Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi
Director: Richard Marquand
Writer: Lawrence Kasdan, George Lucas
Sequel to: Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back
Cast: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Peter Mayhew, David Prowse, Frank Oz, Alec Guinness, James Earl Jones, Sebastian Shaw, Ian McDiarmid, Warwick Davis
Seen on: 8./10.11.2025

Plot:
After Han (Harrison Ford) was captured and brought to Jabba the Hutt, Luke (Mark Hamill) and Leia (Carrie Fisher) mount a rescue mission. But the Empire isn’t idle either. Having almost finished a new Death Star, Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) himself comes to see it inaugurated. Both he and Darth Vader (David Prowse & James Earl Jones) have their sights set on Luke, expecting to be able to bring him to the Dark Side.

Return of the Jedi is the epic conclusion to the original Star Wars film that is both a good conclusion and not so much of a good film at the same time. And I know now for sure that I had only ever seen Episode IV (and I) before, so I am glad I closed that particular movie gap.

Return of the Jedi is a good conclusion in the sense that it manages to keep up the quality of the first two films – though in my book, that quality isn’t all that high. While it brings a satisfying ending to the most important characters, it also highlights the entire trilogy’s flaws in new ways. For example, the fact that the pacing isn’t all that good or the fact that Harrison Ford performs like he is an enthusiastic participant in a high school play. You also shouldn’t look too closely at the plot because it will quickly fall apart if you try to scrutinize it.

That being said, the Ewoks are pretty great! I also enjoyed the fact that Han spends a good part of the film as the Damsel in Distress, literally turned into a precious object. But the film seems to have crafted this scenario entirely by accident and immediately undoes any (feminist) goodwill with the entire “Leia becomes a sex(y) slave” thing. (Not to mention the fact that Leia is also force-sensitive but nobody gives a fuck because there is only Luke, and Luke alone can save everybody.)

As enjoyable as the entire thing with Jabba was for the most part, it also felt like a distraction, getting bogged down in a sidequest instead of spending more time with the actual problem, e.g. the Empire and Palpatine (no, I will not ask how they could build another Death Star this quickly, I will not even think about it). At least Lando (Billy Dee Williams) is still great here.

I will give the movies one thing, though: the sheer density of creativity, of creatures and worlds it opens up without ever explaining anything because it is just a sidenote in a bigger story? That is pretty amazing. So I won’t say that I don’t understand how these films sparked a huge franchise. I will just say that it wasn’t for the great filmmaking overall.

Summarizing: a good watch altogether, despite quite a few flaws.