Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back

1980

Director: Irvin Kershner

Distributor: Fox Movies / Lucasfilm

Key Element: Story – Visuals – Characters – Lines – Music

My Review:

A continuation of the Space-age fairytale. More great writing. More great special effects.

To me, the most interesting part is when Yoda is training Luke. There’s a part where Luke goes into the forest alone. He encounters and fights a vision of Darth Vader. When he wins the fight, the mask falls to reveal, not Vader’s face, but Luke’s. I thought it was an interesting statement about spiritual warfare. The reformation theologians identified three enemies the Christian faces in life: The forces of evil, the foolishness of the world, and the betrayal of the flesh – the flesh can sometimes be the most difficult to battle. We must conquer our inner demons and gain self-control before we can be of any use in the wider fight.

Clip:



Quotes:

• Right now I feel like I could take on the whole Empire myself.
• Looking? Found someone, you have, I would say, hmmm? …Help you I can. Yes, mmmm.
• Ready are you? What know you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained. A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind. This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away... to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing. Hmph. Adventure. Heh. Excitement. Heh. A Jedi craves not these things. You are reckless.
• Stopped they must be; on this all depends. Only a fully-trained Jedi Knight, with the Force as his ally, will conquer Vader and his Emperor.
• Yes, a Jedi's strength flows from the Force. But beware of the dark side. Anger, fear, aggression; the dark side of the Force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will, as it did Obi-Wan's apprentice.
  - Vader... Is the dark side stronger?
  No, no, no. Quicker, easier, more seductive.
  - But how am I to know the good side from the bad?
  You will know... when you are calm, at peace, passive. A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack.
• Luke. Don't give in to hate. That leads to the Dark Side.
• Never tell me the odds.
• You must unlearn what you have learned.
• Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you; here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes. Even between the land and the ship.
• I don't, I don't believe it.
  - That is why you fail.
• No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try.
• I won't fail you. I'm not afraid.
  - You will be. You will be.
• You've learned much, young one.
  - You'll find I'm full of surprises.
• Luke, I am your father.

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