Stubs - The Blues Brothers (1980)

The Blues Brothers (1980) Starring John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, James Brown, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, Carrie Fisher, Aretha Franklin, Henry Gibson Directed by John Landis. Screenplay by Dan Aykroyd and John Landis. Produced by Robert K. Weiss. Runtime: 133 minutes. USA Color Musical, Comedy

It is not often that a Saturday Night Live skit has translated well to the silver screen, though it is something that has been tried more times than I would care to count. The fact that you can count them on one hand and have two fingers left is an example of how many misfires there have been. There is Wayne’s World, Wayne’s World 2 and The Blues Brothers.

John Belushi sings "I'm a King Bee" on Saturday Night Live. Dan Aykroyd plays the harmonica.

Born from an idea by Howard Shore, the original sketch on January 17, 1976, called "Howard Shore and his All-Bee Band" which featured the TV’s house band in the bee costumes worn in their earlier “The Killer Bees” sketches. The act featured John Belushi singing the Slim Harpo song “I’m a King Bee” with Dan Aykroyd playing the harmonica.  Later that year, Belushi and Aykroyd would return as “Juliet” Jake and Elwood Blues, the Blues Brothers as musical guests on the show airing April 22, 1978. On that show, they sang "Soul Man", and "Hey Bartender".

Elwood (Aykroyd) and Jake (Belushi) appear as the Blues Brothers on Saturday Night Live.

After releasing a live album, Briefcase Full of Blues, which reached number 1 on the Billboard 200, it didn’t seem like a stretch to star the pair in their own movie. Belushi was already a film star thanks to the success of National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978). There was a bidding war between Paramount and Universal for the story, with the latter winning. However, there was still no script and no budget.

Dan Aykroyd took it upon himself to write one himself, something he had never done before. Not using a standard screenplay format, he wrote a 324-page draft that was more prose than anything else. Director John Landis was given the responsibility of turning it into a movie screenplay, something that took him two weeks to do.

Filming began in July 1979, still without a budget. The production went smoothly, though it was probably over the agreed-to a budget of $17.5 million that first month. After that things got worse, as Belushi started to party when not on the set and use cocaine. As a result, he would miss or delay shooting.

While cocaine was reportedly widely used and widely available, Aykroyd would claim it was even budgeted for, Belushi’s went above and beyond anyone else’s. It got so bad that Landis asked Carrie Fisher, then Aykroyd’s girlfriend and an actress on the film, to keep him away from the drug. It took an intervention of sorts involving Aykroyd and Belushi’s wife Judy to get things back on track.

Production returned to Los Angeles, from Chicago, and the final performance was shot at the Hollywood Palladium. However, Belushi would get injured in an accident on a borrowed skateboard and hurt his knee. It took Lou Wasserman, the head of Universal, to persuade an orthopedic surgeon to postpone his weekend plans to Belushi's knee so the scene could be filmed.

The story starts when Jake (John Belushi) Blues is released from prison after serving three years of a five-year sentence and is picked up by his brother Elwood (Dan Aykroyd) in the new Bluesmobile, a battered former police car. In Jake’s absence, Elwood had traded the old Bluesmobile for a microphone. Jake is skeptical of the new car but Elwood demonstrates its capabilities by jumping an open drawbridge.

Elwood (Aykroyd) and Jake (Belushi) go to their old orphanage to see the Penguin.

Elwood takes Jake to visit the Roman Catholic orphanage where they were raised, based on a promise made to the Penguin when Jake went away to prison. Sister Mary Stigmata (Kathleen Freeman), for old-times sake, beats them with a yardstick before asking for a favor. They learn from her that the orphanage is in danger and will be closed unless they can raise the $5,000 in property taxes.

Sister Stigmata (Kathleen Freeman) gives the boys a welcome home.

While at the orphanage, they go downstairs and visit with Curtis (Cab Calloway) who had been an early influence on them, playing for them the blues music he loved. He suggests they go to church. Despite Jake’s objections, they end up at the Triple Rock Baptist church. During a sermon by the Reverend Cleophus James (James Brown), Jake has an epiphany: they can re-form their band, the Blues Brothers, and raise the money to save the orphanage.

Cleophus James (James Brown) delivers a sermon which inspires Jake.

That night, Elwood gets pulled over and state troopers, Trooper Mount (Steven Williams) and Trooper Danie (Armand Cerami), attempt to arrest him for driving with a suspended license due to 116 parking tickets and 56 moving violations. But Elwood doesn’t surrender. Instead, he takes them on a high-speed chase which ends up driving through the Dixie Square Mall.

The car chase ends up going through a mall.

Afterward, the brothers escape. Arriving back at the flophouse where Elwood lives, the brothers are attacked by a mysterious woman with a rocket launcher. After surviving, the brothers go up to Elwood’s room and eventually sleep.

The next morning, as the police arrive at the flophouse, led by Burton Mercer (John Candy), the mysterious woman detonates a bomb that demolishes the building, but miraculously leaves Jake and Elwood unharmed, and saves them from being arrested.

Murph and the Magic Tones play at a Holiday Inn lounge.

