The Regression of the Jedi: The Difficult Third Chapter

I love Return of the Jedi, but is it the conclusion we deserved?

Nothing says 'this is a return to form' like our two droids wandering on Tatooine.

We’re here, the end of the trilogy. In 1983, Return of the Jedi comes out, capping out the surprise hit that was Star Wars. Written again by Lawrence Kasdan with a story treatment by George Lucas, though directed this time by Richard Marquand, Return promised to pay off everything that had come before. As far as audiences of the time were concerned, this was the big finale for the franchise. So, just how does the third act of this trilogy hold up to its predecessors? Is this the grand conclusion one would hope it would be? If you haven’t already done so, I encourage you to go back and read my articles for A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back. After all, the last installment relies so much on those that came before. Right?

I appreciate how confident Luke looks here in contrast to Han.

The initial release of Return seems a little weird, in reflection. In a modern age, we might imagine that Empire Strikes Back was some smash hit that made Return a daunting venture. But a lot of the initial audience didn’t quite know what to do with Empire, a largely dark, brooding movie. Return of the Jedi, however, promised a big return to form. It gave the happy ending that Empire didn’t offer. And while this was certainly the grand finale, Lucas at the time was already making claims that a nine-part series was being planned, though the assumption was that our core trio of characters weren’t going to be present. Largely, in any case, the audience had no real controversy over the film. All the controversy took place behind the set. See, everyone involved had an opinion of how this film should work. Director Marquand felt like Lucas was sort of backseat driving the whole production. Mark Hamill took issue with Luke’s visual flirting with the Dark Side, feeling his character was a symbol of hope. Yet, there are records that Hamill also commented that Return of the Jedi looked like a very safe, milquetoast piece in contrast to Empire. More famously, Harrison Ford had serious reservations about returning. His original contract was only for two movies, and Lucas was pretty convinced that Ford wasn’t going to come back. It took producer Howard Kazanjian to convince Ford to come back. But Ford was still hesitant – he believed that Han Solo should die in Return of the Jedi through an act of heroic self-sacrifice. And Lawrence Kasdan agreed. But Lucas resisted both Hamill and Ford’s comments. An interview with Gary Kurtz, a partner of Lucas’, indicated that the original script for Return of the Jedi was a lot more bittersweet, but was radically changed by Lucas. He refused to let any of the main cast die. The interactions with Hammill suggest Lucas wanted a ‘fairy-tale’ like ending, where good undeniably triumphed over evil. Kurtz says that Lucas thought there was no commercial interest in dead heroes. Kurtz’s interview indicates a growing that the marketing grew to dominate Lucas’ perspective, that these choices were made on the basis of toy sales. Whatever the motivation, Solo lives to the movies’ end, a big celebration, and we see a clear decision to step back from the depths that Empire Strikes Back took.

One fun bit with Return of the Jedi is the innovation of blue-screen between movies. Shots like this sadly hurt the timeless quality of this movie.

Return of the Jed sits at a weird place for me, too. It’s not a bad movie – it’s a pretty solid one. It’s so much fun and has some of the coolest set-pieces in the entire franchise. The space battle above Endor has yet to be topped, though the space battle in Rogue One is in very strong contention. The duel between Luke and Vader in the second Death Star is breathtaking. But for all of its positives, Return also has a surprising list of negatives. It’s been my belief for a while that a lot of those negatives have wound up casting a shadow over the entire franchise, a shadow we’ve been living in until relatively recently.

Is this outfit objectifying or empowering? I've heard it both ways, but ultimately I don't think it's my place to say. Is it a dumb creative choice? Yes.

