Review of The Empire Strikes Back (1980) by Alec L — 24 Dec 2015

There's nothing more dangerous for a piece of mass cinema than self awareness. Once the humor, the action, the drama becomes self-referential, a film becomes nothing more than a riff on itself. But there's also nothing more dangerous for a major Hollywood release than to take a stark turn. To become dark or humorous or artsy when it's predecessor wasn't.

Empire triumphs because it doesn't respect A New Hope. This was a moment before the sequel really existed as we know it today. Empire is as much it's own film as Godfather II. It's as dark as Psycho and as devastating as Apocalypse Now. Empire encapsulates as much in its own moment as perhaps any film in history. It uses Star Wars, and simply tosses it aside and changes the entire direction of the series. It moves from the whiteness of Hoth to the darkness of Luke and Vader's duel and doesn't miss a moment.

In the end, why do we go to the movies? Surely, there's an intellectual aspect. A lot of us, including myself, consider film worth taking seriously. But film is special. Nothing can change its time, at least when it comes to an artistic medium, like film. For every idea embedded in Italian Neo Realism or the surrealism of Lynch or a Japanese epic and Asian film's focus on the idea there's the bombast of Empire or the terror of Jaws or the existential effect of Arrival of the Train. Ultimately, for better or worse, cinema is mass communication. And rarely is a film an event. But every time you watch Star Wars or Empire, it's an event. Empire is a work of art. In its tone, it's twists, it's terror and heroics. It inverts cinema cliche. It has no respect for opinions. It simply exists. Is there anything more charged than Luke and Vader in Cloud City? Has light ever been used better? Ran, perhaps? Of course not.

This just might be the greatest film of all time, because it aspires to be. Empire doesn't care about camera angles or cross cutting or editing or really anything but the spectacle. And, in general, neither does life. You can fight it, but it's already inside of you. Accept it.