Next, Jake and Elwood begin tracking down members of the band. Five of them, Donald "Duck" Dunn – bass guitar, Murphy Dunne ("Murph") – keyboards, Willie "Too Big" Hall – drums, ”Blue Lou" Marini – saxophone, and Matt "Guitar" Murphy – lead guitar, are playing a deserted Holiday Inn lounge as Murph and the Magic Tones. It doesn’t take much to convince them to rejoin.

But "Mr. Fabulous" Alan Rubin – trumpet initially turns them down as he is the maître d' at an expensive restaurant and doing quite well. But the brothers make such a nuisance and refuse to leave the restaurant until he finally relents.

On their way to meet the final two band members, the brothers find the road through Jackson Park blocked by an American Nazi Party led by Head Nazi (Henry Gibson) who are demonstrating on a bridge. Professing his hatred for Illinois Nazis, Elwood drives the Bluesmobile, around the barricades and runs the Nazis off the bridge into the East Lagoon.

The last two band members, Matt "Guitar" Murphy – lead guitar and Blue Lou" Marini – saxophone now run a soul food restaurant, with Matt’s wife (Aretha Franklin). Despite Franklin singing “Think” to Matt, he rejoins the band. Not wanting him to be left behind, Franklin tells Marini to follow.

Aretha Franklin sings "Think" but her husband Matt "Guitar" Murphy doesn't listen.

The reunited group obtains instruments and equipment from Ray's Music Exchange in Calumet City, and Ray (Ray Charles), as usual, takes an IOU.

Ray Charles makes an appearance as the owner of a music store.

As Jake attempts to book a gig, the mystery woman blows up the phone booth he is using; once again, he is miraculously unhurt.

Without a real gig, Jake has the group drive around until they come across a bar, Bob's Country Bunker, a local honky-tonk. There is a sign outside welcoming the Good Ol’ Boys. Jake tells the band it’s a mistake and then goes into the bar and pretends to be the leader of the country band they’re expecting.

The band plays behind chicken wire for their own protection at Bob's Country Bunker.

Of course, a blues band is not at first welcomed by the rowdy crowd at Bob's Country Bunker. However, they win them over by singing the "Theme from Rawhide". Even though they end up having a successful first show the band runs up a bar tab higher than their pay. When the night’s over, the real country band that was actually booked for the gig shows up. And they are for some reason as upset as the bar owner who is about to get stiffed. Of course, Jake and Elwood drive off without paying but the bar owner, in the Good Ol’ Boy’s RV, takes chase.

During the chase, they pass Trooper Mount and Trooper Danie, who join in. But the RV and the police collide, allowing the Blues Brothers to escape.

Still, they need one big show to raise the money for the orphanage. They manage to persuade their old agent, Maury Sline (Steve Lawrence), to book them in the Palace Hotel Ballroom, north of Chicago, for the next night.

To help promote the gig, they place a loudspeaker atop the Bluesmobile and drive around the area promoting the concert. While they’re at it, they are also alerting the police, the Nazis and the Good Ol' Boys of their whereabouts.

The Blues Brothers drive around making announcements for their gig that night.

That night, the ballroom is packed with blues fans, police officers, and the Good Ol' Boys. But after having driven around all day, the Bluesmobile runs out of gas. Jake pushes the car into a gas station only to discover that their tanks are empty. While they wait for the supply truck to arrive, Elwood tends to a customer, a chic lady (Twiggy) who is on her way to date but still weighs Elwood’s invitation to meet later after the show.

The police are lying in wait for Jake and Elwood to appear.

To keep the crowd from getting rowdy, Curtis performs "Minnie the Moocher" with the band transformed to an old-fashioned band complete with bandstands. Afterward, they transform back.

Cab Calloway sings his hit "Minnie the Moocher" to keep the crowd quiet.

Jake and Elwood get gas and manage, finally, to sneak into the ballroom. They perform two songs then sneak offstage, as the tax deadline is rapidly approaching. A record company executive, Clarion Records' President (Michael Klenfner), offers them a $10,000 cash advance on a recording contract—more than enough to pay off the orphanage's taxes and Ray's IOU with money left over for the band members. He then shows the brothers how to slip out of the building unnoticed.

Jake's vengeful ex- (Carrie Fisher) tries one more time to kill him.

As they make their escape via an underground service tunnel, they are confronted by the mystery woman: Jake's vengeful ex-fiancée (Carrie Fisher). After her volley of M16 rifle bullets leaves them miraculously unharmed, Jake offers every ridiculous excuse in the books that she, for some reason, accepts, allowing the brothers to escape to the Bluesmobile and leaving her alone again.

With dozens of state and local police, as well as the Good Ol’ Boys, in hot pursuit, Elwood and Jake drive through the night to Chicago, eluding their pursuers with a series of improbable maneuvers. 

But, hey, they are on a mission from God, as Elwood keeps repeating, to save the orphanage. They also manage a miraculous escape from the Nazis, finally making it to the Richard J. Daley Center. They rush inside the Chicago City Hall with troopers still in pursuit.

They take the elevator up to the Cook County Assessor’s office and then break the elevator. They also block the doors giving them just enough time to make good with Cook County Assessor (Steven Spielberg). No sooner is their receipt stamped, then they are arrested.

