Review of Back Roads (1981) by Thatcooperguy — 14 Dec 2015

After you get a successful movie like "Star Wars", what else is there to do? Well, make a sequel of course. This time, however, George Lucas became full-time head of Lucasfilm and could not find the time to shoot the sequel to his acclaimed first movie. As a result, director Irvin Kershner was brought on to replace Lucas and two new writers were also hired: Leigh Brackett & Lawrence Kasdan. The legend goes that Leigh wrote a good first draft of Lucas' story outline, but she unfortunately died in March of 1978 before the script could be finalized for production. This led to Lawrence Kasdan being brought on board to finish up the script and to give it a new approach, also without getting rid of all the material Leigh worked on.

While Irvin Kershner had plenty of experience as a film maker, this ended up being the first movie Lawrence Kasdan ever wrote or worked on in general, and it just so happened to be a sequel to one of the most famous films of all time. So clearly, he and Kershner had a lot of pressure on their hands. How exactly do you top something as big as "Star Wars"? Well, somehow, Irvin & Lawrence not only managed to make a movie truly worthy of being a sequel to "Star Wars", but also a movie that completely tops it.

The original "Star Wars" may have a few issues holding it back from being perfect, but "The Empire Strikes Back"? F*cking flawless. Most sequels are NOTORIOUS for being poorly written and only made just to make large amounts of money. While Empire did make a lot of money, it had one of the best screenplays ever written, and it's all thanks to Lawrence Kasdan, who would thankfully stick around for Empire's sequel, "Return of the Jedi" and also came back to write Jedi's sequel, "The Force Awakens".

The writing is much darker and adds a lot more drama in the mix. Plus I'm sure Lawrence must not of had a difficult time writing this since all these characters were already established in the first movie. The story progresses in all the right ways. We see these characters continue to grow and they're not just thrown into this movie because, "Hey look! It's those characters from the first film, isn't that cool?" They all have a reason to be there and you're also just so glad to see them again.

Han Solo and Princess Leia start a romance. Luke is told by the ghost of Obi-Wan to go to some random planet to learn the ways of the force from this "Yoda" character. Darth Vader, who had little screen time in the first movie (though he did make a good first impression), has this new obsession where he's hunting down Luke for some strange reason. Sadly, seeing how iconic this movie is, we all know why he is hunting for Luke. We all know what he wants from Luke. It's one of the biggest plot twists of all time, but if you're one of the few people on this planet who aren't aware of the big reveal, I'll let you watch the movie for yourself. I won't spoil it for you.

Aside from previous characters returning, we also have new characters. We finally get a glimpse of The Emperor who was partially mentioned in the first movie. We meet Lando Calrissian and he's just as smooth and cool as Han Solo. Not to mention, Master Yoda is one of the greatest supporting characters ever brought on screen and he's a freaking muppet. You can tell he's a muppet, but somehow he's puppeteer-ed and voiced so perfectly that you believe he's a real living creature, and it's all thanks to the talents of Frank Oz with the help of Jim Henson's Creature Shop. Yoda's wisdom and his training scenes with Luke on Dagobah are so brilliant and entertaining. If I needed to just say one reason why Empire is better than Star Wars, my answer would be Yoda, he's such a pimp.

John Williams returned to compose this movie and like always, he has done a terrific job. I think his score here is better than the first movie, it's so beautiful and adds an extra layer of perfection for this movie. The effects are improved and they're just as spectacular as ever. In fact, they were so groundbreaking that the movie ended up winning a Special Achievement Oscar for its visuals effects, along with winning an Oscar for "Best Sound". (and it also should of won "Best Picture"...).

I'd really like that original cut on Blu-ray any time soon, Disney. Seeing how you're going to have full ownership of this movie in 2020...

If you couldn't tell at this point, I absolutely love The Empire Strikes Back. I do admire the original Star Wars for starting all of this, but Empire helped cement this series for me. This is the heart of Star Wars. THIS is Star Wars. It brings me so much joy every time I watch it. It's my favorite movie of all time.