It’s hard to confuse a Jedi Master with a bounty hunter,
but in 1980 the distinction wasn’t as clear. Let’s go back in time to
see what it was like to watch “The Empire Strikes Back” when it was first released!
While "The Empire Strikes Back" is the middle chapter of a trilogy,
many fans initially felt it left too much to interpretation.
In a letter to the science fiction film magazine Starlog, one fan named Sean Bernard wrote,
"I know they wanted to leave something to settle in the other sequels, but they left a little too
much. For instance, Han Solo's predicament. The movie should not have ended until Han was
either killed by Boba Fett or Jabba or rescued by Lando Calrissian or Chewbacca, the former,
preferably. Also, the fate of Bespin is not told. Was it taken by Lando's troops,
taken by Imperial troops or destroyed by Vader?"
This criticism proved common enough that film star Harrison Ford responded to it.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Ford said,
"One of [series creator] George [Lucas]'s real strengths is not giving you all the information
you need, yet at the same time not denying you anything essential. You have a feeling
that you want to know more at all times. I have heard frequently that there is a certain
kind of disappointment with the ending of the second film. I've heard people say,
'There's no end to this film' or 'I can't wait to find out what happens.'
But they will, and that's exactly the effect intended by the ending."
"I am your father"
This revelation from "The Empire Strikes Back" is often considered one of the most shocking moments
in movie history. The twist was so surprising, in fact, that many fans in 1980 doubted what
they'd just heard. Starlog reader Robert L. Beedy-Scarola [BEE-dee scar-OH-la?] wrote,
"Is Luke related to Vader? Most think so now that Vader came right out and said it. Well,
I say, do you believe everything you hear? Vader may have lied just to enlist Luke to his side.
Vader would then dispose of Luke once he got what he wanted."
Even most of the cast and crew were kept in the dark. As Mark Hamill explained
on “The Graham Norton Show” in 2017, the version they filmed had an alternate twist.
"In that scene, the way we filmed it, Vader said, "You don't know the truth.
Obi-Wan killed your father."
After filming the scene, Hamill said that the director, Irvin Kershner,
pulled him aside and told him that Darth Vader is actually Luke's father. However,
he was forbidden to tell anyone else, including his castmates. That meant that even Harrison
Ford and Carrie Fisher didn't learn the real line until they finally saw a screening of the film.
"At the screening, when that happened, Harrison turned to me and said,
"Hey kid, you didn't f—ing tell me that!"
Another line that left fans scratching their heads
after the original screenings of "The Empire Strikes Back" was something Yoda said to Ben.
"That boy is our last hope."
"No, there is another."
One Starlog reader named Bill Smith theorized,
"Could it be Vader himself? Considering that there was an equilibrium of power
between the good and dark sides of the Force, it would not be impossible to turn
Vader into the antithesis of what he is now, especially if Luke [...] is truly his son."
On the other hand, a fan named Keith Hoffman wrote,
"I suggest Princess Leia. She is young enough for the training; she withstood Darth Vader's
tortures; she is dedicated to the cause; Princess Leia, not Lando, 'heard' Luke's cries for help;
Han Solo is not in shape to be going anywhere for a while and he is too old. I wouldn't be
surprised if in the third film, Leia, instead of Luke, destroys the Emperor."
As it turns out, each of them was a little bit right,
although not in the ways they expected. Vader did switch sides at the end of "Return of the Jedi,"
and Leia ultimately proved to be Force-sensitive as well.
"I know" is often considered one of the most clever improvised lines in movie history,
but not everyone felt that way in 1980.
Starlog reader Jeanette Vogelpohl wrote,
". . . Somebody should tell Harrison Ford that when a woman passionately tells a man, 'I love
you,' 'I know' is not an acceptable response. That scene was not funny, it was infuriating."
Another person who was not a fan of Ford's line was George Lucas. In a 2011 interview with Jon
Favreau, the Han Solo actor shared how the "Star Wars" creator responded to his improvised line.
"And George, I think this is fair enough to say, he went apes–t.
He thought it was horrible and that it would get a bad laugh."
However, despite his distaste for Ford's version of the scene, Lucas allowed the line to stay in
for test screenings, where it was received favorably by audiences. Given how iconic
that line is today, it seems like Lucas made the right call to let it remain in the film.
While "The Empire Strikes Back" wasn't universally beloved upon its release,
plenty of fans recognized it as a masterpiece as soon as they saw it.
One positive reaction came from Starlog reader David K. Abernathy, who wrote,
"After seeing [The Empire Strikes Back], I came away with a feeling that finally,
after all these years, science fiction has been brought to the screen in all its glory.
[The Empire Strikes Back] is so rich, so full of mystery and excitement and, most of all,
wonder. [...] To me, [The Empire Strikes Back] represents the first true science-fiction film,
with all of its parts complete: the characters, the theme, the special effects and the magic.
It has the right to be called the first science-fiction epic"
Another Starlog reader, Arlene Bahrenburg, wrote,
"I didn't think they could do it, but they did. They made a movie that was better than
the first Star Wars. More action, more dimension to the characters,
more and better effects — everything that made Star Wars so great the first time, plus
much more. The Force was certainly with George Lucas when he created this fabulous sequel."