The film ends with the band, all in jail, playing “Jailhouse Rock” for their fellow inmates.

Released on June 20, 1980, the film, made on a budget of $30 million, would gross $115.2 million, pretty evenly divided between the U.S. and overseas, so it would be considered a hit. It also generally received favorable reviews, though some would criticize it for things like shortchanging viewers on more details about Jake and Elwood's affinity for African-American culture as well as being held up for positive symbolism and moral references that can be related to Catholicism.

Over the years, the film has found what is called a cult following, with some screenings apparently turning into an audience participation event. All in all, it is that rare SNL film, meaning memorable. A belated sequel, Blues Brothers 2000 (1998), would not be so well-received and would, in fact, lose money.

While the film is memorable, it is not to say there are no problems. To begin with, the premise of The Blues Brothers, paying off the tax bill for the orphanage they once lived at, is specious at best. Catholic orphanages, like other religious groups and other not-for-profit organizations, are typically exempt from federal or state taxes. This is what you get by making a one-note sketch into a full-length feature film written by someone who has never written a screenplay. You have to overlook this as a necessary evil, or otherwise, most of the plot, as it were, doesn’t make sense.

There is a certain amount of anarchy in this film and I don’t just mean the disruptive nature of Jake and Elwood on everyone and everything around them. So much of the story is either one miraculous escape or a huge coincidence followed by another miraculous escape or coincidence. How many times does the mysterious woman try to kill Jake and he walks away without a scratch? Or, the Bluesmobile manages to outrun every cop car in the state of Illinois? And the list goes on and on. This is not really great story-telling by that measure. Not to mention the over-reliance on car crashes for comedic effect. It should come as no surprise that the film once held the record for the most car wrecks.

That is not to say the film isn’t funny. There are many laugh-out-loud moments throughout. John Belushi was a major talent with the ability to make people laugh with just a gesture. Dan Aykroyd is more of an acquired taste and not as outwardly funny as his cohort in comedy and crime.

Many of the cameos and there are many, are essentially one-note characters. Carrie Fisher is a little wasted as the mysterious woman. Frank Oz is given a rather lowbrow joke to pull off. Steven Spielberg has a rather blink-and-you’ll-miss-him role as the County Assessor. And John Candy isn’t particularly funny as Burton Mercer.

Oh yeah, Paul Reubens, better known as Pee Wee Herman, plays a waiter in the film.

One of the great delights of the film is to see the performances of the guest artists, like Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, James Brown, John Lee Hooker and Cab Calloway. This film is to be congratulated for breathing new life into some artists’ careers, as an example, the film has been credited with helping Franklin turn her career around; and introduce some older acts, like Calloway, to a whole new audience.

At the root of the film is the music and there is lots of it throughout. The Blues Brothers are fun to watch when they play and their choice of music is very eclectic. Many of the songs they play are not strictly blues: “The Theme from Raw Hide”, “Jailhouse Rock” and "Peter Gunn Theme" come to mind. For real blues, see John Lee Hooker’s rendition of “Boom Boom” in what is essentially a throwaway scene in the movie.

Warts and all, The Blues Brothers film is worth at least one viewing. While there are some off-moments, for the most part, the film is pretty funny and enjoyable. And more than likely, it will spark your interest in at least one or more of the musical acts that it features. Come for the comedy stay for the blues.

Stubs - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

The Empire Strikes Back (1980) Starring: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels. Directed by Irvin Kershner. Written by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan. Story by George Lucas. Produced by Gary Kurtz. Color. US. Science Fiction, Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Eight weeks after the initial release of Star Wars, Lucas was already planning the sequels, their money and his own reduced involvement in the filmmaking process. In an August 25, 1977 interview in Rolling Stone, he’s quoted as saying, “I figured the merchandising along with the sequels would give me enough income over a period of time so that I could retire from professional filmmaking and go into making my own kind of movies, my sort of abstract, weird, experimental stuff.” Merchandising from Star Wars along with his share in the profits allowed him to become an Executive Producer on the next film, investing $33 million into the production of The Empire Strikes Back. Lucas quickly went from what he liked to consider himself to be, a Hollywood outsider, to his own mini entertainment mogul.

As early as June 22, 1977, 20^th Century Fox was already negotiating with Lucas about a sequel, then called Star Wars 2. To write the film, Lucas hired Leigh Brackett, a science fiction writer. She completed a first draft in 1978, which Lucas didn’t particularly like. But before he could talk to her about it, she died of cancer. Lucas then wrote the second draft by himself. It was in his draft that he first used the idea of calling them Episodes; this was Episode II at the time, still no notion of a pre-sequel. It was in this draft that Lucas first came up with the idea of Darth Vader being Luke’s father (oh yeah, spoiler alert). Lucas enjoyed the writing process so much that he wrote two more drafts in April 1978.

The idea of Darth being Luke’s father was not thought of until then. It definitely changed the storyline both going forward as well as backwards. If you remember, Obi-Wan talks about Luke’s father as having been killed by Vader; now that explanation sounds sort of esoteric as if one personality killed the other or something like that, if you lean your head to the side like a dog watching television it sort of makes sense.

