Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

After the rebels have been brutally overpowered by the Empire on their newly-established base, Luke Skywalker takes advanced Jedi training with Yoda, while his friends are constantly being pursued by Vader as part of his plan to capture Luke.

Director:

Irvin Kershner

Writers:

Leigh Brackett (screenplay), Lawrence Kasdan (screenplay),

Stars:

Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher

Top 250 #11 | Won 1 Oscar. Another 12 wins & 14 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Mark Hamill	...	Luke Skywalker
Harrison Ford	...	Han Solo
Carrie Fisher	...	Princess Leia
Billy Dee Williams	...	Lando Calrissian
Anthony Daniels	...	C-3PO
David Prowse	...	Darth Vader
Peter Mayhew	...	Chewbacca
Kenny Baker	...	R2-D2
Frank Oz	...	Yoda (voice)
Alec Guinness	...	Ben 'Obi-wan' Kenobi
Jeremy Bulloch	...	Boba Fett
John Hollis	...	Lando's Aide
Jack Purvis	...	Chief Ugnaught
Des Webb	...	Snow Creature
Clive Revill	...	Emperor (voice)

Storyline

Fleeing the evil Galactic Empire, the Rebels abandon their new base in an assault with the Imperial AT-AT walkers on the ice world of Hoth. Princess Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca and the droid C-3PO escape in the Millennium Falcon, but are later captured by Darth Vader on Bespin. Meanwhile, Luke Skywalker and the droid R2-D2 follows Obi-Wan Kenobi's posthumous command, and receives Jedi training from Master Yoda on the swamp world of Dagobah. Will Skywalker manage to rescue his friends from the Dark Lord?

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Plot Keywords:

princess | empire | rebel | escape | training | 

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Taglines:

The Adventure Continues...

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for sci-fi action violence

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 May 1980 (USA)

Also Known As:

Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back

Filming Locations:

Alcatraz Island, San Francisco Bay, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$18,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

ITL 609,584,000 (Italy) (11 April 1997)

Gross:

$290,158,751 (USA) (9 May 1997)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Lucasfilm

Technical Specs

Runtime:

124 min 127 min (special edition)

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) Dolby (35 mm prints)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Yoda's appearance was originally designed by British makeup artist Stuart Freeborn, who based Yoda's face partly on his own and partly on Albert Einstein's, as his eyes are supposedly inspired by the latter. Yoda is voiced by Frank Oz. In the original Star Wars trilogy, he is realized as a puppet (controlled by Oz).

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Goofs

The colors of the different buttons on Darth Vader's chest plate vary between the movies. However, since time passes between each movie, it is not unthinkable that he has his life support equipment refurbished and upgraded on occasion.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Luke: Echo Three to Echo Seven. Han, old buddy, do you read me?
Han Solo: Loud and clear, kid. What's up?
Luke: Well, I finished my circle. I don't pick up any life readings.
Han Solo: There isn't enough life on this ice cube to fill a space cruiser. Sensors are placed. I'm going back.
Luke: Right. I'll see you shortly. There's a meteorite that hit the ground near here. I want to check it out. It won't take long.

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Crazy Credits

In the section of the end credits cast list devoted to the Rebel Forces, there are no fewer than three misprints: Christopher Malcolm is credited as "Christopher Malcom"; Denis Lawson is "Dennis Lawson"; and the character Dack, whose spelling is attested in the script as well as in books and other media, in the credits is spelled "Dak".

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Connections

Referenced in Freaks and Geeks: The Little Things (2000)

User Reviews

A worthy second (or 5th??) Star Wars installment, might be the best of the bunch.

My five children were all pre-teens when 'The Empire Strikes Back' came to the theater. While there had been other Sci-Fi movies with a theme of conflict in outer space, the 'Star Wars' trilogy filled our imaginations like no other movies before them. The fantastic, strange worlds were presented almost like we were there too. Aliens sitting around a tavern, enjoying drinks and speaking in all sorts of languages. Nothing before had approached the sheer size of the space ships depicted here, huge cities traveling all over the galaxy. And how about the jump to hyper speed, then disappearing from the screen as the speed exceeds light speed! And the light sabres of the Jedi Knights. The Jedi Knights, a striking parallel to the Japanese Samurai.

It is fruitless trying to argue 'which is best' in a trilogy, because the first one, in this case 'Star Wars', starts it all and has to be the 'father'. However, an argument can be made that 'The Empire Strikes Back' (now on DVD called Episode V) is overall a better-made movie which has more excitement, and grabs your imagination,than the other two original installments (now called parts IV and VI). The DVDs finally came out last month, and they are near perfect, as we should expect from Lucas Films and THX. The bit rate is high, and the picture is nothing short of superb. As is the Dolby EX surround track.

My wife and I watched all three of the movies on DVD this week -- Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi -- compliments of our local public library. It was an appropriate reminder how good these movies are, and still ahead of their time. Nothing else has been made to compare to them.