See, as an individual movie, Return of the Jedi is absolutely fine. I have a few quibbles, but they’re minor. That said, as the closure of a trilogy, of a franchise, and as a sequel to Empire Strikes Back, Return kind of crumbles. I posed a question on my Facebook, asking for any examples of a truly great third installment in a trilogy. The answers were surprisingly diverse. Bearing the presence of joke answers, there wasn’t really any repetition. Return of the King was stated several times, which I’ll agree on. As I mentioned in the A New Hope article, Lord of the Rings is sort of a strange trilogy to break up given how intertwined they all are, but Return of the King definitely does a lot of things a trilogy ought to do. It concludes the development of all of its characters in exciting and interesting ways (a particular stand out to me is always Merry and Pippin. They’ve been sort of relegated to comedy relief for the most part, but to see them separated and then coming into their own in the last installment is extremely cool and satisfying). It brings us an insane finale of extreme stakes, not foregoing the emotional intensity of The Two Towers but rather showing the characters kind of acting in spite of it. They are fighting for hope, and refuse to let anything stand in their way – and it continues to cost them, but their resilience wins out. There are a few other strong examples that were cited; I’ve heard glowing things about How to Train Your Dragon 3 and War for the Planet of the Apes, both movies I still need to see. There were several other movies listed – including Return of the Jedi itself, and I’m not going to comment on all of them individually but it seems to me that we have a lot fewer examples of great third movies than we do of great sequels or great beginnings. Why is that? Why is it so hard to bring in a conclusion?

Truly the definitive hero shot

It seems clear that a lot rides on the third installment. To reiterate what I said about Lord of the Rings, a good third installment ought to satisfyingly wrap up both the plot and the character arcs. One of those is arguably more important than the latter, though your mileage may vary. Some have criticized Avengers: Endgame for its wild plotline, but that movie is centrally about its characters and wraps up the central arcs of all of its main characters perfectly. That may also just be personal preference, a messy movie with good characters is usually better to me than a well-made movie with mediocre characters. But you need a strong plot, as well. Hopefully, the plot can wrap up the lines that have been set up previously, while also innovating and giving new developments to the story and to the world. I would also say that there ought to be a sense of ‘grandness,’ I would say, there should be a degree of conclusiveness in scope and scale. There are, admittedly, a couple of ways to do this depending on your franchise. You could put all your cards on the action, making it bigger and better, or you could really emphasize your character stakes. As in, you really key into your arcs and dramatize them. Really good stories are able to do both, but I do think there is a level where most people find themselves having to consciously angle in on one or the other.

This briefing is a lot of fun. More fun briefing scenes in Star Wars, please.

In many of these categories, while Return of the Jedi succeeds as a stand-alone, it fails as a conclusion and a follow-up to that which came before. To no surprise, my sticking point with this movie is what it does with its characters. This movie works in extremes – everything with Luke is incredible and pays off his arc in a really well-done way. The other characters? Might as well not exist. Take Han Solo. Across A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back, Solo has easily the most dynamic and interesting arc. He shifts from a smuggling, self-interest scumbag who shoots first and asks questions later, to a man who sticks his neck out for his friends, chooses his fights, and is beginning to find the hero within himself. Return of the Jed, by all count, should be the culmination of that arc. I’m not saying he necessarily needs to sacrifice himself as Ford argued – but it’s certainly not a bad idea. Han Solo laying his life on the line for the Rebel movement would be the ultimate apotheosis of his character. But I would be satisfied with Han doing anything of substance through Return. He doesn’t make a single interest character choice. Nothing challenges him, nothing deepens him as a person. He just shows up and is given the title of General (for some reason? Like, who decided to promote Han Solo of all people all the way up to General?) and leads the fight on Endor. Solo is just handed the end of his character arc and doesn’t have to go through anything to get it. But it gets worse than that – have you ever stopped to think about how this movie looks like from Han Solo’s perspective? Because nothing is explained to him, and nothing makes sense.

This scene is a lot of foreshadowing for a death that never happens, just saying.

