Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (2004 DVD Edition review)
With the phenomenal success of Star Wars in 1977, George Lucas realized he could continue the planned trilogy he had been outlining since the early 1970s. His original outline contained the raw material for Episodes IV, V and VI as well as the nebulous backstory that would become the foundation for the current prequels. So in 1978, with Star Wars (which would be rechristened Episode IV: A New Hope) earning hundreds of millions in box office receipts, Lucas, producer Gary Kurtz and the Lucasfilm production team began work on The Empire Strikes Back, the film most Star Wars fans believe is the best in the entire saga.
Lucas gave his story to Leigh Brackett, an acclaimed science fiction writer, and hired her to write the screenplay. She passed away soon after finishing the first draft, so Lucas (who would serve as executive producer) handed the project over to up-and-coming writer-director Lawrence Kasdan (Body Heat, Continental Divide, and Raiders of the Lost Ark). Furthermore, he handed the directing reins to Irvin Kershner (The Eyes of Laura Mars); the Star Wars shoot had drained Lucas emotionally and physically, so the series creator focused on the behind-the-scenes aspects of Empire's production.
The Empire Strikes Back picks up the narrative some three years after the events of Episode IV: A New Hope. Despite their impressive victory at Yavin, the Rebels' destruction of the Empire's Death Star marked only the true start of the Galactic Civil War. Darth Vader (Dave Prowse, voice of James Earl Jones), last seen heading into deep space in his damaged TIE fighter, made his way to Imperial territory and was given the assignment of eradicating the main resistance cell of the Rebellion. Somewhere along the line (and the movies never explained this), Vader discovered the identity of the X-Wing pilot who destroyed the Death Star. Some time after the Battle of Yavin, the Empire forced the Rebels to flee from their hidden base and pursued them across the galaxy. Now, as the title crawl narrates, Vader, "obsessed with finding young Skywalker, dispatches thousands of remote probes into the deep reaches of space."
One of these probes crashes on Hoth, an icy world in the backwaters of the galaxy and so inhospitable that even smugglers avoid it. Its fiery descent is seen by Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), now a commander of Rogue Squadron, as he rides on his trusty tauntaun. However, before he can check it out, he's attacked by a Wampa ice creature and dragged off to its cave for future consumption.
Meanwhile, unaware of his friend's plight, Han Solo (Harrison Ford) returns to the Rebel base and tells the commanding officer (Bruce Boa) that he's leaving the Alliance to pay the vile gangster Jabba the Hutt the money he still owes from an incident predating his involvement with the Rebellion. When Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) reacts angrily to his decision to leave, he tells her he knows she wants him to stay not because he's "a natural leader" for the Rebel pilots but "because of the way you feel about me." But their sparring is interrupted when Luke (now hanging by his ankles on an ice cave's ceiling) is reported overdue and Han recklessly rides out into the bitter cold of a Hoth night to find him.
Skywalker, aided by his untrained Jedi abilities, manages to escape from the Wampa before he becomes its dinner, and runs out into the teeth of a Hoth night storm. Before collapsing in exhaustion, the spirit of his slain mentor Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi (Alec Guinness) appears before him and tells Luke he must "go to the Dagobah system. There you will learn from Yoda, the Jedi Master who instructed me." Ben disappears and Luke falls unconscious to the snow, but Han reaches him in the nick of time.
Although Han's tauntaun dies and the two friends must themselves be rescued by Alliance pilots, Luke survives and everyone is briefly reunited. But the Imperial probe that Luke failed to investigate discovers the Rebel base and reports to the Imperial fleet. Soon, Vader and his hordes of Imperial forces, supported by a fleet of Star Destroyers and lumbering armored transports, descend on Hoth, and the band of Star Warriors scatters. Luke and his astromech droid R2-D2 fly off to Dagobah to find Yoda, while Han, Leia, Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) and C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) are pursued relentlessly by Imperial ships and the bounty hunter Boba Fett (Jeremy Bulloch).