To justify this new plot twist, Lucas wrote a backstory for Vader. Tell me if this sounds familiar: Anakin Skywalker was Ben Kenobi's brilliant student and had a child named Luke. Anakin was swayed to the dark side by Emperor Palpatine (was also a Sith Lord as well as a politician). Anakin battled Obi-Wan Kenobi on the site of a volcano and was wounded, but then resurrected as Darth Vader. Meanwhile, Kenobi hid Luke on Tatooine while the Republic became the Empire and Vader systematically hunted down and killed what was left of the Jedi order. (That’s basically three movies summed up in a paragraph.) Now the sequel was a going to be part of a trilogy and Episode II was now Episode V, I mean he had that backstory to put on the screen. An article in the May 19, 1980 issue of Time magazine made this official, as Lucas explained that Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back were centerpieces in a nine-part narrative and only two characters were planned to continue their roles throughout: R2-D2 and C-3PO.

Lawrence Kasdan, who had just completed writing Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) for Lucas' pal Spielberg, was hired to complete the work on the screenplay.

To direct, Lucas looked no further than one of his old school professors at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, Irvin Kershner. Kershner was not one of those, who can’t do, teach types. He had been a director before and after his time at the school. Kershner, though, was known for smaller, character-driven films like Hoodlum Priest (1961) and Face in the Rain (1963) and episodes of TV series like Ben Casey (1961) and Naked City (1962-3). Prior to Empire, Kershner had directed the thriller Eyes of Laura Mars (1978). Nothing in his career seems to be pointing him for a sci-fi epic like Empire was setting up to be.

Production would get underway on March 5, 1979 on the Hardangerjøkulen glacier in Norway. The filming was just in time for the worst winter storm in fifty years. For one shot, the crew remained in the hotel and shot Mark Hamill running outside into the snow.

Eight days later, production moved to Elstree studio in England where they used 60 sets. They stayed there until September; meanwhile the budget had increased from $18.5 to $25 million, making it one of the most expensive films made to that time. The cost was so high that the bank, where Lucas had received a loan, threatened to pull it. Lucas went to 20^th Century Fox to acquire more financing, which he managed to get without giving up his sequel or merchandising rights. So good was the deal that it cost Alan Ladd Jr. his job as head of the studio.

Rather than sneaking into a few theaters, like Star Wars had, Empire was given the gala treatment, with a world premiere on May 17, 1980 at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., a Royal Premiere in London three days later. The film went into general release on May 21 in the U.S. and the U.K.

Here we go...

Like Star Wars, the film opened with a crawl that sought to fill in the story since the end of the first film. The film was now titled “Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back”: “It is a dark time for the Rebellion. Although the Death Star has been destroyed, Imperial troops have driven the Rebel forces from their hidden base and pursued them across the galaxy. Evading the dreaded Imperial Starfleet, a group of freedom fighters led by Luke Skywalker has established a new secret base on the remote ice world of Hoth. The evil lord Darth Vader, obsessed with finding young Skywalker, has dispatched thousands of remote probes into the far reaches of space…”

A behind the scenes shot showing the filming of the title crawl.

The action starts with an Empire Spaceship deploying said probes. Several land on Hoth, the frozen planet below, where the Rebels have set up their base of operations. While he’s on patrol riding a two-legged Tauntaun, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) sees a probe land and thinks it’s a meteorite. 

Luke (Mark Hamill) tells Han he's going to check out what he thinks is a meteorite.

Han Solo (Harrison Ford), who is also on patrol, heads back to camp while Luke goes to investigate. He notices that the Tauntaun is getting spooked and before he can do anything, he is knocked unconscious by a Wampa, a predatory creature, which kills the Tauntaun and drags Luke away.

Luke hanging in the Wampa's cave like a side of beef.

Back at camp, Han announces to Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) that he’s leaving to stay ahead of Jabba the Hut, his creditor. If he doesn’t leave, he fears for the security of the base. Leia doesn’t want him to leave, but recoils when Han suggests it’s because she’s secretly in love with him. They part on bitter terms.

Before Han can leave, C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) informs him that Master Luke has not returned from patrol. Han is alarmed to hear that. With a blizzard raging, night falling and the base about to lockdown, he goes out in search of Luke.

Alarmed to learn Luke is still outside, Han (Harrison Ford) decides to go looking for him.

Meanwhile, Luke regains consciousness hanging upside down, like a side of beef, in the Wampa’s cave. Tapping into the Force, Luke manages to call his lightsaber to him. Freeing himself, he fights and at least severely wounds the Wampa. Escaping out into the cold, hostile night, he eventually succumbs to the conditions. But before he passes out, Obi-Wan (Alec Guinness) appears to him in a vision, telling Luke to seek out the Jedi Master who had trained him, Yoda.

Back at the Rebel outpost, Leia, who is in charge, reluctantly agrees to seal the base for the night, knowing she is trapping Han and Luke outside until morning.

Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) is reluctant to close the base and leave Han and Luke to fend for themselves.