After being betrayed by Lando and carbon frozen on Bespin, Han Solo wakes up on Tatooine, in Jabba’s palace, being rescued by Leia in a bounty hunter outfit. He’s temporarily blind, too. He gets thrown in a cell with Chewie (for some reason? Why pair these two up? Like, as an evil crime lord, why do you put the two friends together?) and Chewie insists that Luke is coming, and going to rescue them. Han laughs it off – the last time he saw Luke was when he had to drag the Skywalker half-unconscious across the snows of Hoth. He’s missed all of Luke’s character development, so naturally, Solo is baffled at the thought of Luke rescuing them. But then, before he knows it, they’re all put on a skiff and carted out to be executed. And Luke is jumping into action and doing all sorts of stuff, oh, and Lando is helping them. Lando Sold-Out-Han-to-the-Empire Calrissian is helping them. And Han just takes this in stride? Then a couple of scenes later, Lando is revealed as a General in the Rebel Alliance (I just had to double-check this because I had a moment of ‘there’s no way that Lando and Han both randomly become General in this movie.’ That would be absurd! I’m wrong. Both of the untrustworthy scoundrel characters are given an official rank. What the hell, George). Again, as far as Han knows, Lando willingly betrayed him to the Empire and they never have a conversation or an argument about it. But it gets worse. His and Leia’s relationship is kind of undiscussed through the movie? Like, she introduces herself as ‘someone who loves you’ but then it’s sort of left on the back burner until the end of the movie. The only other thing we get is a very odd conversation where Han is evidently jealous of Luke, right after Luke tells Leia that they are related, and Leia never clarifies to Han? And then when the Death Star II blows, Leia is like ‘Luke’s fine, I can feel it.’ Han, understandably, nods and says ‘you love him, don’t you?’ And she says yes. Without any immediate clarification. So, Han, once again understandably, steps back and says ‘okay, you can have him. This is crazy.’ But then – not to be outdone – Leia smiles, shakes her head and says ‘no, he’s my brother.’ And Harrison Ford gives the most perfectly baffled face because nothing his character has experienced in this movie should make any sense to him. Han Solo has nothing explained to him, and so he goes through the whole movie kind of brain dead, separated from the growth and experiences of the other characters. Han Solo is given absolutely nothing interesting to do in this movie, and I’m kind of baffled about the uninspired direction his character takes in the big final movie.

There are so many damn shenanigans with this bunker. That's all I have to say.

But, possibly more upsetting than Han’s lack of direction is what’s done with Leia in this movie. Which is – nothing. Nothing is done with Leia in this movie. Nothing is done with Leia in this trilogy. Leia Organa is one of, like, two female characters with speaking roles in this trilogy, the other woman being Mon Mothma who only shows up for the Rebel briefing in Return. Leia is probably one of the strongest written characters in A New Hope. She doesn’t have a really identifiable arc, but Carrie Fischer plays her so well and perfectly presents this fierce, level-headed negotiator who holds her own against Grand Moff Tarkin and Han Solo. She’s vulnerable when she needs to be and determined when she needs to be. She’s a fighter, but in a way that always feels real to her character. Leia doesn’t get an arc in A New Hope, but she leaves enough of an impression that we’re all excited to see what happens next with her.

Let it be known that I searched for something like an hour to find a single good, usable still of Leia in this movie, and to be frank, I don't think any exist. If that doesn't show how wasted Leia is in this movie, I don't know what will.

The answer? Not much. Throughout Empire Strikes Back, she’s just sort of present as a part of Han’s arc. Their romance is fun and full of chemistry, and Leia gets a lot of cool moments. But while Han and Luke have their entire philosophies challenged, Leia is just along for the ride. Which, okay. There’s a lot going on in Empire. Surely, then, Return is her chance to shine? Surely, in this final movie, we’ll see Leia get all the depth of character that the other leads have received? …no, no we won’t. The choices made for Leia in this final movie are weird. We get to see her choking an oppressive crime lord to death, which is pretty sweet. But the steps to get there involve her being sexualized and objectified in a way that seems very contrary to the character that has been built until then. Next, Han Solo is given command of an operation instead of her, the only character in this franchise who has actually been involved in the Rebellion for the majority of her life. And once they get on Endor, her character takes this weird direction where the Ewoks take her in because she’s, what, more feminine and motherly? Like, that seems to be the implication; she’s given this forest maiden outfit and everything. Return of the Jedi feels like it goes out of its way to make her more traditionally feminine. Not to mention she is given relevance by the plot, where we are suddenly told that she is a Skywalker, Luke’s secret sister. And nothing is done with this huge twist? I’m only just realizing this right now, but the movie creates this exciting twist and does absolutely nothing with it. Vader threatens Luke with the idea of converting Leia, which is cool, but that’s it. We go out of our way to create a way to make Leia more relevant (even though, again, she’s a negotiator who’s the most connected to the Rebellion, she should already be relevant), but the only thing the movie does with it is to make our sole heroine into a motivation for the protagonist. What a movie. All this is to say, Leia and Han are utterly wasted in this movie. Not to mention that Lando isn’t given anything to do after being introduced as a pretty cool new member of the cast, and Chewie and the droids are just kind of present. This movie falls apart with nearly all of its cast.

