventure in Eps 7, 8 & 9, and Vader the biggest bastard in the Galaxy. Part of me wishes even now that Lucas could have let other film-makers loose telling the episodes after TESB, and given us the saga we expected (Lucas wouldn’t let Spielberg make one, for instance- how wrong was that?). Lucas just couldn’t let it go though so he wrapped things up in sudden fashion and sold a few teddy bear toys in the process.
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Your thoughts concerning ROTJ are essentially what we got with Snoke in the sequels.
Maybe my view of Spielberg helming a Star Wars film are colored by his later work but I do not think he could have done a good one.
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I wonder what would have happened if Luke Skywalker never cut off his Father’s hand in this movie. What would have happened if he discarded his lightsaber and refused the temptation of the Emperor? Probably the Force lightning attack, however, Luke Skywalker could have defended himself more easily.
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I wonder what would have happened if Luke Skywalker never cut off his Father’s hand in this movie. What would have happened if he had not discarded his lightsaber and refused the temptation of the Emperor? Probably the Force lightning attack, however, Luke Skywalker could have defended himself more easily.
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