Return of the Jedi
Return of the Jedi (also known as Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi) is a 1983 American epic space opera film that is a sequel to Star Wars (1977)[a] and The Empire Strikes Back (1980). It is the third installment in the original Star Wars trilogy and the sixth chronological film in the "Skywalker Saga". It is directed by Richard Marquand based on a screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan and George Lucas from a story by Lucas, who was also the executive producer. The film follows the ongoing struggle between the malevolent Galactic Empire and the freedom fighters of the Rebel Alliance. As the Rebels attempt to destroy the Empire's second Death Star, Luke Skywalker tries to bring his father, Darth Vader, back from the dark side of the Force. The film stars Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels, David Prowse, Kenny Baker, Peter Mayhew and Frank Oz.
This article is about the film. For other uses, see Return of the Jedi (disambiguation).Return of the Jedi
George Lucas
- Sean Barton
- Marcia Lucas
- Duwayne Dunham
- May 25, 1983
132 minutes[1]
United States
English
Steven Spielberg, David Lynch and David Cronenberg were considered to direct the film before Marquand signed on as director. The production team relied on Lucas's storyboards during pre-production. While writing the shooting script, Lucas, Kasdan, Marquand, and producer Howard Kazanjian spent two weeks in conference discussing ideas to construct it. Kazanjian's schedule pushed shooting to begin a few weeks early to allow Industrial Light & Magic more time to work on the film's effects in post-production. Filming took place in England, California, and Arizona from January to May 1982.
The film was released in theaters on May 25, 1983. It grossed $374 million worldwide during its initial theatrical run, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1983. The film was well received by critics, with strong praise going to the performances of the actors, John Williams's score, the special effects and the action sequences. Several re-releases and revisions to the film have followed over the decades, which have brought its total gross to $482 million. The United States Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2021.
Plot[edit]
A year after Han Solo's capture and imprisonment in carbonite,[b] C-3PO and R2-D2 enter the palace of the crime lord Jabba the Hutt on Tatooine. They were sent as a goodwill gift by Luke Skywalker, who hopes to negotiate with Jabba for Han's release. Disguised as a bounty hunter, Princess Leia infiltrates the palace under the pretense of having captured Chewbacca. She releases Han from the carbonite, but is caught by Jabba and enslaved. Luke arrives to bargain for the release of his friends, but Jabba drops him through a trapdoor to be eaten by a rancor. After Luke kills the beast, Jabba decrees that he, Han, and Chewbacca will be fed to a Sarlacc,[7][8] a deadly ground-dwelling creature. Luke retrieves his new lightsaber from R2-D2, and the group of friends battle Jabba's thugs aboard his sail barge. During the chaos, Boba Fett falls into the Sarlacc's pit and Leia strangles Jabba to death with her chains. The group escapes as Jabba’s sail barge is destroyed.
As the others rendezvous with the Rebel Alliance, Luke returns to Dagobah to complete his Jedi training with Yoda, who is dying when he arrives. Before Yoda dies, he confirms that Darth Vader is Luke's father, the former Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker. He also informs Luke that there is another Skywalker. Soon after, Obi-Wan Kenobi's Force spirit tells Luke that Leia is his twin sister, and that he must face Vader again to finish his training and defeat the Empire.
The Alliance learns that the Empire has been constructing a second Death Star under the supervision of the Emperor. The station is protected by an energy shield on the forest moon of Endor. To destroy its generator, Han leads a strike team which includes Luke, Leia and Chewbacca. Once on the moon, the team gains the trust of a tribe of Ewoks after an initial conflict. Later, Luke tells Leia that she is his sister, and that Vader is their father. Luke surrenders to Imperial troops and is brought before Vader, but fails to convince him to reject the dark side of the Force.
Luke is brought to the Emperor, who intends to turn him to the dark side. He also reveals that Luke's friends on Endor and the Rebel fleet are heading into a trap. On the forest moon, Han's team is captured by Imperial forces, but a counterattack by the Ewoks allows the Rebels to infiltrate the shield generator. Meanwhile, Lando Calrissian and Admiral Ackbar lead the Rebel assault on the Death Star, finding its shield still active and the Imperial fleet waiting for them.
