Star Wars Saturdays: "Return of the Jedi" sticks the landing
Imperfect as a movie, great as a trilogy-capper
On Saturdays, we’re going through the entire STAR WARS saga in episodic order, a series that will include a number of pieces that have never appeared online before taken from my book 200 Reviews, available now in Paperback or on Kindle (which you should really consider buying, because it’s an awesome collection!). We continue today with the third film in the original trilogy, RETURN OF THE JEDI. Enjoy…
Return of the Jedi
1983, Dir. Richard Marquand
Originally published in the book 200 Reviews
I’ve never fully understood the disappointment apparent in many peoples’ reactions to Return of the Jedi. I will be the first to admit it is, on the whole, a lesser movie than the original Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, but that hardly makes it a bad one, nor a weak conclusion. On the contrary, I have always felt Return of the Jedi is a rather splendid send-off to the trilogy, facing the multiple cliffhangers from Empire Strikes Back head-on, especially where the revelation of Luke’s parentage is concerned.
Luke’s story is by far the most compelling part of the film, and one of the best elements of the entire Star Wars saga. In this final chapter, Luke must take the last steps necessary to become a true Jedi Master, confronting Vader, the Emperor, and his own weaknesses in the process.
The opening act at Jabba’s Palace serves an important dual function. On the surface, it resolves the immediate cliffhanger from Empire Strikes Back – rescuing Han from the clutches of Jabba the Hut – but on a more significant level, the sequence displays how much Luke has changed since we last saw him. His defeat at the hands of Darth Vader has clearly humbled him, and he has therefore embraced all of Yoda’s teachings, taking on a calmer, more reflective demeanor. Throughout the battle with Jabba, we see that not only have Luke’s physical powers greatly increased, but he has also become a master strategist, only getting the upper hand on Jabba because of a meticulously designed and well-executed plan.
Yet despite his victory on Tatooine, Luke hasn’t yet become the great Jedi he’s destined to be, and he is humble enough to know that. So he visits Yoda one more time (in a scene even more technically impressive than the Yoda portions of Empire Strikes Back – look at the little guy crawl into bed!), where Yoda confirms to him that Vader is indeed his father. Yoda also tells Luke that to become a Jedi, he must confront and defeat Darth Vader; Luke is not convinced that violence will solve the problem, however, and this puts all the pieces in place for the fantastic final act.
The true genius of Return of the Jedi lies in its nuances, which is to say that instead of capping this massive galactic conflict with a fierce lightsaber duel, Luke is instead pitted in a war of words and philosophy with the Emperor and Darth Vader. Luke is convinced he can redeem his father, and the Emperor is convinced he can turn Luke to the Dark Side. What makes this scenario so satisfying is the execution. Luke is not presented as the pure messiah in this scenario; he really is tempted by the Emperor’s insistence to give into anger, especially once the Emperor begins his assault on the rebellion. Luke goes so far as to duel Darth Vader, and it is only when he has cut off his father’s hand that he comes to his senses, realizing that if he goes any further, the Emperor wins.
Thus, Luke throws away his lightsaber, and in that moment fulfills his destiny and becomes a Jedi. Not just any Jedi, but the greatest of Jedi, for he accomplishes something the warriors of old could never dream of: actual, honest-to-God pacifism. His display of love and grace warms Darth Vader’s icy mechanical heart, leading Vader to redeem himself by destroying the Emperor once and for all. Not even Yoda predicted a scenario where Luke could win by pulling Vader back from the dark side, but this is what Luke achieves. This is far from the most bombastic or action packed of possible endings for the series, but it is easily the most satisfying scenario, because Luke’s triumph works on more than just a visceral level. It is a thoughtful conclusion that sums up everything Star Wars is about.
Special praise must go to the four performers who bring the sequence to life so wonderfully. Mark Hamill is at his best here, illustrating Luke’s determination, doubt, and ultimate resolve with enough humanity to ground the conflict in reality. David Prowse, the man inside the Darth Vader suit, does his finest work in the series during Vader’s final moments, making expert use of body language to express Vader’s internal debate. As the voice of Vader, James Earl Jones gets to go out in a blaze of glory, delivering some of his all-time most menacing lines before revealing the character’s warmer, more human dimension. And then there is Ian McDiarmid, never more frightening than he is here. It was no easy task to create a villain who would plausibly be in control of Darth Vader, to give face to the big bad we have heard about but never fully seen for two previous movies, but McDiarmid does it spectacularly.
I have primarily focused on Luke’s journey so far, and that is because the rest of the film is where Return of the Jedi falls a bit flatter. I have no hatred for the second Death Star or the Ewoks – the former is an unimaginative but serviceable enough plot device to rally the rebels together for one last fight with the Empire, and the latter is actually something I really enjoy. The Ewoks are fun on their own terms, and I like that the Emperor’s plan is foiled because he failed to take our furry little friends, such seemingly insignificant creatures, into account. Some of the Ewok-driven scenes certainly go on too long – the sequence where they mistake C-3PO for a God is one of them – but in actuality, my biggest complaints with Return of the Jedi come not from the adorable new mascots, but from the handling of Han and Leia. Han’s character has lost his rogue edge, and while this makes sense considering the humility he learned in The Empire Strikes Back, the more comedic direction they choose to take the character here is clunky; at times, Harrison Ford seems to be at a loss for how to play this gentler version of Han. Everyone other than George Lucas seems to have wanted to kill Han off early in the film to heighten the stakes, and honestly? I think those instincts were right; Han’s character arc is complete by the time Return of the Jedi begins, and they never find a way to keep him around that would be as compelling as a dramatic, iconic death sequence. As for Leia, it disappoints me that the revelation she is Luke’s sister leads absolutely nowhere within the film. There are hints that because of her parentage, she too is strong in the ways of the force, but there is no ultimate payoff, and while Carrie Fisher plays the scene where Luke reveals the truth beautifully, she, like Ford, is largely stranded here with lesser material.
In the end, though, Return of the Jedi succeeds where it counts most, and at its best, there is nothing else like it in the trilogy. The film not only brings the story to a thematically and narratively satisfying close, but makes one feel like the journey truly mattered, that the shape of the world is forever altered – that Luke has gone further than any Jedi before him, and that he and his friends have, in banding together, earned a brighter future. Endings are always tricky, but Return of the Jedi stuck the landing where it needed to, and one of the most disappointing things about the Disney era of Star Wars is how The Force Awakens hit the reset button and restored a pre-Return of the Jedi status quo, refusing to imagine a future as bold and interesting as the one this film gestures towards. The film is an ending, but in the right hands, it could also be a beginning, a jumping-off point to a whole raft of new and interesting stories in a galaxy fighting to rebuild itself. One day, maybe we’ll be lucky enough to see them.
We also devoted an entire episode to RETURN OF THE JEDI on The Weekly Stuff Podcast a few years back, so here is that episode again for posterity’s sake:
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