When Han finally finds him, Luke is near death. Cutting open his own dead Tauntaun, Han shoves Luke into its body cavity to stay warm while he sets up a shelter for the night. Luke comes to, back at the base. Han continues to harass Leia about being in love with him. To prove she’s not, she gives Luke a passionate (though we now know from Episode III is an incestuous) kiss.

Even though Han destroys Vader’s probe, it is already too late. Vader knows they’re there and sends in a fleet of armored (and awkward looking) imperial walkers. Boarding his fighter, Luke, along with others, flies out to stop the walkers. But they are outmatched. The ship is hit; Luke’s gunner is killed and he crash lands.

At the rebel base, with Vader’s men moving in, Chewbacca, Han, Princess Leia and C-3PO escape in the Millennium Falcon. On the ground, Luke watches them fly away before getting into his space fighter with R2-D2 navigating, takes off and heads for the Dagobah System and Yoda. When gets to his destination, he crashes into a remote swamp.

Luke is helpless to prevent his ship from sinking to the bottom of the swamp.

Things aren't going much better back on the Millennium Falcon, which is malfunctioning. Unable to activate its light speed hyper drive and with the Empire’s starship hot on his tail, Han tries to avoid detection in an asteroid field, taking refuge inside one. There, the crew feverishly works to repair the spacecraft. In an intimate moment, Han and Leia kiss, but he soon realizes that they are not inside the asteroid, but actually inside the belly of an enormous worm inside the asteroid. They fire up the Millennium Falcon and make their escape just as its closing its jaws.

Han flies the Millennium Falcon out of the belly of a giant worm.

Meanwhile, Luke is not alone. An aged troll-like Muppet is hovering around him. When he engages the creature, he rifles through Luke’s provisions and sort of talks in circles. He claims to know this Yoda (Frank Oz) Luke is looking for, but doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to reveal that he is the one he seeks. At first, he is reluctant to take the boy on for training, citing several reasons, including Luke’s age, his impatience and his bitter attitude which make him unsuitable to be a Jedi. But he eventually does come around, but warns Luke that the Force has a very seductive dark side, adding that Luke will know the difference if he is at peace with himself and that Jedis never use their power aggressively. As part of his training, Luke confronts an image of Darth Vader, whom he manages to behead in a lightsaber duel. However, when he sees behind the mask, it is his face staring back at him.

Luke trains with Yoda  (voiced by Frank Oz) on his back.

Darth Vader, meanwhile, orders his Starfleet to follow the Falcon. For the first time, we see Vader’s evil master, the Emperor (Clive Revill). The Emperor tells Vader that this Luke Skywalker is the son of Anakin Skywalker and must be dealt with before he threatens the Empire. Rather than killing Luke, Vader suggests that he can be lured to the dark side, which is all right by the Emperor. To set a trap, Vader convenes bounty hunters to track down Han and the Millennium Falcon.

The Emperor (Clive Revill) communicates with Vader via hologram.

Han flies toward the Cloud City metropolis of Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams), a former associate who now controls the Tibanna gas mine near Bespin.

Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) used to run with Han in the old days.

Meanwhile, Yoda tasks Luke with telepathically lifting his fighter plane from the swap it has sunk into. Luke complains and cannot manage it, telling Yoda that the mystical ideals of the Force are impossible to attain. Yoda, however, raises the fighter with little effort. Luke continues to work on his skills and improves, but he’s bothered by a vision that Han and Leia are in danger. He wants to rescue them, but Yoda warns him that he will destroy the Rebel movement if he doesn’t complete his training. Obi-Wan weighs in and warns Luke he will soon be tempted by the dark side of the Force and will have to battle Darth Vader alone. But Luke ignores such advice and sets out to rescue his friends.

Yoda has no trouble with lifting the ship out of the swamp using the "Force".

Obi-Wan’s ghost mutters to Yoda that Luke is the last hope of the universe. In response, Yoda professes: “There is another”. We'll have to wait to find out who that is.

The spirit of Obi-Wan (Alec Guinness) speaks with Yoda.

Meanwhile, Han and Lando are reunited and the men pick up where they last left off, fighting over the ownership of the Millennium Falcon. Shortly thereafter, Vader arrives and Lando rats them out to him. That’s when they learn of Vader’s plan to entice Luke into a trap and to then carbon-freeze his body so it can be transported back to the Emperor. But as a Beta-test, Vader uses the carbon-freezing device on Han. As Han’s going into the device, Leia confesses her love for him and gives him a good-bye kiss.

Leia and Han share a kiss before he is frozen.

Vader then hands over Han’s body to the bounty hunters, who leave to collect their rewards.

Leia, Chewbacca, and C-3PO are detained, but Lando proves he’s not a bad guy, after all, by secretly rescuing them. He also promises to help save Han. But Vader advises Luke to given in to his anger, because it is necessary to killing one’s enemies.

Lando (Billy Dee Williams) turns Han over to Darth Vader. Vader, in turn,
 hands Han over to Bobba Fett (Jeremy-Bulloch), a bounty hunter.

In the fight and perhaps in an attempt to unleash that anger, Vader unhinges part of the space station, causing Luke to be sucked out of the room. While he clings for his life to a railing above an abyss, his friends come under gunfire across the city. They manage to recover R2-D2 and escape in the Millennium Falcon.

