Single-Disc, Widescreen Edition from the Box Set released in 2004
1 Death to the Ewoks and all they stand for
The worst of the original trilogy and quite possibly the most blatant example of toy marketing for a movie I've ever encountered. I'm talking about the f*cking Ewoks of course. Six months before the movie came out a friend of mine who worked at Toys "R Us remarked that these awful teddy bear plushie things were being sold as the new Star Wars toys. I swallowed my trepidation, paid no attention to my instincts and went and saw the movie anyway. Oh god, what a disappointing ending to what I thought at the time was the greatest serial since the original Flash Gordon.
I'm going to touch on a few things that I found irritating. The Return of the Jedi is replete with plot holes and logical inconsistancies. For example: I don't see how the empire could be so powerful if they can't shoot straight or stop a bunch of tiny bow wielding stuffed animal things from wiping out "a legion of the best troops in the empire." Come on, the Ewoks crushed an armored walker with logs fer chistsake. Try crushing an Abrams tank with logs, or an armored personel carrier: not going to happen. If Lucass had any respect for reality or logic those frigging Ewoks would have been wiped out to a man and their stinking hides been made into carpets. I would have cheered the entire operation. Another thing, this movie hinges around destroying yet another death star. No invasion of the Emperors palace, no grand final apocalyptic battle. No, the rebels gotta do the same thing they did in the first movie: destroy the deathstar. Earth to Lucass: WE'VE ALREADY SEEN THAT.
Now onto the human element. Lucass hasn't a clue when he directs people or writes dialog for that matter. He's said that he was better at directing objects than people and boy does it show in the stilted love scenes and wooden acting. When Leia finds out she's Luke's sister, she has all the emotional resonance of someone who's just been told that they have a bit of food on their cheek. Jeesh, with a little direction that could have been a powerful scene but as usual, Lucas relies on the music to provide the emotion for us. On the upside the Emperor is very cool as is the final confrontation between Luke and Darth Vader. Although why Vader dies is still not clear to me, he only had his artificial hand chopped off, so what? Was his life force somehow connected to the Emperor? Who knows?
I felt after watching this movie that Lucass purposefully dumbed it down to appeal to children and thus sell more toys to which he had exclusive rights. It worked, he bought a 6500 acre ranch in Marin County California with his star wars lucre and more power to him. The special effects are wonderful for the time, but he let me and his fans above the age of ten down with this movie, bigtime. The amazing special effects do not make up for a poor script and direction. Now as for this DVD, its not the original movie, special effects have been added and scenes have been changed, deleted. I'm not going to touch on that, others have already done so in great detail. I very much love the first two Star Wars movies (episodes 4 & 5) but this one was a let down.
2 the best movie of all time
For all of you out there, I have said before that History of the World Part 1 is the best comedy movie of all time. But this is the best everything movie of all time. Return of the Jedi is the best in the Star Wars series by far. Han Solo's little line, "Hey, it's me", always makes me laugh so hard. For anyone who hasn't seen this movie yet, please do so. You're missing out on a great treat.
3 letdown
there are some good scenes in this, the space battle, the fight of luke and vader but the ewoks ruin the whole thing as well as the kid friendly vibe of it, and harrison ford seemed very bored and glad it was over, and the good guys won that stinks
4 Don't call it a comeback
To close out the trilogy, I watched The Return of the Jedi a few nights ago. My note on the movie: everyone thinks of the Ewoks as Lucas' attempt to make the movie more kid-friendly. Me, on the other hand, look at those cute little creatures, and note exactly how vicious and violent they are. Don't believe me? Watch the movie yourself, and watch the little furballs in action. Enjoyed the movie, as always, and continue to find Anakin's return to be a moment of redemption.
5 Return of the Jedi on DVD
Ok well you all either think this is the best one or the least favorite of the trilogy. I'm not going to begin to compare the new ones to these classics.
All I can tell all the die hard fans is, watch it for the "dvd" experience if you have a big t.v. and a nice surround system.
Blast it! However, the end will piss you off, as well as several scenes. Like the idiotic chick band in Jaba's palace.First of all the origianl music they had there was so much better. Jaba was suppose to be a mysterious evil figure. Not some legoland gay fruitball. The otherthing is yes, the ending, The ewok song was replaced with this stupid classical music. THe whole gang is all happy running around and they took out the song they were singing at the end, the "up cha" song.
You cant make the film depressing if the actors are jumping around with joy.
Yes, the punk kid. They replaced Anikan's ghost wiht the idiot they casted as darth vader.
First off, the guy looks like one of the Fab-5 trying to act like a badass.
Second he wasnt in the freaking movie!!!!
Your better off buying this on laserdisc and get a nice theatre set up.
George Lucas has too much time on his hands and obviously lost his touch with the new ones, but for God sake George don't go apply your b.s. to the originals.
6 The sixth chapter of the greatest film saga ever conceived!
:-)
I have read the reviews on line here at Amazon.com about "Star War: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi," some I agree with, others I don't. I was 8-years-old and along with my teenaged cousins I was first in line at the theater we went to in Los Angeles and after that summer I had to wait till the television & VHS versions to see this movie again.
Still when I saw the original cut of this movie it was like WOW! The greatest movie ever and I was ecstatic when Lucas re-released it in the theaters. Those who complain about the re-cut of the movie most likely saw this movie for the first time in the theater, but those my age and under either do not remember or did not see it in the theater and were never given the chance till the re-cut.
