MOVIE REVIEW: Star Wars episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983)
My Star Wars journey started because I saw the Lando action figure. Yes, Lando Calrissian—the smoothest and only Black man in Star Wars at the time (apologies to Willrow Hood) — was the only action figure I wanted. Since my parents would not buy that toy for me, I had to trade a couple of G.I. Joes (Cobra Commander and Snowjob) for Lando from local rich-kid Randy. I was willing to make that trade and get in trouble for it (which I did) because Lando looked like me.
I watched lots of live-action and animated shows by that point, and I always noticed Black people were shown a certain way (if they were shown at all): rhyming fools, musclebound monsters, lazy liars, untrustworthy tricksters, bad guys in general, and worse. If they were good, they died for no reason. I did not want to be those guys. Lando was different: he was a successful businessman and a good guy despite all I would hear in the years to come…and he always made it out of any troubles. He was everything I was not and what I wanted to be. I wanted to tear across the galaxy with my alien sidekick (Nien Nunb REPRESENT!) in a sweet spaceship to have heroic adventures as I save the galaxy. I wanted to see myself in the Star Wars world…but I didn’t have the words to say it. He may not have a lightsaber or be the main character, but my imagination was vast and could accept more than one adventure: it was worth the risk of getting in trouble for trading 2 new toys for a used toy that wasn’t bigger. And so I had an amazing treat when I watched Lando blow up the second Death Star in the last film in the Original Trilogy, Return of the Jedi.
A bit of a time skip after the Millennium Falcon departed the Rebel Fleet, we return to Tatooine to learn of a mission to rescue General Han Solo (Harrison Ford, Captain America: Brave New World [2025], Force 10 From Navaronne [1978]) from the clutches of the alien crime lord Jabba the Hutt. Last we saw Han, he was frozen in carbonite by bounty hunter Boba Fett, so getting him out would be difficult. Several approaches are tried: infiltration by Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams, Batman [1989], Lady Sings the Blues [1972], Undercover Brother [2002]) and Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher, The Burbs [1989], Heartbreakers [2001]) only works for a while, and she is captured. Bribery by giving C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) and R2-D2 in exchange for Han didn’t work, and when Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill, “Regular Show” [TV-Cartoon Network], Kingsman: The Secret Service [2014]) shows up in person to get them all back, it becomes absolute mayhem as Jabba just messed with a Jedi Master! Once Jabba and his goons are dealt with and everyone saved, we return to the main struggle: new threats from the Empire.
Not only are the uncreative Imperials rebuilding the Death Star (previously destroyed in A New Hope), Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) has taken an interest in the Force-powerful Luke over his current pupil Darth Vader. The baddest man in the galaxy has made it known that Luke is his son (noted in The Empire Strikes Back), and the Emperor now wishes to pit father against son for a stronger disciple in the Dark Side of the Force. Our hero Luke will need strong allies in the Force but Obi-Wan Kenobi (Sir Alec Guinness, Bridge on the River Kwai) can only help as a Force ghost, and Yoda (voiced by Frank Oz) dies shortly — no pun intended — after revealing there is another Skywalker other than Darth Vader. The newly-minted Jedi master has nobody to depend on but his friends: an interplanetary alliance with enough firepower to take on a space station guided by the Mon Calamarian admiral called Ackbar.
With the Imperials’ only chance to beat the Rebels resting in the incomplete Death Star II and the Rebels mounting an attack on the build site over the forest moon of Endor, more hangs in the balance for the entire galaxy than a convoluted family line and the return of the Jedi to prominence.
So much of this movie sticks with you as you realize that Anakin is still in there. Badly maimed and now more machine than man for nearly 20 years as a slave of his own desires, the former Jedi knight realizes that he made a mistake but is bound by his loyalty and control by the Sith Emperor Palatine. We learn that Luke and Leia are twin siblings, which makes the kiss in The Empire Strikes Back a popularized instance of incest, and frees up Leia to be with Han Solo. Can’t forget the adventures on the forest moon of Endor to introduce us to the Ewok warrior named Wicket (Warwick Davis, Leprechaun [1990], The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian [2008], “Willow” [TV-Disney+]) and and his people, C-3PO pretending to be a deity with Luke’s help, and that sweet sweet speeder bike chase.
