Flickering Myth’s writing team are counting down to the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens by discussing their most memorable Star Wars moments. Next up is Tom Jolliffe with Luke meets Yoda from Empire Strikes Back…
Right off the bat I have to make something clear. If you don’t like the original Star Wars trilogy, there’s something wrong with you. If you can’t find joy in lightsabers then you can’t find joy in life. Okay, in actuality I’m not really that nerdishly attached to Star Wars. I do love the original three films (I’ll forgo moaning about the prequels pooping on my childhood), but I wouldn’t defriend anyone who didn’t like the films, and I’ve never dated anyone who actually gets the whole fascination of Star Wars. My better half has never heard of it and my previous better half, who watched it with me (probably to amuse me) scratched her head in bewildered perplexion at almost every minute of footage. She didn’t get why the showdown in Empire Strikes Back was epically brilliant, or the beauty of Luke staring out at the twin suns. She didn’t get just how badass Han Solo is (and no one before that quite got it either).
Then again, Star Wars is a film that you need to grow up with. It’s most fervently appreciated by people rapidly approaching middle age. It also needs to be first seen when you’re younger when you’re impressionable and still open to being swept away into such a fantastical story. I grew up watching Star Wars endlessly on repeat on VHS. My favourites in my early years were A New Hope and Return of the Jedi. As I matured I began appreciating more and more the brilliance and darkness of The Empire Strikes Back. The complexity in the film is intoxicating. It looks great and it’s filled with probably the vast majority of iconic Star Wars moments.
The vast majority of those reading this will have seen the films. You’ll have your own favourite scenes. One of my favourite scenes and one that really drew me in as a kid, was Luke’s first trip to Dagoba to train with Yoda. He lands in this ominous and eerie swamp world. It’s ugly and uninviting, yet beautiful at the same time. It’s a good example of old school film making in great fantasy films. Nice set work and the simple addition of some fog. It instantly pulls the audience into a place that feels real. You can almost smell the stank of the swamp…and then Yoda appears. When you first see him you wonder who this impish little green fellow is. He’s playful, he’s naughty and he’s a little bit annoying. Surely this isn’t the infamous Jedi master that Luke must find? Well of course as it transpires it is, and that is the brilliance of Yoda’s introduction. He’s supposed to be overlooked and underestimated. He’s able to manipulate Skywalker’s perception of himself as he in turn judges Luke and his suitability for training.
It’s not merely the great intro to a great character as far as the writing goes, but it’s also the fact that Yoda is brilliantly puppeteered. I still watch this film and forget that Yoda is a puppet. He’s just Yoda to me. He becomes a physical entity. When he says “You will be…you will be!” it gets me in the spine.
Under lesser hands a scene like the Dagoba scene, at the point of which it appears in this film, could have slowed the film to the point of ruin. It could have derailed the film, but what it does do is really emphasise the importance of “the force.” We see Luke taking a step up a level, and of course he leaves before he’s fully ready. Before he goes he goes to face his inner demons in his nightmare sequence. Luke finds himself one on one with Darth Vader in this moment which pre-empts the fight to come later. A short exchange and Luke strikers Vader down. Vader’s mask explodes open to reveal Luke’s own face staring back at him. The significance of this can be interpreted in many ways. For one it foreshadows the later revelation that Vader is Luke’s father. It also foreshadows the battle Luke will face in the next film as he struggles to control his dark side and you could read into it in other ways. You could also say that it just looks plain cool. It’s a brilliantly shot scene.
With Episode 7 tantalisingly close, one hopes that it can capture moments like this. It needs to create its own iconography. The prequels largely failed to do this, and those it did create weren’t as impressive or filled with the depth that the best moments of the originals had. The Dagoba sequence is brilliantly laid out. From the initial wonder, to the comical nature of Yoda’s intro, before we get an almost Rocky-esque training montage, and then things get metaphysical. It’s cinematic magic at its finest and this is the bar that J.J. Abrams has to get close to. He won’t match it. That would be near impossible, but if he gets within sniffing distance he’ll have done well. The prequels didn’t even reach the same universe.
Tom Jolliffe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=E5phYG-Z0UY
Originally published December 9, 2015. Updated April 15, 2018.
