Return Of The Jedi – James Kahn, 1983 ★★

Back when We Thought it Was Over

Funny all the crazy things we believed in back in 1983: imminent nuclear holocaust, supply-side economics, Hitler’s diary, and the Star Wars franchise coming to an end after just three films.

Return Of The Jedi was not the end, or even the end of the beginning; later Star Wars movies have been set chronologically both before and after this. But Jedi does conclude the original story arc about a farm boy who discovers himself to be the son of an evil galactic overlord, and how he and his friends restore good to the universe.

As a movie, it’s widely regarded as the weakest of the original trilogy, but it does something no other Star Wars film ever attempted by wrapping everything up.

The Empire Strikes Back – Donald F. Glut, 1980 ★½

The Force is Weak with this One

You just broke box-office records, redefined special effects, and kindled sci-fi mania in an entire generation. What to do for an encore?

In the case of George Lucas and the people behind Star Wars, you take a sledgehammer to expectations and give the audience what no one thought they ever wanted. Less thrills, less humor, no happy ending.

That’s the conventional take on The Empire Strikes Back, joined to the fact this risky gamble worked, galvanizing its fan base and transforming a blockbuster into a franchise. So why is it so unimpressive as a novel?

Star Wars – George Lucas, 1976 ★★★½

Another Galaxy, Another Time

Reading an adventure story after seeing it as a movie might seem a waste of time. You already got all its thrills in more visceral form.

But back in the day, when home video meant Super 8 or slide shows, a novelization of a just-released movie was something to own, and read. And when that novelization was of this amazing cinematic experience which had become our generation’s Beatles-at-Ed-Sullivan moment, you even brought it to school to wave around in homeroom.

How to review Star Wars the novel? For me, it’s not about ignoring the nostalgia as much as contextualizing it just enough to appreciate a first-class adventure story with more strings attached now than in 1976.