Star Wars Day VI: Return of the Jedi (1983)

Impressions from the sixth movie. Just in case you’ve managed to not see the movies, here be spoilers:

At last, the circle is complete. Having watched all six films in one fell swoop this past day, you see the hexology being the story of Anakin Skywalker’s rise, fall, and redemption, expanding beyond the characters of Episodes IV-VI.

And one of the great thematic threads is highlighted again:

Luke: “Your overconfidence is your weakness.”

The Emperor: “Your faith in your friends is yours.”

Also:

• Luke coming into his own, the first young Jedi Knight to make an appearance in some time, since they were all killed in III. Strong and confident in his powers.
• I want to believe Boba Fett made it out of the Sarlaac after everybody left.
• In 1983, a great moment after three years of waiting for Han to thaw from the carbonite, akin to what happened between Star Trek II and III, waiting to (hopefully) see Spock.
• Speeder bikes! Better yet: speeder bikes in a giant forest! Better still: speeder bikes in a giant forest battle!
• I remember being wide-eyed by the sheer number of TIE Fighters swarming toward the screen as the Rebel Fleet approached the new Death Star, a moment which doesn’t make as much sense with all the additional ships added in the special edition Episodes IV and V. Space was a lot less crowded in the originals. Juxtapose those with the beginning of Episode III especially.
• Anybody who thinks the Ewoks were too cutesy must have missed the part where they were going to eat everybody.
• The scenes in the Emperor’s throne room with him, Vader, and Luke were tense, almost claustrophobic. Even knowing how things would end, the internal struggles of both Luke and his father are readily apparent.

Here we are, some 19 hours later — I was the only one of the three of us who made it all the way through, although both Denyse and Hans watched large swaths of all of them. Oh, and Pharaoh the Standard Poodle kept me company quite a bit, mostly sleeping. ;)

No grand philosophical conclusions or other intellectual attempts at the moment, as I’m tired after the day, and we have a bunch of stuff to do tomorrow. Suffice to say, a wonderful time that lived up to my anticipations.

Hopefully you have a chance to duplicate the experience yourself someday, if you’re a fan. Oh, and by the way:

May the Force be with you.