1983 Return of the Jedi

The Star Wars saga came to a satisfying conclusion in the summer of 1983. All the pieces of the story came together and the characters story arcs completed. It was over. Finished. The franchise was done and the audience were happy.

Originally called Revenge of the Jedi, this was changed after George Lucas was asked if Jedi's, a peaceful organisation, should seek revenge. Instead Return of the Jedi came to being and Luke Skywalker realised his ambition.

It is not as dark as the previous chapter, but it does contain a lot of action. We go from a daring rescue on Tatooine to an epic space battle and ambush on the planet Endor. The effects are amazing. The level of creativity and invention on display is astonishing. Remember, that this was done in the days before computer generated effects.

To some this is the weaker of the three movies. However, on reflection, it does exactly what it is meant to do. It is a conclusion to a story and all the leads have to reach an end.

Now we are treated to too much Star Wars and personally the franchise is weaker for it. The original trilogy are for me the complete story. I don't care how Darth Vader came into being and I don't care what happened to Luke. This is it.

The movie grossed $374m worldwide. Less than Empire and less than Star Wars. The stories for each movie have been adapted and updated into Special Editions, much to its detriment I think. Sadly these versions are the only now available. The originals had a charm that CGI should not replace. The experts behind the scenes were game-changers, and that is the true legacy of these movies; the model-makers, the sound designers, the prop-makers.



Get James Kahn's novel of the film here -  Return of the Jedi

Jedi was also released as an arcade, the rise of home gaming was proving to be a hit on the arcade halls so they had  to up their game from the previous Star Wars games. This one was in colour!