With Star Wars: The Complete Saga arriving on Blu-ray this month, Gary Collinson counts down his most memorable Star Wars moments (check out the previous entry here)…
STAR WARS: EPISODE VI – RETURN OF THE JEDI
Now I must admit, I’m not the greatest fan of Return of the Jedi, but while much of Episode VI fails to live up to the heights of A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, the final showdown between Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader and the Emperor just about manages to make up for the lacklustre Tatooine opening sequence and the subsequent Ewok escapades.
After the shocking climax to his first encounter with the Dark Lord of the Sith (naturally we’ll have more on that later), Luke Skywalker faces the gravest test of his Jedi training as he returns to confront Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine on board the second Death Star. With the fate of the galaxy hanging in the balance, Luke refuses to be drawn into combat with the Sith until Vader discovers the truth about his offspring and threatens to turn Leia to the Dark Side of the Force. Unleashing his anger, Luke strikes out and defeats Vader, only to hold back at the last moment and prevent himself from following in the footsteps of his father.
Along with a magnificent turn from Ian McDiarmid as Emperor Palpatine, the ‘Final Duel’ sees Mark Hamill deliver his best work of the trilogy and – as with the previous entry – the key sequence in question (which runs from 1:59 – 4.51 in the video embed below) is made all the greater by the fantastic musical accompaniment from composer John Williams.
The Final Duel…
And as a bonus – George Lucas’ latest ‘enhancement’ to the Original Trilogy…
Proceed to the next memorable Star Wars moment here.
Originally published September 3, 2011. Updated April 12, 2018.
