And the Star Wars anniversary sagas continue...

On May 21, 1980 my life changed. Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, and I'd like to say it changed on May 25th, 1977 (and it did!), but it really changed when I saw Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back on it's opening day (I was lucky enough to be the the child of a family that recognized the importance of seeing at least the Star Wars films on opening days).

It wasn't until later (at least until after the whole original trilogy played out) that TESB became not only my favorite Star Wars film, but my favorite film-film of all time. It wasn't received well by critics during it's time, at least from what I hear - I was clueless to that as a kid of undisclosed age. What did I know about film critics? I think a lot of the criticism can be attributed to trying to compare TESB to the sensation that the original Star Wars created, and that TESB was intended as a serial continuation - "the middle movie".

The way it "really" changed my life though, was that it brought back into my(our) life what was started with the original Star Wars. I dread to imagine what life would have been like if we never went beyond the first film. TESB not only continued the saga, but it left room for the saga to go even further. My childhood imagination that was cracked open with ANH, was completely blown apart with TESB. From then on, Star Wars became forever.

I could go on and on about my love for TESB, but to save space and everyone's time and patience, there's one key element that I want to mention. Looking back at it all now, as a grown woman, TESB offered a lot more hope for young girls and women in film. Sometimes I like to think that the "new hope" that was suggested in the title of the first film, was actually Leia. Of course we didn't really think about this until Return of the Jedi, but this is me looking back from now. In ANH we saw the archetypal princess in distress, who surely showed the quality of self-determination at the time and thus it was easily read that Leia wasn't so typical. Or was she? Maybe all women have the ability to handle themselves in tough situations, just as well as men. The fact that she was rescued by a pack of raging testosterone is secondary. The point is/was that she was rescued with teamwork. In TESB, that theme is continued and reinforced. We see Leia as commander and in action, and even at odds with her own femininity at times (bickering with Han and later letting herself go, but never compromising herself). Leia's abilities are emphasized even more in ROTJ, so we'll get to that in a later entry

Other highlights for me: Wampas, snowspeeders, Tauntauns, AT-AT Walkers, asteroid fields, space slugs, Mynock, meditation chambers, The Emperor, bounty hunters, Slave I, Force ghosts, Yoda, Dagobah, sweaty Luke in training, Han and Leia smooching, Bespin, Lando, carbonite, "I love you"... "I know", "I am your father", cybernetic hands, telepathic communication via the Force (did I leave anything out?) ...

Let's get down to some Empire factoids!:

- It was the number one top grossing film for it's release year, and currently sits at the 55th top grossing film of all time worldwide.

- The success of the first Star Wars movie gave George Lucas the inspiration and ability to break away from Hollywood and become the independent filmmaker he always aspired to be. TESB was the catalyst. In order to make Empire, Lucas took loans against the profits earned from ANH instead of gaining studio sponsorship. One could say his final break from Hollywood is due to Lucas omitting opening credits from TESB, just as he did with ANH, which resulted in his disassociation from virtually all the industry guilds at the time.

- Lucas' former USC professor Irvin Kershner turned down the offer to direct at first, thinking it would not be able to live up to the success of the first Star Wars film.

- Lucas made back the entire budget for the film (which he went over during production many times) within the first 3 months of it's release.

- It won the Academy for Best Sound as well as "Special Achievement in Visual Effects", and was also nominated for Best Art Direction/ Set Decoration and Best Music/ Original Score. John Williams' score won a British Academy for Best Original Film Music, as well as a Golden Globe and a Grammy. Mark Hamill won a Saturn for Best Actor, Kershner for Best Director, and it also took the Saturn for Best Special Effects and Best Science Fiction Film. It really just won a whole bunch of awards, more than listed here, and I'll have to look into which of the Star Wars films one the most awards!

- Thanks to TESB not bombing, and Lucasfilm being able to firmly plant it's feet as an independent company, Lucasarts was born in 1982 in cooperation with Atari. The successes also enabled Lucas to move forward with other projects, namely the Indiana Jones films in collaboration with Steven Spielberg.

More TESB trivia from Wookieepedia

The usual sources - starwars.com, Wikpedia, and boxofficemojo.com

As much as I don't really want to, I have to stop somewhere. Please share the Empire love (and memories, favorites, etc)!