Luke gets sucked out a hole Darth Vader creates.

Meanwhile, Luke’s battle with Vader continues and Vader cuts off Luke’s hand. In shock, he backs away to another perch above the abyss. Vader invites Luke, once again, to embrace evil and declares himself to be Luke’s long-lost father. (This is the big reveal that throws the entire storyline akimbo and "gives" us the prequel trilogy. Thanks!)

Darth Vader actually says "No, I am your father", not the oft misquoted "Luke, I am your father."

Having to choose between certain death and a paternal reunion, Luke falls into the void, landing inside a chute, which he slides through to the outskirts of Cloud City. Since the city is floating, Luke has to cling for life in outer space. He calls out loud for Obi-Wan and Leia.  

Leia hears Luke’s voice and insists on going back to save her friend.

Darth Vader returns to his Stardestroyer and orders the Millennium Falcon captured. Speaking telepathically to Luke, Darth tells him that their union is “destiny.” The Stardestroyer manages to get the Millennium Falcon in its tractor beam at the same moment R2-D2 fixes the spaceship’s hyper drive and the ship blasts into light speed, avoiding capture.

Luke is given a new hand while Lando and Chewbacca leave to save Han.

At a Rebel station, Luke is outfitted with a new hand. Lando and Chewbacca, in the Millennium Falcon, set out to save Han as the film ends.

The anticipation for a new Star Wars film assured that this movie, despite its higher budget, would be a success. The film was a huge success, making over $538 million worldwide since in its initial theatrical release. While there were some negative reviews, The Empire Strikes Back is considered more adult than Star Wars and the best film in the series.

Despite that, The Empire Strikes Back got the same re-do that the original Star Wars received in 1997, when a glitzier Special Edition was rolled out with enhanced special effects. I haven’t seen it, so I won’t comment about it, but like Star Wars, the film that was released in the theaters is “lost” in that the right holder has refused for nearly 20 years to release it in any form.

Not that the special effects couldn’t have used some work. Considered ahead of its time, they are and were then, sort of hit and miss. When anyone is riding a Tauntaun, it is obviously stop motion and really no better than Ray Harryhausen had been doing since the 1940s. You never really buy into the idea that someone is really riding the beast. And the close ups of the Tauntaun aren’t really convincing either.

While I am not an engineer it is also clear to me that Lucas or whoever is responsible for designing mechanical objects in these films isn't either. Take for example, the Imperial Walkers, which is essentially a tank, but rather than treads, it struts around on spindly mechanical legs. It may be awesome to look at, but it is an impractical design. You would suspect that even long, long ago, people capable of intergalactic flight would have come up with something better to propel vehicles than walk them.

Science is also fiction in this film as well. It seems odd to me that Tauntauns would live on Hoth, but haven't evolved so they can deal with the extremely cold weather of the planet. Isn’t that something evolution is supposed to take care of? And the sequence with the giant worm inside the asteroid: While Han and crew don oxygen masks, they traipse around in their “street” clothes, so to speak, in what would be a zero-gravity environment, not to mention extremely cold, etc. This isn’t a planet with an atmosphere, but rather a large rock.

And how would a giant worm get inside an asteroid in the first place? Unless it eats rocks, there is no food or water source. Picky, picky I hear you say, but I have a hard time believing this wasn’t thought about before the film was made. This isn’t the world in which Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon was made. By the time The Empire Strikes Back was released, we’d been to the moon and had learned a lot more about space and that sort of treatment doesn’t really fly anymore.

Most of the original cast returns, minus Peter Cushing, whose character, though killed in the original film, seems to have been a mistake. Once again, as in Revenge of the Sith, Vader reports directly to the evil Emperor, making The Grand Moff retconned as superfluous to the overall story.

Billy Dee Williams is the most notable new cast member. Williams was one of the better known Black actors in the 1970s, appearing in Lady Sings the Blues (1972) and Mahogany (1975), both opposite singer trying to become actress, Diana Ross. After Mahogany, Williams played the title roles in The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976) and the TV movie Scott Joplin (1977). He would go on to play Lando Calrissian in Return of the Jedi (1983) and The Lego Movie (2014). A story like this needs new characters added as the story progresses and Lando is a good addition to the cast.

I know he wasn’t supposed to, but there are times when Yoda really does look like a hand puppet; an elaborate puppet, but still nothing more. These were simpler times and in the later trilogy he would be computer animated. Frank Oz, who voices him, had been a mainstay with Jim Henson's Muppets for a number of years. Yoda maybe the best remembered new character introduced in the film.

The big moment of the movie is when Darth Vader reveals to Luke that’s he’s really his father. It’s the statement that forever changes the Star Wars saga and is responsible for three mediocre films to tell a backstory that we didn’t really need. Now that it’s been established through three films leading up to Star Wars and confirmed in The Empire Strikes Back, I’m left with a couple of questions.

Why doesn’t Darth Vader also reveal to Leia that he’s her father, too? The two seem to have at least an ongoing awareness of each other before Star Wars starts. You’d think that their relationship would have come up at some point before.

