Star Wars - Episode 5 'The Empire Strikes Back'

Just

in time for

all of the fans that

wanted more of the adventures

of Luke Skywalker, 1980 brought us

"The Empire Strikes Back"

Where is Skywalker?

The world was waiting for this one, unlike the way George Lucas had sprung his little space opera 'Star Wars' only those few years back.

Just like the summer of '77, the lines again formed around endless blocks, but now they contained fans with even more enthusiasm and anxiousness than one can hope for.

You could be sure that my friends and I were right there standing in line on opening day along with the rest. This we had to see.

Would this sequel hold the same magic and adventure that it's predecessor had?

You bet......and more.

'The Empire Strikes Back' was just as adventurous and entertaining that the mind of Lucas could conjure up, but it had more, it had a real story.

The ball was now the Empire's now, and ready to strike back with a vengeance that only the Dark Lord of Sith could evoke. Darth Vader did survive after all and now searched the galaxy for the young Luke Skywalker who foiled the empire's evil plot in the first chapter.

But wait, during the opening text crawl we were first to witness the title 'Episode V'.

What was this? What happened to the first 4 episodes?

Your not actually going into an asteroid belt are you? Indeed George Lucas had something great in store for all of us. Since his first step into the Star Wars galaxy took off as it did, the world was notified that a complete saga was to unfold to us throughout the next decade. A total of nine movies were to be made. Star Wars, during it's first reissue was re-titled 'Episode IV - A New Hope', 'The Empire Strikes Back' was Chapter V, and seven more Star Wars were on the way.

Of coarse the world knows that at this time Mr. Lucas has claimed that only a total of Six films will be made. But we'll just have to see what surprises will be in store from him.

Surprises was certainly the word in 'Empire'. This is when we were reviled a certain secret of Darth Vader's . The moment the words, 'Luke, I am your father." were heard in the theatre the entire audience was hushed in shock, terror, and goose-bumps.

In fact the entire experience of seeing 'Empire' in the theatre that first time will remain as one of my best memories. The entire house was full. The moment the lights went down and the familiar 20th Century Fox logo was displayed the entire audience went wild. I had never witnessed that type of response in a theatre before. Even when we saw each of our celluloid friends up on the big screen again there was instant 'yea's' and applause. Well, except for when that shot of that super Star Destroyer loomed it's shadow over the other ships did the booing start.

From the ice planet of Hoth where the Rebels were beaten by the Empire, on the humid world of Dagobah where Luke learned the ways of the Jedi from Master Yoda, to the Cloud City of Bespin where Vader's plot to turn the young Jedi to the darkside failed, 'The Empire Strikes Back' is in my eyes the best of the trilogy.

Upon leaving the theatre the seven of us that attended were somewhat speechless until one friend broke the silence by saying, "Well, was that a movie or was that a movie."

It was a great experience.

A View From Doc: I saw The Empire Strikes Back on opening day in 1980 at the wide screen (70mm) River Oaks theater in Calumet City. This was 2 weeks before I graduated from High School. I loved the movie. The action scenes were great! The first Snow Speeder scene flying over the hills of snow was a complete thrill. The only part that I remember disliking back then (and still do) was Han Solo's PG-rated language ("Then I'll see you in hell"). It seemed out of place and was not repeated again in that or the next movie.

A View From Terry: I saw The Empire Strikes Back on opening day in 1980 with my best friends on the face of the planet (Doc, Rog, Perry [he was with us, wasn't he?], Bill, and even Rob Arlt). I was a Junior in High School, and had to cut class to see the movie (it was a 1:00 PM show on a Wednesday). We sat way up front; the huge screen at the River Oaks theater took up our entire field of vision. As the movie opened, we were treated to an even bigger Star Destroyer! Man!...was this gonna be cool! I vividly remember the overhead shot of Luke riding his Tuantuan across the snow field. I knew I was watching stop motion animation...but the camera was moving along with the Tuantuan! I turned to my fellow special effects expert Rog and asked him "How can the camera be moving? That's impossible!" Rog, also dumbfounded, just shook his head. (This was our introduction to computer controlled cameras in special effects work.) I loved Empire even more than Star Wars. The relentless pace of the movie gave me the impression that ('somewhere out there') there really was a desperate war being fought between the Rebels and the Empire. Again, as cool as Han was, I still was drawn to Luke's plight. I was so mesmerized by Luke's confrontation with Darth Vader that my hand prints are probably still embedded into the arm rest of the seat I sat in. I honestly can't think of anything I didn't like about this movie.