David Gerrold, a science-fiction author and “Star Trek” television writer, reviewed “The
Empire Strikes Back” for Starlog #38 but was not very kind to the film. In his review, he wrote,
"Just about every other critic in the country has been telling you how good the picture is;
they've been falling all over themselves to tell you. It's
embarrassing. I feel guilty for not liking it as much as I'm supposed to."
Considering that “Star Trek” relies more on grounded science than “Star Wars,”
Gerrold's criticisms of “The Empire Strikes Back” were mostly about how
it disregarded real-world logistics. He was frustrated by the many ways in which
its plot and characters seemed to ignore the physics of the world they were in.
"Let's go through this shower of asteroids! Who cares, and, my hair won't get messed up!"
Gerrold justified his criticism by reasoning that the film was using science-fiction devices,
even if its plot skewed closer to fantasy. He also criticized Luke's growth but enjoyed other
parts of the movie, including the musical score, performances, production design, and effects.
Many Starlog readers were unimpressed with Gerrold's review.
They struck back hard in Issue #40, where a reader named Michael Mallory wrote,
"Mr. Gerrold complains about what he deems storytelling flaws in logic or science in
[The Empire Strikes Back]. As for the scientific misrepresentations, I can only say they don't
matter. This is a fantasy movie. [...] I'm tired of people faulting these films for not being
intellectual enough. Who said they were supposed to be thought-provoking? Few films are perfect.
Nitpicking [...] is like criticizing an apple for not being steak when you're hungry for steak.
It might be the best apple you ever tasted, but it's still lousy steak."
Some letters to Gerrold were nicer, but overall,
they weren't the biggest fans of Starlog's official review.
Like Gerrold, professional critics were also initially mixed on "The Empire Strikes Back."
And some of them were downright savage about it. Washington Post critic Judith Martin wrote,
"’The Empire Strikes Back' has no plot structure, no character studies let
alone character development, no emotional or philosophical point to make. It has no original
vision of the future, which is depicted as a pastiche of other junk-culture formulae,
such as the western, the costume epic and the World War II movie.
Its specialty is 'special effects' or visual tricks, some of which are playful,
imaginative and impressive, but others of which have become space-movie clichés."
Frederick S. Clarke of Cinefantastique magazine was also not a fan.
Making a prediction that really didn't age well, Clarke wrote,
"The Empire Strikes Back is a lifeless copy of Star Wars propelled chiefly on the momentum of
that earlier film. Without the likes of a Peter Cushing or Alec Guinness to add some
dignity and solid support, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford flounder
in roles that are certain to doom their careers regardless of the series' success."
However, as with the fans, there were some critics who loved "The Empire Strikes Back"
right out of the gate. The legendary Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film
three-and-a-half out of four stars, saying his only issues with it were,
"trivial compared to the strengths of the film,
which are considerable and sometimes even majestic."
"The Empire Strikes Back" was the cinematic introduction of two characters who would go on
to be immortalized in merchandise for decades to come: Yoda and Boba Fett. However, Arthur Knight,
a critic for The Hollywood Reporter, confused them in his review of the film.
Knight's column started out smoothly, praising "The Empire Strikes Back" as the best science
fiction movie since "Star Wars." He also said that Kershner's direction made the characters
come alive even more than in the previous film. However, two paragraphs in, Knight wrote,
"As to the present episode, despite a couple of phoned in messages from Ben Kenobi [...] which,
collected, must last all of 40 seconds, most of Luke Skywalker's good advice comes from
a fascinating green-hued character named Boba Fett [...] — and I'm still not certain whether
he's a skillfully animated puppet or a real live human being. Whichever,
he's one of Lucas' strongest assets in this Star Wars incarnation."
Today, the archived version of the review begins with an update correcting the error, but it serves
as an amusing reminder that the icons of the present were once still new and novel to fans.
However, even if he mixed up their names, Knight was correct in his assumption that both Boba Fett
and Yoda would go on to count themselves among Lucas' strongest — and most marketable — assets.
If some of the pushback against "The Empire Strikes Back" feels strangely familiar — even
if you weren't around in 1980 — there's a reason for that. The initial response to "The
Empire Strikes Back" is eerily similar to that of 2017's "Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi."
Both middle chapters of their respective trilogies
tried to take the “Star Wars” franchise in exciting new directions,
and both received mixed reviews from fans who were initially displeased with the wide gap
between their expectations and the film itself. Thanks to the internet and social media,
the backlash against “The Last Jedi” was much louder, but the parallels are still unmistakable.
Many fans slammed "The Last Jedi" for its diversity and assumed political correctness,
in addition to critiquing the coherence of its plot. Of course, few fans in 1980 were
complaining about "The Empire Strikes Back" being too politically correct,
but there were similar complaints about the story not being coherent or compelling.
Mike Ryan of Uproxx mentioned in a 2019 interview with "The Last Jedi" writer and director Rian
Johnson that "The Empire Strikes Back" also divided fans when it was first released.
The filmmaker admitted that even he himself was initially disappointed with "Empire," which was
actually the first Star Wars movie he remembered seeing. However, he eventually came to his senses,
saying that after watching and loving "Return of the Jedi," he wound up warming to "Empire."
In fact, although he wasn't initially a fan of "The Empire Strikes Back," it gradually became his
favorite of the trilogy. So perhaps if "The Last Jedi" follows in the footsteps of its predecessor,
it may someday be looked upon as fondly as "The Empire Strikes Back."
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