When one talks about the original Star Wars trilogy and what is it that makes those movies as magical and impactful on cinema as they are, you mostly tend to get the same kind of answers from everyone. The intriguing story, the memorable characters, the exciting action, the unique world building, and just the pure idea of Star Wars that is absolutely fascinating in it’s own right. It’s a universe that has always had endless amount of potential for creators and filmmakers to do whatever the hell they want with it with plenty of creativity and excitement added that you won’t get from any other big franchise out there. Because of how popular Star Wars has been since the original aired back in 1977, plenty of studios have tried to implement the kind of style and formula that the first three films (at least in terms of the Skywalker Saga) introduced to everyone on the big screen. Some have succeeded where others have failed but no doubt, Star Wars has become the gold standard for these kind of big tentpole blockbusters for nearly half a century now.
In the case of the Star Wars trilogy that started the whole 40+ year long ride for the franchise, what many folks have tend to studied religiously with these three unforgettable films is how to not just properly structure a film but how to properly structure a trilogy in of itself. The answer to that can be quite tricky as it’s not always clear which decisions with each film was decided years in advantage and which decisions were made as the process went along. As much as George Lucas and many folks out there like to deny it, the original trilogy was NOT something that was planned all the way from the very beginning. Sure, there was always an endgame in mind as to where this would all lead to but there’s no way anyone can make the case that Lucas had planned every major important story beat in advantage years before he rolled the camera for A New Hope. No, Lucas didn’t originally plan to have Luke and Leia being siblings and had the two making out a couple of times before they both found out that dark secret. Heck, Lucas didn’t even have the idea of Darth Vader being Luke’s father in mind until midway through production of The Empire Strikes Back (Seriously, go look that up!). The trick is not to have a plan years in advantage before picking up the cameras but have an idea of where your story will go and the importance that each individual installment will have to it leading up to the conclusion. The trick is to act as if you had everything planned from the get go when you really did not.
There has always been rumors that George Lucas originally planned to have the original Star Wars trilogy as being just one big movie. A New Hope would serve as the first act, Empire Strikes Back would be the second act, and Return of the Jedi would be the third act. That never came to pass because of how massive that movie would be and it would all be just too much for one feature film. I can’t say for certain if that supposed rumor is true but I could definitely see how that could be a possibility when re-watching all three of these films yet again. I could actually see this has being one gigantic blockbuster as these moves aren’t paced and structure like your typical big movie. They all have their own rules in mind as to how each one of these will be paced, edited, and structure down to it’s very core. These are the kind of movies that have helped redefine film structure.
As a result of the accomplishments of this trilogy, let’s take a look at all three of these movies and see how exactly each one succeeds in that.
A New Hope- The First Act Of A New Beginning
Now, A New Hope is probably the one movie within the trilogy that is the most self-contained and stands the best on it’s own merits. Unlike with the two sequels that came after this one which are heavily reliant on each other’s own existence for it to be a satisfying whole, this one works at it’s own thing and doesn’t really need any other movie to make it feel 100% complete. Sure, there are some loose ends when it’s over along with some unanswered questions but it isn’t as reliant for answers of those questions as most first entries usually are and doesn’t leave those non-answers hanging on the ceiling for it’s existence to be justified. However, it can still be easy to mistake A New Hope (Yes, I’m gonna keep calling it that! Deal with it!) as being a giant first act of a larger story.
Make no mistake, A New Hope does in fact have a clear beginning, middle, and end. We have a local farm boy named Luke Skywalker, who is tired of laying around his own home with his aunt and uncle and wants to join in on the action with his best friends who had already gone. It’s then he runs into an old mentor-like figure named Ben Kenobi, two robots named C-3P0 and R2-D2, and a hotheaded smuggler named Han Solo along with his partner Chewbacca who finds themselves getting involved in the galactic war with the Rebel Alliance against the Empire. They find themselves in the middle of a mess where they have to rescue a Princess named Leia, escape a giant space system called the Death Star which has the ability to destroy an entire planet led by the evil Darth Vader, and find a way to destroy that Death Star before the Rebellion is eliminated from the galaxy once and for all. It’s a complete story that even if no other movies came after this, it would still work strongly as it’s own thing. Even so, it’s still able to pull off being the first chapter of a tale better than most first entries out there.