The Emperor reveals to Luke that the Death Star is fully operational and orders the firing of its massive laser, which destroys a Rebel starship. He invites Luke to give in to his anger and embrace the dark side of the Force. Luke attacks him, but Vader intervenes and the two engage in a lightsaber duel. Vader senses that Luke has a sister and threatens to turn her to the dark side if Luke will not join him. Enraged, Luke attacks Vader and severs his prosthetic hand. The Emperor orders Luke to kill his father, but Luke refuses. In response, the Emperor tortures Luke with Force lightning. Unwilling to let his son die, Vader throws the Emperor down a shaft to his demise. Vader is fatally wounded and asks Luke to remove his mask in a moment of reconciliation before he dies.
After the Rebel strike team destroys the shield generator, Lando leads fighter ships into the Death Star's core. While the Rebel fleet destroys the Imperial command ship, Lando and X-wing pilot Wedge destroy the Death Star's main reactor and escape before the station explodes. Luke brings his father's body to Endor and burns it on a pyre before reuniting with his friends. As the Rebels celebrate their victory, Luke notices the Force spirits of Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Anakin standing nearby.
The cast also includes Michael Pennington as Moff Jerjerrod, Kenneth Colley as Admiral Piett, Michael Carter as Bib Fortuna (voiced by Erik Bauersfeld, who was uncredited),[30] Denis Lawson as Wedge, Tim Rose as Admiral Ackbar (also voiced by Bauersfeld, again uncredited),[30] Dermot Crowley as General Madine, Caroline Blakiston as Mon Mothma, Warwick Davis as Wicket, Jeremy Bulloch as Boba Fett, Femi Taylor as Oola, Annie Arbogast as Sy Snootles,[d] Claire Davenport as Fat Dancer, Jack Purvis as Teebo, Mike Edmonds as Logray, Jane Busby as Chief Chirpa, Malcom Dixon and Mike Cottrell as Ewok Warriors, and Nicki Reade as Nicki. Additional Imperial officers are portrayed by Adam Bareham (Stardestroyer Controller #1), Jonathan Oliver (Stardestroyer Controller #2), Pip Miller (Stardestroyer Captain #1), and Tom Mannion (Stardestroyer Captain #2).[32]
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
Following discussions between Star Wars creator George Lucas and producer Howard Kazanjian, a sequel to The Empire Strikes Back was swiftly put into production.[33] As with the previous film, Lucas personally financed Return of the Jedi. Lucas also chose not to direct the film himself, and started searching for a director.[34] Irvin Kershner, who previously directed The Empire Strikes Back, declined to direct after spending two years working on the previous film.[35] Although Lucas's first choice was Steven Spielberg, their separate feuds with the Director's Guild led to him being banned from directing the film.[36] Lucas approached David Lynch, who had recently been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for The Elephant Man in 1980, to helm Return of the Jedi, but Lynch declined, saying that he had "next door to zero interest".[37][38]
Reception[edit]
Critical response[edit]
Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars, calling it "a complete entertainment, a feast for the eyes and a delight for the fancy. It's a little amazing how Lucas and his associates keep topping themselves."[81] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune also gave the film four stars out of four and wrote, "From the moment that the familiar Star Wars introductory words begin to crawl up the screen, Return of the Jedi is a childlike delight. It's the best video game around. And for the professional moviegoers, it is particularly enjoyable to watch every facet of filmmaking at its best."[82]
James Harwood of Variety called the film "a visual treat throughout," but thought that "Hamill is not enough of a dramatic actor to carry the plot load here" and Harrison Ford "is present more in body than in spirit this time, given little to do but react to special effects. And it can't be said that either Carrie Fisher or Billy Dee Williams rise to previous efforts. But Lucas and director Richard Marquand have overwhelmed these performer flaws with a truly amazing array of creatures, old and new, plus the familiar space hardware."[83] Sheila Benson of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film "is fully satisfying, it gives honest value to all the hopes of its believers. With this last of the central Star Wars cycle, there is the sense of the closing of a circle, of leaving behind real friends. It is accomplished with a weight and a new maturity that seem entirely fitting, yet the movie has lost none of its sense of fun; it bursts with new inventiveness."[84]
