Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker's return of the Jedi duel let's go this video is sponsored by
Wondrium and I watched a documentary on there which may be relevant to your interests but
more on that a bit later I'm Jill Bearup I enjoy hitting people with swords in
a choreographed fashion and this scene is a masterclass in how storytelling is
so important in your filmed fight and cinematography and set design and acting
and music and then choreography... well... it's not that choreography doesn't matter at all it's
just not as important as a lot of other things and if you don't believe me on that right now
let's see if i can persuade you note that this is not an endorsement for just getting your actors to
improvise their fights because one safety first and two it's probably gonna look really bad so
the plot of Return of the Jedi goeth thusly the Death Star mark ii is under construction
and the rebels are on a desperate mission to you know blow it up but as it turns out it's a trap!
indeed in the meantime Luke is processing his dad being Darth Vader and his need to turn him
back to the light because a Jedi's got to do what a Jedi's got to do you know what I mean?
i'm out of it for a little while everybody gets delusions of grandeur yeah but what if they aren't
delusions? eventually they do blow up the death star Vader turns on the emperor the day is saved
let's have a party with the teddy bears the end the important thing to note at the beginning of
the film when everybody is trying to rescue Han from Jabba's palace is this: look how calm Luke is
he's Force kicking he's blocking blaster bolts with his lightsaber he's performing feats of
derring do thinks he's a Jedi knight huh well he is at least acting the part even in a situation
where everything is very complicated our boy is doing fine although side note i feel if the scene
were in the prequels or the sequels there would be dozens of videos talking about how illogical
it is and how it just doesn't make any sense at all i love this scene and i love how it serves as
a demonstration of the adaptability of our heroes even when everything is pure unadulterated chaos
but basically everybody nearly dies while trying to rescue Han Solo here but the important point
is that Luke is calm regardless this is not true of Luke's previous interaction with Vader on cloud
city Luke is afraid of Vader Vader is obviously superior to Luke the fight does not go well
at all for Luke the question that we must answer in return of the Jedi therefore is this:
has Luke learned enough to win not in terms of who has the lightsaber skills to win the fight but
who is going to win the moral war? and at the start of Luke invaders confrontation we have
some hope that it's going to be Luke he gives himself up to his father and immediately goes
to work trying to persuade him to turn back to the light but his speechifying on the forest moon
of Endor isn't enough to prevent Darth Vader from taking him to see the emperor even so Luke remains
very calm 'you're wrong soon i'll be dead and you with me' he's not really expecting to survive this
is the thing he's expecting his friends to do their jobs and blow them all to kingdom come
this is a personal mission that he feels he must try regardless 'your overconfidence is your
weakness' 'your faith in your friends is yours' even though he's technically losing and a captive
and about to die he feels in control but then the emperor seems to have all the cards 'it was
i who allowed the alliance to know the location of the shield generator' and you can see the panic
starting to appear on Luke's face if Jabba's sail barge demonstrates Luke's amazing flexibility in
the face of certain kinds of violence and chaos and what have you the scene with the emperor is
where we see the limits of it because you can see the conflict on Luke's face you can see
the fear for his friends there we feel the tension and that tension is only ramped up
by the fact that we keep cutting back to our other heroes to see what they're doing and find out that
things are actually getting pretty interesting for them out there on the forest moon things are not
going well but there is hope and Luke is initially able to control his feelings but then the death
star turns out to be weaponized and it's another blow to Luke and note the contrast between Luke
and the emperor and their absolute stillness and the scenes that we keep cutting back to with Lando
and Han and Leia. Luke has no way of knowing what the outcome will be and up in that darkened
room looking out at ships being blown up it all seems pretty hopeless when he thought he would
die but the emperor would be defeated that was one thing but watching all of his friends die
ostensibly for nothing that... that does not do good things to a person and so while we're
rooting for Luke to resist the influence of the dark side he has to do so off his own bat not
because he knows that there's any hope for his friends but it turns out to be too much and faced
with the one person who could stop all of the attacks and stop all of his friends dying Luke
does what we know to be a bad plan and tries to attack the emperor and is of course immediately
blocked by Vader and then we cut away to another scene and when we come back we're already in the
fight so having told you the choreography as in the actual moves the swords are making is pretty