The re-cut was necessary for us in the younger generation after being spoiled by movies like "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" and the "Star Trek" & "Babylon 5" TV shows & movies of the late 1980s through the 1990s. I for one loved the updated scenes and the inclusion of both the re-editing of and replacing of Sebastian Shaw's Anakin with a make-up aged Hayden Christiansen Anakin & the planetary celebrations not only on the moon of Endor, but also on Tatoonie, Bespin, Coruscant and Naboo. And quite frankly I have read things like "give me back my `Star War'" and "give us back our `Star Wars'" but what these people tend to forget is that "Star Wars" does not belong to "us," we are but viewers into the dream of George Lucas and "Star Wars" belongs to him to do with as he sees fit.
Nonetheless this movie is what brought the Skywalker family back together and I whole hardily recommend this movie and also recommend that people watch only the wide screen versions and in a home theater atmosphere to get the most enjoyment out of this modern classic movie.
7 Calssic!
This movie is so much fun! Its action packed and very funny! I loved it!
8 Good film but bettered by Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back
Of the three major Star Wars movies, Jedi is the lesser. Why is difficult to define... it has great action sequences like the Battle Of Endor and the rescue from Jabba The Hutt. It also boasts the climactic confrontation involving The Emperor, Darth Vader, and Luke Skywalker. It even introduces the overly cute Ewoks for the first time (although it is significant that George Lucas has edited their appearences down a tad in the dvd release). Yet Jedi justs sits there behind the other two films in terms of overall entertainment. Nor do I think mine is a solitary view on this. When I was a student, I worked part time in a cinema to help fund me through my studies and both Empire and Jedi were films that were shown during my time there. Jedi simply did not do the level of business that Star Wars and Empire achieved. While it was busy, it never quite seemed to fill up. People seeing it for the most part all said it was good but not like the previous films in terms of entertainment.
I view Jedi as a film that could and should have been better and I put the why down to the way it is directed. Richard Marquand was a fine action director but if you compare the direction to say that of Empire Strikes Back then flaws emerge.
I often wonder what Jedi would have been like if George Lucas had let the director of Empire Strikes Back - Irvin Kershner helm that film too....
To put it simply I think that Irvin Kershner did a better job of Empire Strikes Back, nothing in Jedi for example comes close to the chase through the asteroid field for example.
I also think that on the strength of the dark scenes from Empire such as the Vader/Skywalker confrontation and others, that Kershner would have taken the really good confrontation at the end of Jedi between The Emperor, Vader, and Luke and made it truly great. Missing from that is the dark moodiness of the similar scenes in Empire which if they had been realised in Jedi, would have lifted it up the scale significantly in content and enjoyment factor.
To sum up, good as that end sequence is in Jedi, it could have been even better with Irvin Kershner helming it... and that pretty much sums up the film as a whole basically.
As to the controversy of the editing that Lucas has made to the dvd releases, my feelings are as follows:
I loved the originals and have the vhs versions of all three. However, with nearly 20 years between Jedi and The Phantom Menace there were always going to be continuity issues concerning casting and SFX. Play an original vhs version of Star Wars, and you will soon see that the mattes have not aged well and stand out visibly. Yet did we notice them at the the time of the films release? No of course not because the SFX then were state of the art. Now with the passage of time and SFX having come on in leaps and bounds, George Lucas decided to update the former films.In my opinion he has done a good job too SFX wise. The casting editing is more to link with the newer editions of the franchise than to improve the quality of the originals, so my thoughts on that are mixed though. I can see the reason for doing it but I simply prefer the original actors in their roles. Clive Revill's Emperor in Empire Strikes Back I think is the deletion that was most unnecessary.
Overall though I am glad that I have a choice and can either watch the originals on vhs or put on the updated versions on dvd.
I have looked forward to the dvd release of these films for years and am delighted with finally being able to blast them across my home cinema set up. The picture on 16:9 anamorphic is great on a widescreen tv. All sound channels are crisp and totally clear of any distortion. Laser blasts and Tie Fighters shoot across the room to varying degrees...Such is the effect of being able to do that, it has returned me to the awe struck kid seeing Star Wars for the first time in a cinema. Thanks for the dvds, George, it may have taken a while but at least they are here now.
9 great end to the trilogy
i think the reason it shows the punk kid is because that is anakin at the last point in his life (barring his turn back in front of the emperor) where he was a member of the light side of the force. i, too, would have given this movie five stars but for one thing. those damn ewoks. those furry little punks completely ruin the movie. the only subplot worth watching is luke's. why couldn't there be an army of wookies in the forest? the reason people hate ewoks is because they remind people of kids, and everyone hates kids because all they do is eat and whine about not having enough allowance. the last thing i want to see in a movie with lightsabers and an incredibly awesome lord of evil is a bunch of little brats running around making squeeking noises. too bad they didn't destroy endor.
10 Who is Anakin?
The only reason I gave this dvd 3 stars instead of 5 stars is because when you watch the end of the movie and you see the "spirits" of Obi-Wan, Yoda and Anakin sitting there together it WAS Sebastian Shaw who played Anakin in ROTJ BUT for some reason it was decided to place the current actor who plays Anakin in the newer movies in that scene. Why they did this I don't know. I think it ruins the entire movie seeing that whiny snot-nosed kid sitting there instead of Sebastian Shaw!