And why don’t the droids he built as a boy, R2-D2 and C-3PO, recognize Darth Vader as their creator or call him Anakin, since they would have known him by that name? We know their memories weren’t wiped clean.

Despite these minor complaints (you can find them in most films), The Empire Strikes Back is a more complex film than Star Wars. In the predecessor, it is pretty obvious who the good guys are (The Rebels) and who the bad guys are (The Empire). In Star Wars, the only gray character is Han and it’s not because he’s a smuggler, these guys are usually heroes in these kinds of stories (see Firefly as an example). It’s because he shoots Greedo, perhaps, before Greedo would have shot him. In the old west, and those seem to be the rules we’re operating under here, it’s okay to shoot a man/creature dead after he’s shot at you; that’s self-defense not murder.

In The Empire Strikes Back, it’s all about living in the gray. As an example, Lando may have turned in Han to Darth Vader, but it was because he had Cloud City to protect. After that, he comes to the rescue of Leia and the others and goes out to save his friend from certain death.

Luke seems to be surrounded by liars and deceit his whole life. Princess Leia seems drawn to Han, but she also almost purposefully leads poor Luke on. Obi-Wan and Uncle Owen have also been lying to him about his father. Is he the savior of the Universe or is that really left to someone else? What’s a young man from Tatooine to think?

Everyone’s motives are shady, Darth Vader’s included. Despite the Emperor’s order to kill young Skywalker, Vader doesn’t want to. He has split loyalties. On the one hand, he’s the Emperor’s minion; on the other, blood is thicker than water, except of course where Princess Leia is concerned.

More complex characters, and more complex situations, makes this a deeper film. If you liked/loved the original Star Wars, you will most likely enjoy this one as much. There is something about the original film, though, that is hard to beat.

But at this point in the original trilogy, the trajectory is definitely pointing up, which leads us to Return of the Jedi (1983)…

Stubs – Friday the 13th (1980)

Friday the 13^th (1980) Starring: Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Harry Crosby, Laurie Bartram, Jeannine Taylor, Kevin Bacon, Mark Nelson, Robbi Morgan, Ari Lehman. Directed by Sean S. Cunningham. Screenplay by Victor Miller. Produced by Sean S. Cunningham Run Time: 95 minutes. U.S.  Color, Horror.

No critical tour of horror films which begot franchises would be complete without a look at Friday the 13^th. (That and the fact that there are five weeks in October.) Friday the 13^th was made in reaction to the success of another of our films, though still to come, John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978). Studios are always looking to jump on the trend bandwagon and Halloween proved that the kids like slasher films, so someone took the Halloween blue print, adapted it to a lake shore camp and the rest, as they say, is history. 

Our story opens, just like Halloween, with a flashback. In this case, it’s 1958. Barry (Willie Adams) and Claudette (Debra S. Hayes), are two camp counselors at Camp Crystal Lake. Being horny teenagers, they sneak away from a camp gathering to have sex. Big mistake, as an unseen assailant stalks the two and then kills them, one with a hunting knife and the other with a machete.

Don't be fooled. Camp Crystal Lake is very unwelcoming.

Flash forward twenty-one years later and on Friday, June 13th, 1979, a young girl named Annie (Robbi Morgan) is making her way to Crystal Lake. She is one of the new camp counselors hired by the original camp owners' son Steve Christy (Peter Brouwer), who intends to reopen the camp, despite its history of murders, water poisonings and fires. Crazy Ralph (Walt Gorney), a local man, warns Annie that the counselors are doomed. Naturally, Annie shrugs off the warnings and hitches a ride to the camp with a truck driver Enos (Rex Everhart), but he has similar warnings for her.

Annie (Robbi Morgan) is the counselor who never makes it to camp.

Meanwhile, the other counselors arrive at the camp and begin to fix the place up. There is the jokester Ned Rubinstein (Mark Nelson), his best friend Jack Burrell (Kevin Bacon), Jack's girlfriend Marcie Cunningham (Jeannine Taylor), handyman Bill (Harry Crosby), Brenda (Laurie Bartram), and Steve's ex-girlfriend Alice Hardy (Adrienne King). In between chores, the group enjoys some free time.

The counselors at Camp Crystal Lake may be doomed, but don't they sing pretty?

Annie is still on her way to the camp and has hitched a ride with an unseen driver in a Jeep CJ-5. But when the driver refuses to stop at Crystal Lake, Annie flees the Jeep. She runs into the woods, where she is chased, before her throat is slashed with a hunting knife.

After Steve returns to town for supplies, Crazy Ralph arrives at the camp and tells Marcie, Ned and Alice that they're all doomed. (He will be proven to be not so crazy after all.)  Ned encounters a stranger at the camp and goes into a nearby cabin in search of the others. Meanwhile Marcie tells Jack about a dream she had that terrifies her during storms. Surprise, surprise, a storm comes up, and the two seek shelter in their cabin and, what else, have sex. They are blissfully unaware that Ned is lying dead on the top bunk, having had his throat slashed.

Soon after they’re done, Marcie leaves the cabin. Jack, still lying in his bunk, is killed by an assailant who impales his throat with an arrow from under his bed. The same assailant then follows Marcie to the outhouse and kills her with an axe to the face. (Once again proving that pre-marital sex is a killer.)