For such a light-hearted movie, I'm kind of surprised with how dark the lighting of almost every scene is.

Luke, though. Mark Hammil as Luke Skywalker holds up this entire movie. He has to because he’s the only one given an interesting arc. Everything with Luke is exactly how you wrap up a character arc. We’ve seen him in the past two movies as someone who means well, but is headstrong. He stands to be the next hope for the galaxy, but he could give in to the temptation of the Dark Side. When Return of the Jedi opens, we really don’t know just which way he will go. He strolls into Jabba’s palace clad in black robes, using Force abilities that we’ve only seen Vader use previously. But then he explodes into action on the sail barge, complete with a fresh green lightsaber, and he seems like the Jedi master we’ve been waiting for him to become. When he goes to Dagobah to complete his training, Yoda insists that his training is done. But one thing stands in his way – Darth Vader. His father. Kenobi and Yoda believe he must be destroyed. Luke is hesitant, however; can his father be redeemed? This is the driving question of the movie. Luke willingly gives himself into enemy hands in order to make the attempt (Which, by the way, I don’t think anyone comments on? There’s never a scene where Luke says ‘I’m leaving,’ he just sort of vanishes. The closest he gets is a one-on-one conversation with Leia, but that’s hardly a group consensus. He doesn’t even ever tell the group that Vader’s his father, which feels like an important topic to address). Vader doesn’t even seem to believe he can be redeemed – for the first time, we see him regretful of his place, but he believes the Emperor is too powerful to act against. The only way to reunite with his son is if he can turn Luke to the Dark Side. I talked in the last article about how the dynamic between Vader and Luke is constantly changing, and here we see them not as pure adversaries as we did previously, but as two people of sharply separate convictions with an impossible problem. The Emperor stands in the way of Vader’s redemption, and he must be challenged.

This is possibly one of the best shots in the whole trilogy. The light/dark divide spelled out on Luke's face. It's fantastic.

And so, begins some of the greatest content in the franchise. Luke and Vader, two men so different and yet so alike, with the Emperor between them. The scenes that follow are operatic in tone, as the Emperor lays on temptations while Luke watches his friends suffer beyond the window. All that remains is to strike down Emperor, and free Vader – but to do so would be a betrayal of all that Luke stands for. And yet it would be so simple… We sit in a tension between the two extremes, light and dark, while Luke seems perfectly positioned to fall into either one. And the duel. The duel between Luke and Vader isn’t built on flashy filmography and stellar action. It’s built entirely on the characters, and their arcs, and what is at stake. This fight is the ‘character’ climax of the film, just high-intensity emotion based on legitimate character choices of two people we genuinely care about. And, once Vader threatens Luke’s new-found sister, something else unlocks. Because this is the Luke Skywalker who fights for his friends, who will defend those around him as much as possible, and when his family is threatened he goes primal. And we as an audience get it, but it hurts because we see Luke falling into the Dark Side. Then the Emperor goes in for the kill. And Vader stands up. For the first time, Vader takes a stand – he takes a stand against the Emperor. Against the Dark Side. And he does it all for his son. It’s amazing. Everything surrounding Luke in this film is amazing. But nothing else really is.

I’ve talked a lot about the characters, but this movie fails on a few other angles. Firstly, originality. Empire went out of its way to take us to new locations, and explore the lore in a deeper fashion. We traded in desert wastelands, giant space, stations and forest bases for frigid slopes, murky swamps, and cities in the clouds. We expanded on the Force and explored its rich mythology. Return of the Jedi… doesn’t do anything like that. In fact, it takes us back to Tatooine, and back to Death Stars. Just how fast did the Empire build another Death Star? And while there is some interesting synergy and contrast by seeing our matured characters on the same desert backdrop, there’s also a weird feeling of regression. Since Return, literally every Star Wars movie except for The Last Jedi has taken us back to a desert planet, usually Tatooine itself. We’ve also had far too many variations on ‘blow up an evil space station’ since Return. Return of the Jedi denies the originality and depth of Empire Strikes Back, intentionally stepping back to the safe atmosphere of A New Hope, and as a result, Star Wars as a whole has sat in that space ever since. Always going back to Tatooine, space stations, and safe character arcs. Return of the Jedi feels very afraid to take risks, and that bled into the next thirty years of movies. Everything seeks to return to the beginning, to do things over again. To play things safe. That safeness has arguably pervaded every movie until The Last Jedi, which once again sought to challenge the status quo and its characters. Something that hadn’t happened since Empire.