Over all of it, we see the Battle of Endor through the window of the Imperial Throne room as Luke and Darth Vader battle for supremacy. We also see the battle through the window of the Millennium Falcon, as piloted by its original owner Lando Calrissian. Lando takes point, figures out the Death Star II’s shields are still operational, still does his job and escapes the exploding core like a bat outta hell! The bad guy loses, Anakin is redeemed (but dies in the process), peace returns to the galaxy, and Anakin joins the legions of Force ghosts with Yoda and Obi-Wan. Best of all, we get a cheerful song in an alien language: “Yub Nub”, a melodic Ewok chant about how many Stormtroopers the Ewoks killed and ate.
Even though these last two parts in the film would change with George Lucas’ meddling with future home video releases via “remastered” editions, it’s not as bad as Star Wars fans say. And overshadowing it all was the idea that people of color belong in a galaxy far, far away — not as slaves (though the idea was not lost on George Lucas, as any search engine can tell you) or servants, but as people who are more than racist Earth-bound stereotypes.
CHOICE CUTS:
- To know a man risked his entire career just to ogle Carrie Fisher in a metal bikini and got fired as a result is perfect.
- Princess Leia is hardcore: she took a blaster wound and kept fighting.
- Having all the Death Star II staff run haphazard trying to evacuate while Luke and a dying but redeemed Anakin are trying to have a moment truly frames the moment with kinetic contrast.
- We only got a glimpse of Anakin’s injuries under the armor in The Empire Strikes Back, but they toned down the makeup for child viewers.
- This is Warwick Davis’ first film at the tender age of 12.
- Shoutout to Sebastian Shaw (All’s Well That Ends Well [1968], Men Are Not Gods [1936]), the original actor for Anakin Skywalker.
- MUSIC: “Yub Nub” is the reason why I always give world music a shot. The strange voices and uncommon musical stylings put you in a whole different mind-space, as if you are surrounded by the strange. I credit the TV title songs for “Alien Nation” and “Farscape” for deepening the rift. Sadly, Yub Nub was taken away in the remastered editions for a boring choral standard.
- MUSIC: While Jabba’s palace had the simplified melodies in the original versions, the remastered editions had the performers burst into full-throated jizz (please don’t read that the wrong way) in an R&B-inspired performance. Coupled with poorly applied CG, and you have an unintentionally hilarious scene.
- REPRESENTATION MATTERS: So very little is known about Boba Fett, the character that first appeared in the Star Wars Holiday Special, yet he ended up becoming one of the most iconic characters based on looks alone. Answer me this: Who IS he? What is he? How could he be considered cool if he dies in less than 5 minutes to the heroes? The missing history of this battle-worn space bounty hunter has been filled with stories of variable quality in the absence of Star Wars live-action or animated content between 1985 and 1999. Perhaps this faceless humanoid is the way other people entered the Star Wars universe since they didn’t see themselves represented on screen.
- Watching Luke go berserk on Vader, only to realize he will become like him if he continues is one of the best scenes in the film.
- So you’re just gonna gloss over the fact that you kissed your brother romantically?
- Despite being a stationary creature the Sarlacc monster would return in the Disney+ series “The Book of Boba Fett” as a direct answer to the events of this film.
- The speeder bike sound effects are so very memorable, on par with the TIE fighter screaming engine but better as it echoes through the redwood trees on the forest moon of Endor.
- We later learn Endor is the name of the forest moon AND the planet it orbits. It shows up more than once: 1984’s “Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure” and 1985’s “Ewoks: The Battle for Endor” — both ABC-TV movies. Star Wars episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker brings us back to Endor’s stormy seas which hold the wreckage of the Death Star II (which was vaporized and shouldn't have wreckage, but whatever).
- George Lucas would resolve the issue of Euro-centric casting in the Original Trilogy with color-blind casting for 1999’s The Phantom Menace.