The Empire Strikes Back took very big risks, such as surprising fans with its Episode V subtitle, having its big battle take place during the first half of the movie, giving the director's chair to Kershner, and making the ending a big cliffhanger with so many story threads left dangling. Would Luke complete his training with Yoda (Frank Oz)? Could Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) be trusted? Who did Leia really love, Luke or Han? Most importantly, was Vader really Luke's father, as he claims at the end of the de rigeur lightsaber duel on Cloud City? For three years, fans theorized and conjectured many different scenarios and grumbled about the unfinished feel of the ending, but Empire was a resounding critical and popular success. The script and directing gave Episode V depth and more personality shadings to the characters, the effects were even better than the first film's, and John Williams' brilliant score built on A New Hope's established musical themes and added new and more interesting leitmotivs that gave the Star Wars saga its operatic sweep. Empire is one of those rare sequels that in some ways surpasses its predecessor film, and 25 years after its release it still thrills and chills its many fans.
The Empire Strikes Back: The DVD: Like A New Hope, the 2004 DVD edition of The Empire Strikes Back is essentially the same as the 1997 Special Edition, except for one revamped scene; Ian McDiarmid, who plays Darth Sidious/Supreme Chancellor Palpatine in the prequels and personified Emperor Palpatine's aged version in Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, appears in the hologram that confers with Lord Vader and warns him they have a new enemy, Luke Skywalker. McDiarmid, who replaces both a heavily disguised woman and the voice of Clive Revill, has a new bit of dialog that implies that it took a while for the Emperor to figure out who had destroyed the Death Star, even though it seems Vader figured it out some time before.
In addition, because Episode II established that Boba Fett is a perfect clone of the bounty hunter Jango Fett (Temuera Morison), Jeremy Bulloch's lines (all four of them!) have been dubbed over with Morison's voice.
The only other change I discerned is that in the 1997 Special Edition version, Luke actually screams as he plummets several hundred feet down the Cloud City tubes and onto a thin weather vane. In the 2004 DVD, Lucas has deleted this tacked-on revision and restored the quiet "I'm going to die, but at least the Force is with me" freefall.
DVD Features:
Available Subtitles: English
Available Audio Tracks: English, English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
Commentary by George Lucas, Irvin Kershner, Ben Burtt, Dennis Muren, and Carrie Fisher
Recommended: Yes
Lucas gave his story to Leigh Brackett, an acclaimed science fiction writer, and hired her to write the screenplay. She passed away soon after finishing the first draft, so Lucas (who would serve as executive producer) handed the project over to up-and-coming writer-director Lawrence Kasdan (Body Heat, Continental Divide, and Raiders of the Lost Ark). Furthermore, he handed the directing reins to Irvin Kershner (The Eyes of Laura Mars); the Star Wars shoot had drained Lucas emotionally and physically, so the series creator focused on the behind-the-scenes aspects of Empire's production.
The Empire Strikes Back picks up the narrative some three years after the events of Episode IV: A New Hope. Despite their impressive victory at Yavin, the Rebels' destruction of the Empire's Death Star marked only the true start of the Galactic Civil War. Darth Vader (Dave Prowse, voice of James Earl Jones), last seen heading into deep space in his damaged TIE fighter, made his way to Imperial territory and was given the assignment of eradicating the main resistance cell of the Rebellion. Somewhere along the line (and the movies never explained this), Vader discovered the identity of the X-Wing pilot who destroyed the Death Star. Some time after the Battle of Yavin, the Empire forced the Rebels to flee from their hidden base and pursued them across the galaxy. Now, as the title crawl narrates, Vader, "obsessed with finding young Skywalker, dispatches thousands of remote probes into the deep reaches of space."
One of these probes crashes on Hoth, an icy world in the backwaters of the galaxy and so inhospitable that even smugglers avoid it. Its fiery descent is seen by Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), now a commander of Rogue Squadron, as he rides on his trusty tauntaun. However, before he can check it out, he's attacked by a Wampa ice creature and dragged off to its cave for future consumption.
