Okay, let's just say it: Empire
Strikes Back is the best of the Star
Wars series because it's the one film that George Lucas neither wrote nor
directed...And if you're feeling the impulse to rush to Lucas' defense, just
remember for a moment that when presenting PR maven Sid Ganis with an award
back in 2007, Lucas publicly stated, "Sid is the reason why The Empire Strikes Back is always written about as the
best of the films, when it actually was the worst one."
How anybody allowed Lucas to leave that room alive is beyond
me...
That said, it's almost hard to believe that the classic
sequel is now thirty years old, but Lucas - never one to miss a chance to
capitalize on our nostalgia - would like to remind us of that very fact. Entertainment Weekly is currently
teasing their upcoming issue devoted to Empire and the publication of Star Wars: The Making of The
Empire Strikes Back, a newly published look at a production now three decades old.
According to EW the issue will
feature "several rare and never-before-seen photos and quotes from the cast and
crew on the Empire set, as well as an original script page (with revisions and
notes from director Irvin Kershner), and early sketches of key new characters
Yoda and Boba Fett." And in a quote that should branded backwards on Lucas'
forehead (so that he can read it in the mirror every morning), EW quotes Dalton
Ross on why Empire is so damned good...
"What
makes The Empire Strikes Back the
greatest and grandest of all Star Wars films is
its emotional resonance. This is no feel-good popcorn film, as the Rebel
Alliance is on the receiving end of a pretty much continuous loop of butt
kickings, starting from the very first line of the opening crawl: 'It is a dark
time for the rebellion.'"
For much, much more, check out the latest issue of EW when it hits stands on April 9, 2010...
Jelperman - Sun. Apr. 11, 2010 at 11:38:17 PM
Lucas did write TESB
First of all, Lucas' remark about TESB being the "worst" was a joke and not meant to be taken seriously. Which is why Lucas-bashers (the Teabaggers of cinema) have so stupidly latched onto it. According to Stephen Haffner, the literary executor of Leigh Brackett's estate, none of Brackett's material was used. Lawrence Kasdan was given a draft done by Lucas himself (Brackett had died after her first draft) and did little more than a script polish because he was already tasked with writing Raiders, Body Heat, and Continental Divide. I realize that facts are to Lucas-haters what garlic is for vampires, but Star Wars did better with audiences, critics and the Oscars than The Empire Strikes Back, which got mediocre reviews when it was first released. As Rotten Tomatoes pointed out, TESB got worse reviews than the prequels when it first came out. So the idea that Lucas was the weak link in Star Wars is a crock.