Richard Marquand
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Connections, in both directions
This last one, Side Effects, looks like an homage to the '80s heyday of the twisty psychological thriller—Fatal Attraction, Jagged Edge, and Dead Calm—and to a large extent, it plays out as exactly that.
A doozy of a Hitchcockian thriller with Jude Law, Rooney Mara and Catherine Zeta-Jones, “Effects” is a go-for-broke valentine to ’80s cinematic psychological potboilers such as “Jagged Edge” and “Fatal Attraction.”
The result suggests Jagged Edge retold in the measured voice of the New Yorker.
The movie’s fundamentally “beach read” nature (promotional interviews with the filmmaker have pinpointed such influences as Fatal Attraction and Jagged Edge) means it’s not a summation — it’s a one-off.
Along the way we re-meet Jabba, the blob of evil from "Star Wars" and the Emperor himself (Ian McDiarmid), a black-cowled seventh cousin to Ingmar Bergman's Death in "The Seventh Seal."
We see a great deal more, however, of Darth and the Emperor, who looks uncannily like Death in "The Seventh Seal.''
As before, this movie incorporates influences from Silly Symphony to “The Seventh Seal,” from Tarzan to Pac-Man and combines these varying elements into a single story weave.
Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025)
Directed by James Cameron
influenced by Return of the Jedi (1983)
Visuals Plot
In that sense, Fire and Ash’s big final battle reminded me of how Return of the Jedi’s Battle of Endor is like a souped-up spin on A New Hope’s grand finale.
…the much-maligned conclusion to another part-three space opera, Return of the Jedi…
But like “Return of the Jedi,” the third installment in the first trilogy of George Lucas’ space epic, it might make many feel that enough is enough.
Jurassic World Rebirth (2025)
Directed by Gareth Edwards
influenced by Return of the Jedi (1983)
Visuals Characters
Rancor from “Return of the Jedi”…
…essentially the Rancor from Return of the Jedi, but with lil T-Rex arms…
The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026)
Directed by Jon Favreau
influenced by Return of the Jedi (1983)
Plot Characters
Following the fall of the Galactic Empire in Return of the Jedi and set some time after The Mandalorian Season 3 finale, Imperial warlords remain scattered throughout the galaxy and continue threatening its stability.
Set in the Star Wars universe a little after the fall of the evil galactic Empire, defeated in the 1983 film Return of the Jedi (aka Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi), the show follows the titular bounty hunter…
The Hutts in particular have a very deliberate style of movement that feels quite evolved from Jabba in Return of the Jedi yet pays appropriately tribute to his grand size and shape.
Rotta the Hutt — the last surviving heir of Return of the Jedi’s infamous Jabba the Hutt — who retains his family’s giant-slug physique but adds some nicely swollen muscles to the gooey, slithery package.
…this film is set in the aftermath of Return of the Jedi where the Empire has fallen…
As Romy risks her career and her family in pursuit of great (read: kinky) sex, I kept thinking about what Robert Loggia told Glenn Close in "Jagged Edge," way back in 1985: "Is that your head talking, or another part of your anatomy?"
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Directed by Irvin Kershner
influenced Return of the Jedi (1983)
Themes Plot
“The Empire Strikes Back” is proof positive that without Lucas’ control, this series was destined to hit major high points that arguably faltered with “Return of the Jedi.”
We'll have to wait until "Return of the Jedi" on March 7 for them.
Following the events of "The Empire Strikes Back," the evil Republic is still wreaking havoc across the galaxy with the construction of a second Death Star.
It's a properly triumphant finale, filled with action -- and yet, coming after the best and emotionally richest chapter, The Empire Strikes Back , a slight disappointment.
Now we have to wait three more years for the next episode, The Return of Jedi.
All but two of these questions - plus dozens more you never thought to ask - are answered in "Return of the Jedi," the concluding film in George Lucas's phenomenally popular space-fantasy trilogy that began triumphantly with "Star Wars" (1977) but slowed down a good deal with "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980).