Gary Arnold of The Washington Post said, "Return of the Jedi, a feat of mass enchantment, puts the happy finishing touches on George Lucas's Star Wars saga. It was worth the wait, and the work is now an imposing landmark in contemporary popular culture—a three-part, 6¼-hour science-fiction epic of unabashed heroic proclivities."[85] The film was also featured on the May 23, 1983, Time magazine cover issue (where it was labeled "Star Wars III"),[86] where the reviewer Gerald Clarke said that while it was not as exciting as the first Star Wars film, it was "better and more satisfying" than The Empire Strikes Back, now considered by many as the best of the original trilogy.[87]
Vincent Canby of The New York Times called Return of the Jedi "by far the dimmest adventure of the lot"[88] and stated, "The joys of watching space battles as envisioned by wizards in studios and laboratories are not inexhaustible."[89] Pauline Kael of The New Yorker stated, "Some of the trick effects might seem miraculous if the imagery had any lustre, but Return of the Jedi is an impersonal and rather junky piece of moviemaking."[90]
Christopher John reviewed The Return of the Jedi in Ares magazine #15 and commented that "Star Wars may not be dead, but Return of the Jedi is a failure, and is a cheap and tarnished crown for the series which shook the world of film when it started out . . . a long time ago, in that galaxy far, far away."[91]
Colin Greenland reviewed Return of the Jedi for Imagine magazine, and stated that "You would think a series like Star Wars, fuelled by public adoration, coasting along on the hyperdrive of its own hyperboles, would get inexorably worse. It is not. It is getting better."[92]
Post-release[edit]
Re-releases[edit]
In 1997, for the 20th anniversary of the release of Star Wars (re-titled Episode IV: A New Hope), Lucas released the Star Wars Trilogy: Special Edition. Along with the two other films in the original trilogy, Return of the Jedi was rereleased on March 14, 1997 (moved up one week from its original announced release date of March 7 due to the box office success of The Empire Strikes Back the month prior), with a number of changes and additions, including the insertion of several alien band members and a different song in Jabba's throne room, the modification of the sarlacc to include a beak, the replacement of music at the closing scene, and a montage of different alien worlds celebrating the fall of the Empire.[96] The runtime of the 1997 Special Edition of the film and all subsequent releases is approximately five minutes longer than the original theatrical version.
The film was re-released theatrically by 20th Century Studios on April 28, 2023, to commemorate the film's 40th anniversary.[97][98]
Legacy[edit]
According to the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 83% of critics have given the film a positive review with an average rating of 7.30/10, based on 103 reviews from critics. The site's critics consensus reads: "Though failing to reach the cinematic heights of its predecessors, Return of the Jedi remains an entertaining sci-fi adventure and a fitting end to the classic trilogy."[111] At Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 58 out of 100 based on 24 reviews from mainstream critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[112]
In his review of the 1997 Special Edition re-release, the film critic James Kendrick called Return of the Jedi the weakest of the three original films, saying it depended "too much on the slick commercialism" of the franchise but that it was still "a magnificent experience in its own right".[113] James Berardinelli described it as the least enjoyable and least innovative film of the trilogy. He opined that the Special Edition was not saved by the alterations, but that it was nevertheless a "must-see" for fans as the conclusion of the trilogy.[114]
While the sarlacc battle sequence, the speeder bike chase, the space battle, and Luke's duel against Vader are all well-regarded, the battle between Ewoks and stormtroopers remains controversial. Fans are divided on the likelihood of Ewoks (being a primitive race of small creatures) defeating an armed ground force comprising the Empire's "best troops". Lucas has defended the scenario, saying that the Ewoks' purpose was to distract the Imperial troops and they did not really win.[115] His inspiration for the Ewoks' victory came from the Vietnam War, where the Viet Cong prevailed against the technologically superior United States.[116][117]
Further reading[edit]
Return of the Jedi archive review: George Lucas quits on top. Sight & Sound. December 18, 2019.