Meanwhile, unaware of his friend's plight, Han Solo (Harrison Ford) returns to the Rebel base and tells the commanding officer (Bruce Boa) that he's leaving the Alliance to pay the vile gangster Jabba the Hutt the money he still owes from an incident predating his involvement with the Rebellion. When Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) reacts angrily to his decision to leave, he tells her he knows she wants him to stay not because he's "a natural leader" for the Rebel pilots but "because of the way you feel about me." But their sparring is interrupted when Luke (now hanging by his ankles on an ice cave's ceiling) is reported overdue and Han recklessly rides out into the bitter cold of a Hoth night to find him.
Skywalker, aided by his untrained Jedi abilities, manages to escape from the Wampa before he becomes its dinner, and runs out into the teeth of a Hoth night storm. Before collapsing in exhaustion, the spirit of his slain mentor Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi (Alec Guinness) appears before him and tells Luke he must "go to the Dagobah system. There you will learn from Yoda, the Jedi Master who instructed me." Ben disappears and Luke falls unconscious to the snow, but Han reaches him in the nick of time.
Although Han's tauntaun dies and the two friends must themselves be rescued by Alliance pilots, Luke survives and everyone is briefly reunited. But the Imperial probe that Luke failed to investigate discovers the Rebel base and reports to the Imperial fleet. Soon, Vader and his hordes of Imperial forces, supported by a fleet of Star Destroyers and lumbering armored transports, descend on Hoth, and the band of Star Warriors scatters. Luke and his astromech droid R2-D2 fly off to Dagobah to find Yoda, while Han, Leia, Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) and C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) are pursued relentlessly by Imperial ships and the bounty hunter Boba Fett (Jeremy Bulloch).
The Empire Strikes Back took very big risks, such as surprising fans with its Episode V subtitle, having its big battle take place during the first half of the movie, giving the director's chair to Kershner, and making the ending a big cliffhanger with so many story threads left dangling. Would Luke complete his training with Yoda (Frank Oz)? Could Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) be trusted? Who did Leia really love, Luke or Han? Most importantly, was Vader really Luke's father, as he claims at the end of the de rigeur lightsaber duel on Cloud City? For three years, fans theorized and conjectured many different scenarios and grumbled about the unfinished feel of the ending, but Empire was a resounding critical and popular success. The script and directing gave Episode V depth and more personality shadings to the characters, the effects were even better than the first film's, and John Williams' brilliant score built on A New Hope's established musical themes and added new and more interesting leitmotivs that gave the Star Wars saga its operatic sweep. Empire is one of those rare sequels that in some ways surpasses its predecessor film, and 25 years after its release it still thrills and chills its many fans.
The Empire Strikes Back: The DVD: Like A New Hope, the 2004 DVD edition of The Empire Strikes Back is essentially the same as the 1997 Special Edition, except for one revamped scene; Ian McDiarmid, who plays Darth Sidious/Supreme Chancellor Palpatine in the prequels and personified Emperor Palpatine's aged version in Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, appears in the hologram that confers with Lord Vader and warns him they have a new enemy, Luke Skywalker. McDiarmid, who replaces both a heavily disguised woman and the voice of Clive Revill, has a new bit of dialog that implies that it took a while for the Emperor to figure out who had destroyed the Death Star, even though it seems Vader figured it out some time before.
In addition, because Episode II established that Boba Fett is a perfect clone of the bounty hunter Jango Fett (Temuera Morison), Jeremy Bulloch's lines (all four of them!) have been dubbed over with Morison's voice.
The only other change I discerned is that in the 1997 Special Edition version, Luke actually screams as he plummets several hundred feet down the Cloud City tubes and onto a thin weather vane. In the 2004 DVD, Lucas has deleted this tacked-on revision and restored the quiet "I'm going to die, but at least the Force is with me" freefall.
DVD Features:
Available Subtitles: English
Available Audio Tracks: English, English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
Commentary by George Lucas, Irvin Kershner, Ben Burtt, Dennis Muren, and Carrie Fisher
Recommended: Yes
Viewing Format: DVD
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