No wonder the Rebels took so easily to kicking it with the Ewoks in Return of the Jedi. They were right at home in that kind of setting.
Palpatine apparently didn’t start courting until sometime after Return of the Jedi so he’s not in the market for a new robe.
She also attempts to dance herself clean, which I don’t think is something any viewer of Return of the Jedi expected to see in 1983.
From her first appearance in Return of the Jedi to now we have learned so much about the Chandrillin senator.
It's up there with the moment where that other Dark Father, John Wayne's Ethan Edwards, embraces Natalie Wood at the end of John Ford's "The Searchers," and well worth exposure to all those gibbering fur pies.
The film's original screenplay was the work of Joe Eszterhas, whose scripts for Jagged Edge and Basic Instinct were among the most influential of that subgenre, and New Line reportedly paid $4 million for this one.
It’s why Return of the Jedi isn’t satisfying…
His fourth film on the subject, "Basic Instinct" is obviously a reiteration of the stories and subtexts of his earlier films, "Jagged Edge," "Betrayed" and "Music Box." Writing to a population battered with headlines about pedophiles, cannibals, one-man sperm banks, sleep-around pols, Eszterhas exploits all of our fashionable fears.
For that princely sum, Eszterhas rewrote "Jagged Edge" and disgorged such lines as ''Look lady, we can do this downtown if we have to" and "You like watching, don't you?"
The screenplay, by Joe Eszterhas , resembles his “ Jagged Edge ” (1985) in keeping the secret until the last shot.
This, you may recall, is the movie that aroused the ire of gay groups, that seemed destined for an NC-17 rating (though, of course, it was trimmed to get a more commercially desirable R), that had a script by Joe Eszterhas (Jagged Edge, Flashdance) that fetched a record $3 million.
Writer Joe Eszterhas shamelessly reworks ideas and themes he had earlier exploited in films such as Jagged Edge and Music Box, but the sheer overheated nature of Verhoeven's direction makes this extremely watchable.
Everything else might as well be "Fort Apache."
What trips up The Shape of Water is the espionage subplot, which finds Dr. Hoffstetler as a fighter, an "Eye of the Needle" of sorts; as wonderfully as it establishes the time and place as the early days of the Cold War, Sputnik threatening at any moment to drop bombs on grandmothers in Iowa and Kansas, it distracts from scenes where Eliza imagines she's dancing with the Creature like Alice Faye.
Yet this isn’t “Jagged Edge” or “Presumed Innocent” in Gen-X clothing.
The result is an anatomical anomaly that resembles the wirehaired shell dwellers from George Lucas’ THX-1138 with the face of Saelt-Marae (aka Yak Face) seen at Jabba’s Palace in Return of the Jedi.
Normally, I'm not a fan of this school of storytelling, which seems sorta lazy to me -- The Usual Suspects fell back on a similar one-twist gimmick in 1995, and Joe Eszterhas has used it repeatedly, to my great irritation (Jagged Edge, Basic Instinct, and Sliver).
His credits include " Jagged Edge ," " Basic Instinct " and the forthcoming " Jade ."
Writer Joe Eszterhas had done "Jagged Edge," "Basic Instinct," and "Nowhere to Run," and producer Alan Marshall had done "Basic Instinct," "Cliffhanger," and "Angel Heart."
Eszterhas (whose name was loudly hissed by the audience during the opening credits) mysteries, from Jagged Edge to Basic Instinct , are known to follow a specific formula (anyone familiar with his work will know what it is).
The mark of an Eszterhas script seems to be that nothing in the first half of the movie really syncs up with anything in the second half of the movie -- that's how he concocts them surprise endings, and why the conclusions of his Jagged Edge, Basic Instinct, and Sliver scripts are so unsatisfying, even in the context of our low expectations.
Yes, I know Lucas didn't direct Jedi -- the way Steven Spielberg didn't Poltergeist -- but it was clearly an amped-up version of the original film, with all the things Lucas couldn't do the first time around.