Marcie (Jeannine Taylor) is dressed for her hot date with an axe.

Steve, whose Jeep has naturally broken down on the way back from town, hoofs it into camp. He recognizes the killer before being stabbed by the still unseen assailant.

Meanwhile, Alice, Brenda and Bill have just finished their game of strip Monopoly (I guess strip poker would have been over too quickly) when Brenda suddenly realizes the cabin windows are open. When she turns in for the night, she is lured out into the storm with what sounds like a child calling for help. She is killed out on the archery range.

Suspicious of what is happening, Bill and Alice find many strange things wrong with the camp but are unable to find the other counselors. Thinking it is all a joke, Bill convinces Alice to return to the cabin. The killer turns off the generator and Bill heads out alone to fix it as Alice falls asleep. (Note: Never do this.) Soon after, Alice awakens, goes out to find Bill and discovers him pinned to the generator room door with arrows.

Horrified, Alice runs off just as a vehicle pulls up to the cabin. The driver is Pamela Voorhees (Betsy Palmer), who at first tries to comfort the very hysterical Alice. But very quickly, Mrs. Voorhees begins to grow violent as she talks about her son Jason, who had drowned as a boy at the camp in 1957.

At first, Pamela Voorhees (Betsy Palmer) seems comforting, but not for long.

Mrs. Voorhees pulls a hunting knife on Alice, who naturally flees. She tries to escape in the vehicle Mrs. Voorhees arrived in, but discovers Annie's body in the driver’s seat. Alice runs off and encounters Steve's body (still with a knife in his chest) which falls from atop a porch.

Alice tries to trick Mrs. Voorhees into thinking she has a loaded gun, but the rouse fails. Mrs. Voorhees slaps Alice in the face multiple times and throws her onto a table. But Alice fights her off with a gun and escapes, locking herself in a spice closet.

Mrs. Voorhees, using a machete, breaks into the closet, but Alice hits her in the head with a frying pan. Alice then goes and sits on the side of the lake. (Seriously, why not try to escape across the lake?) Mrs. Voorhees, of course, attacks her with the machete. But Alice fights back, takes control of the machete and decapitates Mrs. Voorhees. Alice then climbs into a canoe and falls asleep offshore.

Pamela Voorhees comes looking for Annie down by the lake.

The next morning, police arrive to find a dazed Alice still in the canoe. When they call to her, she is attacked by a young decayed Jason, who pulls her out of the boat. But that turns out to be a really bad dream. In reality, Alice awakens in the hospital and discovers her friends are all dead, but remembers and asks about the boy, Jason.

Jason is about to attack Alice, but it's only a nightmare.

The sheriff tells her that no boy was found, and Alice says "Then he's still there..." as the final shot shows the peaceful lake, with some air bubbles erupting at the surface, before fading to black.

Not a critical success, (are these films ever?), Friday the 13^th proved to be a moneymaker. Made on a budget of $550,000, backed by an advertising budget of $1 million and distribution by a major studio, Paramount, (Warner Bros. distributed the film internationally) Friday grossed nearly $40 million at the box office. Not a bad return on the investment.

And thank God the original film left it open for a sequel, right? Why else would there have been Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981); Friday the 13th Part III (1982); Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984); Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985);  Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986); Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988);  Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989); Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993); Jason X (2001); the crossover with A Nightmare on Elm Street: Freddy vs. Jason (2003) and, the wait for it, reboot Friday the 13th (2009). Ironically, it wasn’t until the third film that someone got hip to releasing them on Friday the 13^th, but that release model only lasted a couple of sequels (III, Final Chapter, Part VII, The Final Friday and the reboot).

Like A Nightmare on Elm Street, in Friday the 13^th we find a future star at the beginning of his career. While Kevin Bacon is no Johnny Depp (and I guess we can all be thankful for that), he was fairly new to film acting at the time. This was only his fourth film, though he had already appeared in the seminal National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978). Diner (1982), Footloose (1984) and the rest of his career though were still ahead of him.

Kevin Bacon as Jack Burrell, just another victim in Friday The 13th.

And again, like A Nightmare on Elm Street, the movie is kind of slow in places until people start being killed. I really can’t say I got all that attached to any of the kids who were doomed or really cared which one made it out alive. By the time I saw this film, I already knew what to expect (teenagers + woods + sex + night = gruesome death). That equation still has the same answer today, see The Cabin in the Woods (2012). Some things never change.

The twist for future Friday the 13^th films is that Jason, not his mother, is the killer going forward (Oh yeah, oops spoiler alert; like you didn’t already know). In the original film, we’re told about how Jason was allowed to drown because the camp counselors who were supposed to be watching him were giving into their hormonal urges, but he doesn’t start to take revenge until the sequels. In the original, he’s pretty much not a player, except for Alice’s dream, rather nightmare.

Of our five Halloween flavored films, this one seems to be the most innocuous, so if you really want to see a slasher film for the season, then I would recommend this one. Since this was such a model for so many films to follow, it might be worth your while seeing it. However, if you’re planning a marathon of Friday the 13^th films, I think I’m busy that year. Thanks for asking.