“The Empire does what … ?”
Written by Jim Beard | | news@toledofreepress.comRelated story: Interview with Boba Fett actor Jeremy Bulloch.
Related story: A personal essay about “Empire’s” big secret.
I can’t speak for other fans, but for me the burning desire for more “Star Wars” began the moment the first film’s credits rolled. For three whole years, I sweated in anticipatory fever, while George Lucas doled out tantalizing teases for “The Empire Strikes Back” in what amounted to a late-70s version of viral marketing.
As early as 1977, a book called “The Star Wars Album” proclaimed the sequel as scheduled for fall of 1978 — needless to say, 1978 came and went with no sign of such a film (I was crushed). People magazine was the first place I saw the actual title of the sequel and I scratched my head over that one; what a weird title for a movie, I remember thinking. Then, fast and furiously, the teases came: the Kenner Toys mail-in for a “Boba Fett” action figure, the first pic (the tauntaun) in The Blade, concept paintings in “Famous Monsters,” Mark Hamill sporting his ESB duds on “The Muppet Show,” John Williams conducting the ESB “asteroid” music from the film’s score on “The Boston Pops” — and finally, in August of 1979, a showing of “Star Wars” at the old Greenwood Cini-Mini with the first ESB trailer shown at the end of the flick. I was introduced to “Lando Calrissian” that fine day.
Vader, Calrissian and Fett
May of 1980 took its sweet time arriving and by then I was delirious from ESB fever. The film opened at Showcase Cinemas on Monroe Street on Wed., May 21 and my dad, for whatever arcane and unjust reason, said he couldn’t take me until the following Saturday. Though shaken by the news, I determined to bury myself deep underground to avoid spoilers. Alas, it wasn’t to be — a drunken partygoing friend of my sister’s ruined ESB’s big surprise for me.
Yes, that’s right; I’m “that guy” — I was told that Darth Vader was Luke Skywalker’s father before actually seeing the film.
Yet, that didn’t crush me — not completely — and on Saturday, May 24 I was treated to the “Star Wars” spectacle that is “The Empire Strikes Back.” It was everything I wanted it to be and so much more and as I sat in front of the old No. 1 screen at Showcase I reveled in the new adventures of my heroes and marveled at the surreal feel of it all. No, one drunken idiot couldn’t spoil that for me — nor Norm Dresser, for that matter.
Surely you remember the late Norm Dresser, Blade entertainment editor back in 1980? He’d already gained a reputation with me as The Man Who Hated Every Movie and I’ll admit that I somewhat dreaded the snarky review I was sure he’d saddle ESB with. The review came out and though on the surface it was favorable, between the lines I sensed his bewilderment and condescension. Re-reading the review, that opinion still stands.
Norm spends more time noting that ESB was a “Happening” than actually reviewing it. He makes snide little comments, using the term “space-y” and making dumb jokes like calling the Empire’s AT-ATs “giant Erector sets.” By the end of the review, he admits that “it is perhaps fruitless to approach ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ in the normal manner of a critic” and wraps it up by noting that while the special effects are great, “only ‘Star Wars’ aficionados are likely to feel responsive emotional sensations” from the film.
But I’m not bitter. I waited three years to see that film — and it was worth every single minute of sweet, sweet anticipation.
Some things you may not know about ‘The Empire Strikes Back’
“Star Wars” arcana and minutiae run deep and there is always much to learn, young Jedi — open your mind to the Force and observe some little-known facts about everyone’s favorite science fiction sequel.
- See Luke Run. That grand opening shot on the icy planet of Hoth was actually filmed from a helicopter in Norway, with a stop-motion animated Luke Skywalker and faithful tauntaun superimposed into the shot. Note: that lone outcropping of rock helped the special effects guys line up the shot.
- “Hey, Normie!” If you look closely, you may notice actor John Ratzenberger — Cliff the mailman from “Cheers” — as a Rebel officer on Hoth.
- Wither Wampa? An ejected sub-plot involved the Wampa ice creatures invading the Rebel base. A remnant of this can be seen in the original ESB trailer when C-3PO tears a warning sign off a door to lead the Snowtroopers into the Wampas’ clutches.
- You Kiss Your Princess with That Face? The damage to Luke’s face by the Wampa was also meant to explain the changes in Mark Hamill’s kisser after a 1977 car accident nearly wiped his nose off. A filmed scene showing a medical droid peeling bandages from his face wound up on the cutting room floor.
- Birth of a Boba. Bounty Hunter Boba Fett did not make his debut in ESB; he first appeared in an animated segment on the 1978 “Star Wars Holiday Special.” It is the only stomachable part of that entire, ill-fated TV show.
- You Light Up My Life. The strange design for Boba Fett’s ship, Slave 1, was inspired by some street lamps found outside of the concept artists’ studio. Fellow bounty hunter IG-88 wasn’t as creative; his mechanical head was cobbled together from leftover pieces of the cantina set from “Star Wars.”
- You Know…What? Han Solo’s famous retort of “I know” to Leia’s “I love you” was an ad lib of Harrison Ford’s, improvised on the set after director Kershner deemed the scripted lines “stinky.”
- Borrow from the Best. The entire sequence of Luke losing his hand, falling off the gantry and his eventual resurfacing to resume his life is a Star Wars version of the classic folkloric motif “The Armless Maiden.”
Tags: Star Wars
