#33: Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi

Release Date: May 27th, 1983

Format: Streaming (Disney+)

Written by: Lawrence Kasdan and George Lucas

Directed by: Richard Marquand

2 Stars

I’ll try and keep this review on the rails, but I have lots of thoughts.

As a child my mom had a VHS copy of Return of the Jedi and I watched it over a dozen times, but this was in the early-to-mid ‘90s. The Return of the Jedi that I saw tonight was definitely not the version of the movie that I saw on that worn out VHS 30 years ago. The version from tonight was released in 1997 and it was to celebrate the 20th anniversary of A New Hope, while also wetting the appetite of the public for the upcoming release of A Phantom Menace. As far as I remember, I did not see this Return of the Jedi: Special Edition (as it was called at the time) in theaters. This is the first time that I’ve seen this altered version. I thought it was an immaculate example of how art exists (or should) in a specific time and space and context. The brilliance and flaws should patina over time. I think George Lucas would disagree with me. 

The analogy I’ll use is architecture and design. When the original trilogy was released, Lucas had created a fun, 1970s split level house. It had a funky shag carpet, a sunken living room, a basement with a ping pong table and a false wall. The guest bedroom had a water bed and a fish tank, and there was a fun but slightly dangerous rope swing in the backyard. As funky as everything was, it was endearing and it all clicked into place. It was special and unique. 

But then Lucas decided he wanted to do a partial re-model in the mid-’90s. Let’s put a sleek glass coffee table in the living room, and while we’re at it, let’s put a glass dining room table in too. Avocado green and burnt orange paint starts getting swapped out for a tasteful beige. Let’s tile these formica kitchen counters. The waterbed is gone, replaced with a red futon. Shag carpet out, a blue low pile carpet in. The aquarium and basement remain, as does the backyard. If you look closely you can still see the spirit of the original house, but it’s masked with design elements that look out of place. 

This is the version of Return of the Jedi that I saw last night.

It doesn’t ruin the movie. It’s still habitable. But I wanted to shake George Lucas and ask him what the fuck he was thinking. There would be these extended sequences, 15-20 minutes, where I’d be watching a magical, big budget sci-fi movie from 1983, only to be hit over the head with a 1997 CGI alien frog eating a fly. Does the alien frog look terrible? No, I guess not. Does it need to be in this movie? Absolutely not. It doesn’t belong.

And alien frogs are not the main culprit. There is a fucking musical sequence done in CGI that feels like Phantom Menace. By that I mean comedically tone-deaf and weightless. It takes the audience, or at least me, five minutes to recover and re-involve myself in the tone and feel of the original movie. Later there is a galactic celebration when the second Death Star is destroyed. Again, done in CGI. Again, it feels like the Phantom Menace. Again, it is shit. 

Wrong time, wrong place. 

Return of the Jedi comes out in 1983. It is Reagan. It is cassette tapes. It is analog. It is at its heart a corny middle-aged nerd’s vision of the Hero’s Journey, with the same laser blasters that he loved in the 1950s. Now, take that vibe and mix in some Clinton. Mix in some AOL disc mailers and dial up internet. Mix in some Now That’s What I Call Music! Vol 9. It becomes cluttered and embarrassing real quick.

So is Return of the Jedi even a movie? It has been commodified so heavily that I’m not sure exactly what I’m reviewing. Typically in a restoration the goal is to return a film to its original state and enhance the technical elements that are lost over time, i.e. the film print, sound elements, etc. That is not what happened here. George Lucas fundamentally changed a work of art to something else. I’m not sure if I’m able to evaluate this version of Return of the Jedi as a cohesive whole. 1-star seems too harsh, but my instincts say that is accurate. George Lucas added cream and it curdled (how many analogies am I up to?).

The thing is, though, that I still kind of enjoyed watching it. I was even fascinated by seeing this strange mashup of film styles, as much as it took me out of the story. 

I guess I’ll give the thing 2 stars.