The Empire Strikes Back, by Rebecca Harrison, reviewed

Published 29-10-2020, review of The Empire Strikes Back, by Rebecca Harrison, as part of the BFI Film Classics series, see more here.

The Empire Strikes Back (1980), the second film in the original Star Wars trilogy, is often cited as the ‘best’ and most popular Star Wars movie. In her compelling study, Rebecca Harrison draws on previously unpublished archival research to reveal a variety of original and often surprising perspectives on the film, from the cast and crew who worked on its production through to the audiences who watched it in cinemas.

Harrison guides readers on a journey that begins with the film’s production in 1979 and ends with a discussion about its contemporary status as an object of reverence and nostalgia. She demonstrates how Empire’s meaning and significance has continually shifted over the past 40 years not only within the franchise, but also in broader conversations about film authorship, genre, and identity.

Offering new insights and original analysis of Empire via its cultural context, production history, textual analysis, exhibition, reception, and post-1980 re-evaluations of the film, the book provides a timely and relevant reassessment of this enduringly popular film.

The Empire Strikes Back, by Rebecca Harrison, reviewed

This book aims to reclaim the Empire Strikes Back, as a movie for the LGBT+ generation. This is a worthy goal, and plenty of criticism has been accurately leveled at the Star Wars franchise for it’s tone-deaf errors in terms of inclusivity, diversity, and other areas where it handed things in a slightly heavy-handed way. This is all fair enough in terms of valid points to criticise. The final sequence of the, so far, latest movie, The Rise of Skywalker certainly felt pretty gratuitous in terms of ticking boxes and aiming to right wrongs from previous movies.

Three quick examples come to mind, and there are probably many more, which all exemplify that tying up loose ends, or ticking boxes, does not make for good film making. Did Chewbacca really need to be given that medal, to make up for his species driven discrimination in the first (IV) movie when Luke and Han received medals and Chewie didn’t.

Similarly, did we really need a shot of Ewoks on their planet celebrating, 6 movies later. And the same sex kiss, out of nowhere, with no context, or introduction, simply just there, to show that Star Wars is, (now?), an inclusive franchise. Felt like more box-ticking with little clear relevance or context to the story happening around it. If this is being celebrated, then why not interspecies partnerships, someone for Chewie perhaps who was sitting alone on a box at the time?

Coming back to Harrison’s assertion that there is an excessive myth of the wisdom of George Harrison, without taking into account that many women strongly influenced the success of Star Wars. This is 100% a valid point, but Harrison asserts that no one has raised this before. Whereas in Brian Jay Jones’s excellent biography of GeorgeLucas (2016) he clearly identifies that without the input of Lucas’s then-wife, and film editor,  Marcia Lou Griffin. The movie would have been a lot clunkier, less coherent, and generally worse without her input. Remember Lucas wanted to call #3 (VI) ‘Revenge of the Jedi’ until it was pointed out to him that Jedi’s would hardly be Jedi’s if they ran around taking revenge on people…

Jones’s book is not cited in Harrison’s bibliography, so it is fair to conclude that it was not a point of reference for this analysis. This book is okay as far as it goes, but at times it does feel like the hypothesis is being forced without the facts to support her observations.

Naturally you can counter that Star Wars is a whole rabbit hole you can end up going into, which is perhaps half of the fun of it all, and yes it could / should offer more to the LGBT+ community too. And maybe future movies in the series will handle this better. Arguably the best film since the first trilogy is Rogue One, which delivers a storm of compelling, character-driven film excitement without getting too dragged into fan focussed easter eggs, and endlessly trying to tie up loose ends.

Harrison’s book is provocative, and she does rightly focus on the challenges of Leia to be an effective and strong character, but we were not completely convinced by some of the author’s arguments. And, call us old school, it is only ever ‘C3PO’, and not a phonetical spelling of his name. Also, the book cover leads a lot to be desired, with probably only the AT-AT model looking anything like it’s actual character.

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