This is also one of the best shots in this franchise. This duel is absolutely gorgeous.

There are plenty of other things that Return of the Jedi struggles with. The pacing is pretty wonky, moving at a snail’s pace through the opening rescue and through the Ewok introduction. As much as I really enjoy a lot of the Jabba stuff – especially finally seeing the crime lord we’ve only had hinted whispers of across the other movies (because Jabba didn’t originally appear in A New Hope, and the scene added with him in modern editions is functionally pointless anyway) – a lot of it just feels like a slog, structurally. The weird in-universe songs, the brooding atmosphere hanging over everything… and none of it has a purpose. Once we leave with Han, the events with Jabba are never discussed again. An entire half-hour of the film has no plot relevance, other than to get Han back with the crew, and to show Luke’s development. It’s just a very strange choice however you look at it. The belabored Ewok village sequence isn’t much better. No matter if you hate the Ewoks or love them, it’s hard to deny that the scenes trying to negotiate with them just drag. We know our heroes aren’t going to die to these random teddy bears. There’s no tension, and there’s no relevance. Between the fight on the slave barge and the closing three-tiered battle, our only action set-piece is the short-lived speeder chase. The middle of this movie drags so much, and while I’m not strictly against it, it stands out in this supposed grand finale. Even the big final battle, while fun, doesn’t have very much substance to it. You just don’t feel the sheer tension that you do in A New Hope’s trench run. The space battle looks great and the land battle is really cool, but without any real tension or stakes for our characters, with nothing on the line, it’s hard to really invest. Both set-pieces take the ‘big action’ approach to a climax, but I’m not sure either really pays off because there are no real risks involved. Again, everything in Return just feels like a safe return to form after Empire. All the drama and risk Empire presented our characters is just gone, replaced by a fun romp. Return of the Jedi is a perfectly fine movie, but it’ll always feel like a step in the wrong direction.

So, that’s the original Star Wars trilogy. A movie that presented new innovation, a movie that strikes back at its characters, pushing them in new directions, and a movie that returned home for a fun, if safe, conclusion. I definitely don’t hate Return of the Jedi, there’s still a great deal I enjoy about it, but when I look at the way it ignores its characters and returns to the familiar, all while pulling back from any interesting challenges, I can’t help but feel like it dropped the ball as a conclusion. I always wonder where this franchise would be with a more ambitious final venture. Maybe an entry like The Last Jedi would be more accepted. Maybe the Prequels would have been the high-stakes Shakespearean tragedy they deserved to be. Yet, I can hardly fault Return – even as a safe final step, it still gave us a great last installment for one of the most influential movie trilogies of our time. The Leia-being-Luke’s-sister twist having no effect on the plot remains super weird, though.

There's something profoundly sad about Luke standing alone here. I guess it's interesting that he'll be alone the next time we see him, too.

As a final thought, this article series has really honed me back into what I love the most about Star Wars. I think we can get so caught up in the pop-culture hype that we forget that these three installments were just really fun movies. They had incredible characters and a great plotline, and sit in a perfect little corner of action-adventure escapism. This series has also helped me appreciate the sequel movies in a whole new light. The more I study the original trilogy, the more I can see how J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson have sought to emulate the classic movies structurally. The Force Awakens gives us a frenetic introduction to some really fun, charismatic characters with clear goals. The Last Jedi does everything it can to challenge those characters and push them into new directions. In a couple of days, I’ll watch Rise of Skywalker. Will it successfully and satisfyingly wrap up what the previous films have handed it? Will it redeem this trilogy for those who still aren’t a huge fan? I honestly have no idea. I’m expecting something similar to Return of the Jedi – a more that is far safer than its predecessor but still presents that classic Star Wars joy. At the end of the day, I really don’t care if Rise of Skywalker is this perfect ending. I just want one last fun adventure in this world, with this cast. If I get that, I think I’ll be satisfied enough.