unimportant let me show you why the actual moves by Luke are upward cut left to right horizontal
cut right to left editing bobble so we see that bit twice left to right cut, cut for Vader's left
leg cut for the head, then repeat: right to left cut left to right cut leg cut head cut
boot down stairs did you notice that editing oopsie before i pointed it out maybe if you
did did you care about it probably not and that's not just because it's a pretty small mistake it's
also because the investment in the scene is the important thing rather than the details when it
comes to what movies you like you are just allowed to like things whether other people think they're
good or not but seeing as providing justifications for your fight feels is basically what we do here
let us continue this phrase ends with Luke kicking Vader down the stairs
and the emperor is so cacklingly happy about Luke giving in to fear and hate and anger the
menacing music continues yeah Luke just give in to your entirely justifiable feelings of anger
and go nuts on this guy but Luke has a larger vision and so he shuts off his lightsaber and
Vader comes back to him with obi-wan has taught you well and there's that force theme to tell us
that Luke is at least temporarily back on balance and so he goes back to his original plan which is
hit him in the feels. i will not fight you father Luke has moved through the shock of
that knowledge about Vader being his father and accepted it and now he's using it to try and turn
Anakin back to the light but the music at least is aware that it's not going to work out just yet
and Luke retreats as Vader comes up the stairs again Luke is intimidated we are intimidated the
music is intimidated we know there's going to be more violence we're just waiting for it to
start but because Luke is back on his relatively even emotional keel when the violin starts again
it's Vader on the attack you are unwise to lower your defenses vertical head cut cut to
right leg vertical head cut cut to right leg, it just happened again mum and then we walk a
little bit and then Vader on the offensive striking mostly horizontally right to left
left to right right to left left to right right to left left to right right to left left to right and
pause now for this next phrase we have another contrast set up between Luke in empire and Luke
in Jedi in empire when Luke tries to take the initiative it doesn't really go well for him
but in Jedi it works better because he has a clear objective which isn't just beat Vader don't die
and so when he moves first it's not to attack it's to disengage and then jump and then just get out
of the way really and back to the talking thought to betray you father i feel the good in you
the conflict there is no conflict the Force Theme says otherwise Anakin and this is why
people love this fight it's got nothing to do with whether or not the choreography is
complex enough the sword work in the final edit at least is relatively speaking fairly simple and
as we've seen quite often phrases are just a couple of moves repeated a couple of times
the complexity that we are enjoying comes from the editing the environment from the third person
present who knows what he's gonna do and most of all from the verbal and emotional struggles
which intertwine with the physical fight sadly the talkie-talkie in this instance is again not
efficacious Vader throws his lightsaber Luke falls and no we stalk now Vader did get a little bit
worked up during the earlier part of the duel you can tell from his mechanical breathing but he's
slowed right down again now and the slightly creepy mechanical evenness of the breathing
is another sign that Luke may be hidden right now but he's not in control i mean honestly if Vader
was feeling practical about it he could just turn the lights on but the point is to entice Luke to
the dark side through fear and uncertainty and anger and aggression this darkness and
uncertainty is meant to make you feel anxious for Luke and it does i will not fight you Luke
has tried using his words twice or three times now and uh it hasn't worked so far but Vader has words
too it is the only way you can save your friends oh dear and here we go straight to the heart of
our poor benighted protagonist Luke's friends are in mortal peril fighting the empire and his love
for his friends is a weakness that Vader seeks to exploit which he does with pinpoint accuracy
if you will not turn to the dark side then perhaps she will now dramatically speaking this phrase
is great look at those pieces of the set getting cut up look at Luke's rage and how Vader is forced
onto the defensive choreographically speaking it's well Luke tries for either a stab for the head or
an overhead cut and then swings his lightsaber wildly back and forth while mostly not hitting
anything except the scenery did he just run past Vader there and not get cut in half anyway
a few more on target attacks which Vader actually has to parry Vader even tries an overhead cut
and then there's this long retreat by Vader as Luke just whales on him he has completely lost
it and there are lots of long sweeping strikes which give us the maximum swooshiness of the
lightsaber because it looks cool side note i'm pretty sure there's an extra unnecessary clash
visual effect in here but i'm not actually going to tell you where it is so if you spot it do let
