Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back

Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back – After the destruction of the evil Empire’s Death Star by the brave Rebellion, the freedom fighters have been forced into hiding. Struggling to survive attacks by the Empire, Han Solo and Princess Leia flee for their lives. Meanwhile, Luke Skywalker must learn the ways of the force from Master Yoda, but will he be able to resist the dark side while Darth Vader hunts him down and threatens his friends?

Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980) – Director: Irvin Kershner

By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18412529

Rating: U

Running Length:  124 mins

Starring: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford

Genre: Science Fiction, Action/Adventure

REVIEW: ‘STAR WARS: EPISODE V – THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK’

Where’s the best place to be in a trilogy? Without the pressure of starting everything off or the task of satisfying resolution in the conclusion, surely Part II (or ‘Episode V’, in this case) must be where the magic lies? Free from having to start or finish there is room to mess with the template. The Empire Strikes Back’s position as notoriously darker than ‘A New Hope‘ before it or ‘Return of the Jedi‘ after it means that you get plenty of bang for your buck.

Whereas the other two entries in the original trilogy of movies dealt with swashbuckling fun or galactic power shifts, ‘The Empire Strikes Backs’ has the luxury of being able to slow down and dig deeper into its characters. The gang are broken up and go about their individual journeys: Luke’s training uncovers some uncomfortable truths when the power of the dark side finds root in his negative emotions; Han is forced to face his nefarious past; and Leia’s irritation at Han’s cockiness is stripped back. In retrospect, Leia gets short shrift here as she is relentlessly hit on, but even so the heavy lifting that ‘Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back’ does to add some genuine emotion to its cast cannot be overstated, especially considering ‘A New Hope’ glossed over possible depth in favour of broad stroke action.

Similarly, the dark side of the force is given genuine threat in ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ by being revealed as not just where evil resides, but where temptation leads. This lends humanity to Darth Vader as a threat (spoiler alert) whilst simultaneously introducing the cackling Emperor as a rung above him in order to step up scale of our heroes eventual fight in the next installment. The movie starts with the rebel alliance under attack and ends with no real positive resolution. Some may see this as a downer, but it arguably makes ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ the most genuinely thrilling of the lot.

CONTENT: IS ‘STAR WARS: EPISODE V – THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?

There is a jump scare early on where a huge yeti type animal jumps in front of the screen and roars. It lashes it’s claws at a character and knocks him off his mount, which it then attacks with claws to the neck. The attacked animal drops down dead with blood in the claw marks.

We see the character strung upside down in the cave lair of the beast from earlier. A fight ensues and the beast’s arm is slashed off. The arm is seen on the floor (and in the Special Edition there is a shot of the beast clutching the wound where the arm should be).

The rebels close the doors to their ice base knowing that someone is lost outside. It is said in dialogue that to do so means it is highly likely that person will die. Chewbacca roars in distress as the doors close.

Darth Vader uses the force to choke an Admiral to death. The Admiral is called on a view screen by Vader and as he turns around to talk he suddenly stops and clutches his throat. Vader talks to another officer whilst the man struggles for air and collapses out of shot.

Luke pilots a fighter to take down large walking imperial attack machines (AT-AT). He has a previously unseen character in the seat behind him. During the battle a shot makes panels in the ship explode and the character behind Luke is killed. There are several shots of him slumped over his controls, but his death is not lingered on by Luke.

The AT-AT walks towards Luke’s crashed ship. It gets closer and closer as he is trying to get free. There is a shot of its foot filling the screen as it comes down to crush the ship

Ordinarily we’d point out specific scenes but we would make a point of saying that Han Solo’s behaviour towards Leia throughout almost the whole movie, in modern eyes, is questionable. He uses ‘negging‘ throughout and generally disregards her comments or actions to dismiss him. This culminates in a scene within the Millennium Falcon (see the clip below) which nearly results in a kiss but has Han invading Leia’s personal space and ignoring her comments to leave her alone. In the context of the movie this results in mutual attraction and there is no negative intention. Such acts are just depicted as flirting. However, if watching with children you may wish to talk about these scenes and how they are not good examples of how to talk to girls / women.

When Luke crashes on a swamp planet, R2D2 falls into the murky water. He is mostly underwater but partially seen, and a giant fish creature sneaks up behind him and eats him. Luke panics and shouts and this situation remains for a few seconds before resolving.

When the Millennium Falcon has landed inside an asteroid there is a jump scare whilst Leia is in the cockpit. A winged creature with a sucker mouth bangs against the front screen and she screams.

While Luke is training with Yoda there is talk of a cave that is strong with the dark side of the Force. Luke goes inside and ominous music plays. A bad guy character arrives and there is a slow-mo lightsabre fight. A character has their head chopped off and there is a close up showing their expression, although the identity of the person is surprising and suggests that all is not as it seems.

Darth Vader uses the force to choke another officer to death. They collapse to the floor in front of him.

A character is charmed by the sight of Leia and strokes her cheek whilst saying, “Hello, what have we here?” This unwanted touching is shrugged off as the character being “an old smoothie”.

Whilst as Cloud City a droid wanders off. Something off screen scares him and he panics by saying he didn’t mean to intrude and there is no need for violence but he is blasted by a shot mid-sentence and dismembered robotic arms and parts slid into a door frame before the door slides shut. A few scenes later the parts of the droid are recovered and it is indicated that it can be repaired.

A character is strapped to a restraint and slowly lowered onto a torture device. They wince in pain as the device glows read and sparks before the scene cuts to outside and a loud pain-filled scream is heard. The character is later dragged into a prison cell and dropped on the floor. They have no visible injuries but weakly say, “I feel terrible”.

A character is forced to undergo a freezing process which is expressed through dialogue that he may not survive. This is an emotionally charged scene with several leading characters upset as the process begins. A cloud of smoke suddenly engulfs the character and the music swells to an emotive peak. Shortly after, the frozen body is dropped onto the floor and it is confirmed that they are alive.

Chewbacca aggressively strangles a character who struggles for breath and rasps out some words with effort. He is dropped to the ground and regains his breath.

During an epic lightsabre battle a character suddenly has their hand sliced off. It is briefly seen dropping down a large chasm still gripping the lightsable before the character clutches their wrist under their arm. There is no blood or gore.

CAN I SEE A CLIP?

VERDICT: IS ‘STAR WARS: EPISODE V – THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK’ FOR KIDS?

Considered the darker of the original trilogy due to ending on a cliffhanger and stronger content, this is the one that may upset younger children. However, the action / adventure tone and engaging characters will likely keep the mood positive and so taking into account some emotional scenes and scary moments we would say that ‘Star Was Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back’ is suitable for children aged 5 and above.

• Violence: 3/5 (no blood or injury detail but scenes of torture and dismemberment)
• Emotional Distress: 3/5 (several upsetting scenes)
• Fear Factor: 2/5 (the cave scene may scare)
• Sexual Content: 1/5 (Han’s behaviour throughout)
• Bad Language: 0/5
• Dialogue: 1/5 (threats and talk of death)
• Other Notes: Deals with themes of acknowledging dark emotions, fighting to save your friends, rebellion against oppression, destiny, good versus evil, and the power of parentage.

Words by Mike Record