“For my ally is the force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. It’s energy surrounds us, binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter.”
Yoda
Yesterday I stumbled across the Telegraph’s 1980 review of The Empire Strikes back, oh how times have changed.
Here is the original link to the article. In it you will find an utter disdain for the film, it’s characters and the director. How out of touch must Telegraph film critic Eric Shorter have been at the time? In the article he confesses never to have even seen the original Star Wars film, and simply dismisses it. Now correct me if I am wrong, but in 1977 Star Wars was a run away success, how can a film critic have been oblivious to it. Sure he may not have liked the film, or he may not have liked Sci-Fi or fantasy in general (which is rather clear from his article.) But to be unaware of the cultural significance of it, or indeed the plot of the film is at best lazy journalism.
“If there’s no meaning in it,” said the King to Alice, “that saves a world of trouble, you know, as we needn’t try to find any.” In the same spirit of baffled but cheerful resignation the filmgoer is advised not to worry about what’s going on in Irving Kershner’s The Empire Strikes Back.”
The opening of the review demonstrates just how ignorant of the entire film the reviewer has been. The Empire Strikes Back, has a relatively simple plot, when it comes down to it it’s quite easy to follow what is happening and the meaning behind it. George Lucas is even so kind as to give a run down of what’s actually going on at the beginning of the film. Shorter seems to be under the impression that the film has no plot. What of the love story between Han Solo and Leia, or Luke Skywalkers awakening Jedi powers, the threat of the Empire, and the massive revelation at the end of the film? The truth is Shorter clearly found the whole concept of the film distasteful and went into the screening room with his eyes and mind firmly shut.
“The thing that keeps us watching throughout the two rowdy hours is not the progress of the galactic war or the fortunes of the participants nor the sense of danger as they hurl through space or find themselves trapped by Dalek-like tricksters.What makes the time pass bearably is the decor. The special visual effects by Brian Johnson and Richard Edlund, with Norman Reynolds as production designer, create a constant source of fascination and charm to take our minds off the mindlessness of the foreground doings by the goodies and the baddies in their aerial quarrel.”
I think it’s testament to the fact that The Empire Strikes Back has become one of the most enduring and loved films of the 20th century that there is much more to it than lovely sets and special effects, which he seems to at one point praise and another lambaste. And I’m terribly sorry but I seem to have missed the part where Han and Chewy face off against the Daleks? or indeed anything resembling one, though the concept of Chewbacca ripping the top off a Dalek and roaring at the irradiated Dalek flesh within is quite humourous.
“Some of the sub-human creatures (in particular a big-eared gnomic Muppet with the sad expression of Peter Lorre) make you wonder why the film wasn’t conceived completely as a cartoon”
Sub-human. Just let that sink in for a second. Sub-human.
There’s something quite ominous about that phrase that tells you more about the author of the article than any other word, sentence, or paragraph. Anything that looks or sounds different must by it’s very definition be beneath him. And I think that basically sums up his entire article.
The Brain Leak 