Return of the Jedi (1983)
Directed by Richard Marquand
Luke Skywalker leads a mission to rescue his friend Han Solo from the clutches of Jabba the Hutt, the Emperor prepares to crush the Rebellion with a more powerful Death Star, and the Rebel fleet mounts a massive attack on the space station. Luke Skywalker confronts Darth Vader in a final climactic duel before the evil Emperor.
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5 films that influenced Return of the Jedi
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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.
“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).
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.
Everything else might as well be "Fort Apache."
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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.