Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back Directed by Irvin Kershner. Story by George Lucas.
After the destruction of the Death Star, spirits are running high for the rebel alliance, but the Empire has redoubled their efforts to eradicate them. Crowded to the outer reaches of space, and the most marginal accommodations, the Rebels have established a base on the Ice World of Hoth.
Even the local wildlife conspires to make matters difficult for the rebels, and Luke is attacked by a Wompa. (The reason this scene was written in is because Mark Hamill suffered a car crash. The scene was needed to explain his altered features, so the beast clawed him across the face.)
At death’s door he receives a vision; Obi-Wan Kenobi instructs him to go to the Dagobah system to learn from someone name Yoda.
On Dagobah, Luke encounters Yoda, Grand Master Jedi, and I suppose, at this moment, the last of his order. He teaches him much of the ways of the Force. Of course, the hardest part is teaching him to unlearn all he knows.
In the rest of the Galaxy, Han and Leah are having problems of their own. Damaged fleeing Hoth, they have to take some terrible risks, hiding in an asteroid field, and then in a cave, that turns out not to be a cave, but the maw of Grendel, the giant space slug. Still, the important thing is they have given the Empire the slip.
Next stop, Cloud City in the Bespin system to impose on Han’s old friend Lando Calrrisian for some repairs. But while there is great beauty in the gas mines, there is also great danger. Darth Vader awaits them. And his purpose in capturing them…bait to lure Luke Skywalker into a trap.
And it works. The downside to Jedi perceptions is that you know when there are bad things happening to your friends. Luke is drawn by his compassion to abandon his training, and to rush to their rescue.
There he faces Darth Vader in epic battle, Padiwan versus Sith Lord. Luke looses a hand, and his innocence.
Darth Vader: “Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father”. Luke: “He told me enough. He told me you killed him.” Darth Vader: “ No. I am your father.”
That line is right up there with “Frankly, Scarlett, I don’t give a damn!” I can not tell you the discussions I had, debating the relative likelihood of these five words being true with my friends. I made back the price of my movie ticket because I had one friend who could not accept this as truth.
As the movie ends, Luke and Leah are free Han is encased in Carbonite, and the best is yet to come.
This is a more thoughtful movie than the first. It is in many ways the best, even if not my personal favorite. The action, the adventure, the betrayals, the stunning revelation, it really plays with the emotions. One of the most complex movies, it also has the lowest body count of any of the saga, at 30.
It adds to the plethora of planets; in the first, we had Tattooine, a desert planet, and Yavin 4, a jungle moon, here, we add Hoth, a land locked in ice, and Dagobah, an unending swamp, a land teeming with life, and glowing with the force, and then there is Bespin, the Gas Giant. Although the action is in an elegant city/mining facility, it manages to convey the feeling of light airiness. Each planet and environment was designed to be as different as possible from the others; each has its own unique feel.
As always, every aspect of this movie has been thought out, and attended to with meticulous detail, so that the sum is greater than the parts. A modern masterpiece in every sense of the word.
It also has my favorite line:
Princess Leah: “Why, you stuck up, half-witted, scruffy-looking… nerf-herder!” Han Solo: “Who's scruffy-looking?”
Gotta have priorities.
This review is Lean-n-Mean, a style by Sleeper54. No longer than 666 words, they encourage conciseness in writing.
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