me know also while i generally don't enjoy fight scenes which mostly take place in the dark i do
make an exception when the combatants are fighting with giant glow sticks that make their every move
very obvious and then after that long retreat in the next section Vader tries to fight back but you
can still see him on the retreat Luke is getting wilder and even more uncontrolled his face is just
pure unadulterated rage and oh there goes your hand again Anakin and the music again here is not
triumphant it's dramatic but it's not happy but even here in the midst of all this
hand chopping is as far as Luke goes he's threatening Vader with his lightsaber afterwards
but he could have just chopped off his head like there was nothing stopping him from doing that but
Luke realizing that he has dealt the same damage to Anakin as Anakin dealt to him is a moment
and we spend a lot of time on Luke's face at this point for this reason we need to know
that he knows what this means as a kid i watched return of the Jedi before i watched
empire strikes back and so i didn't know that Luke had previously lost a hand and so i hadn't
really noticed that he was wearing a glove and assumed that when he chopped off Vader's hand
it was somehow magically transferred onto his own hand obviously that's not at all what happened but
emotionally speaking that's that's what we're meant to be thinking of so..eh. and so that he
doesn't give in to temptation because he knows that it's a possibility he throws the lightsaber
away which as it turns out may not have been the best idea i am a Jedi like my father before me
so be it... Jedi it's a bit like that moment in your ttrpg where you're like okay so are we out
of initiative order? and the dm smiles at you and suddenly the creepy old man who's been hanging
around has heretofore unannounced lightning powers who could have seen that coming? while the rebels
have got the shield down and are now making their way through the partially constructed death star 2
electric boogaloo Luke is in bad trouble but Vader is up again and next to the emperor and following
him in as he gets closer and closer to Luke and Luke gets closer and closer to death did any of
those words get through apparently yes let's have that force theme again and even though we can see
that it's hurting him terribly and the quality of his mechanical breathing is irreparably worse
after he's done Anakin does it he does the right thing and Luke is saved and so is Anakin if this
were a more cynical series it might point out that a lifetime of wickedness cannot be atoned
for by a single good deed but star wars has never been that kind of series. Tinkly imperial march
robbed of much of its menace by the choice of instruments are we in pain yet Return of the
Jedi is a film which gives us grace. Vader no longer thought of himself as Anakin Skywalker
but he was once and even though Luke has no reason to believe that it's likely that he will turn back
to the light side he goes and tries anyway he offers grace because he is a Jedi like his father
before him and doing so costs him dearly sets him on a very dark path nearly tips him over the edge
into evil himself not to mention almost killing him but he does it anyway because he believes
it's the right thing to do the original title for this film was revenge of the Jedi and i'm
really glad they renamed it because that's kind of the whole point Luke's revenge if any reminds him
that revenge is not the answer the teaser poster for Jedi was drawn by a guy called Drew Struzen
and while you will probably note that on that original drawing the lightsaber colors are the
wrong way round and indeed that Luke has a green lightsaber in return of the Jedi not a blue one
uh does it really matter not particularly neither of those things is really the point what is the
point i'm glad you asked it's evoking the correct emotions. Struzen has also done poster art for a
few other films that you might have heard of and so i learned about the work he did and his life
from a documentary called Drew the man behind the poster which is on Wondrium which is today's
video sponsor and the man behind the poster is absolutely worth a watch if only for the guy
who hired Drew to do album art back when he was a literal starving artist and then got quite
offended because the movie people offered him like lots of money to do work for them instead
of the pittance that he was currently being paid if you'd like to watch it you can get a free
trial of Wondrium by clicking on the link in the description Wondrium has over six thousand hours
of cool stuff like that on history cinema theatre art science you name it really they also have a
24-part series on Jane Austen and her works and the culture of the time she lived in and i'm not
really sure how i'm going to work all of this new knowledge into subsequent videos but i'm going to
try if you wonder about stuff you'll love Wondrium and if you'd like to learn more about Drew Struzen
and his ability to make you feel the feelings you can click on the link in the description or in the
pinned comment or go to wondrium.com/jillbearup to sign up for a free trial your brain will love it
if you'd like a complete breakdown of Luke Vader in empire strikes back then do leave
a comment and let me know cause that is also a very fun one otherwise I will see you next time