Despite ending on a high note, there are still some questions that don’t quite get answered by the end of the movie. Who exactly is Darth Vader and how did he come become the way he is now? What exactly does it mean to be a Jedi? What’s the difference between the good side of the force and the bad side of it? How big is the Empire exactly and how does the destruction of the Death Star affect them? Who is the Emperor that the film refers to? What are the politics behind this whole thing? Does Han Solo and Chewbacca join the Alliance at the very end? Does Luke actually turn into a Jedi at the very end despite not engaging in any lightsaber combat? Does the victory for the Rebels turn any tide or is this just one battle win in a war that is far from over? These are questions that I have no doubt that many folks who watched this movie for the first time probably had in their head.
With most movie discourse nowadays taking place in the form of Cinema Sins style critique, you can sometimes get the sense that filmmakers try to do everything in their power to have these kind of questions answered in some sort to prevent any criticism of the movie having “loose ends” or “plotholes” and such. It’s that kind of mindset that I think is what leads to many big movies nowadays being nearly two and a half hours long as opposite to just right around two hours like this movie is. A New Hope is able to avoid that because the movie itself doesn’t lend hard on any of these sort of questions. Instead, it let these sort of questions move to the side in the rear view mirror and focuses on it’s own story that it’s trying to tell. It helps open the doors for all the glorious possibilities that this franchise can be from the first movie on but it doesn’t demand itself to have all of them close by the end of the picture.
A New Hope works at being the first third of a story because it functions as it’s own picture while leaving clues and hints of a large universe within the one that this movie is set in. It’s the kind of questions that it leaves hanging are ones that don’t necessarily leave audiences baffled but intrigued. Not just because audience’s mindset was quite different back then than it is now but these are the kind of questions that will make audience want to see another movie like this. It’s the kind of questions that gives both the filmmakers and audiences ideas of what a franchise like Star Wars can be for it’s future. There’s any old saying called “less is more”. You won’t find yourself seeing many movies out there that understands that exact definition more so than A New Hope.
The Empire Strikes Back- The Dark Middle Chapter
Whenever one tries to explain the plot of The Empire Strikes Back, it doesn’t usually end with satisfying results. It’s always quite difficult to explain the plot of this particular movie in a way that makes the movie look good. That’s because Empire doesn’t follow that same traditional structure the way most movies did back then and even now. I know I said I wouldn’t bring up the fan/audience reception to movies when I announced this marathon but I think it’s important in this case to bring it up.
A big reason why most people were caught off guard about this film back in 1980 was because of a complete different beast this was to most sequels or movies out there. Not just because that it didn’t follow the same beats as the original Star Wars but because it didn’t follow the same plot structure of it either. There was no other film quite like it at the time which is why it led to more mixed reviews than it’s predecessor. And that would also explain why the film that came after this one was more positively received and even considered a return to form. The whole movie basically feels like one giant middle, with not much of a beginning or end to it. But, that’s why it works!
To be sure, The Empire Strikes Back is a movie that basically breaks the traditional rules of screenwriting and story structure. There’s no simple three act structure, no true starting point or ending point, no real arcs that the characters go through, none of the main heroes basically accomplish anything, and no one really dies by the end of it. Those are all facts that can’t be denied! However, just because there are certain rules with the way stories are made doesn’t mean you always have to follow them. Rules are like contracts, they are made broken, just as long as you know WHY you are breaking them and WHAT rules that you are breaking. Sometimes breaking rules can be justified if it makes your overall work better in hindsight.
Another element that people always point out with this movie is how “dark” it is. However, I think that dark always tends to be a misused term. A movie being dark always tends to be mistaken for a movie trying to be “serious” and “edgy”. A movie describes as being dark nowadays tries to refer to movies as being for “adults” and definitely “not for kids” but that’s not how it’s suppose to be. The key trick is not trying to be “dark”, the key trick is trying to be “mature”.
Empire is a movie that is undoubtedly the most mature of the trilogy because it’s smart to know why it makes the decisions that it does. It’s know why it’s breaking the rules that it does and even contradicts certain things from the original (like Obi-Wan blatantly lying to Luke about Darth Vader being his father) to make this movie stand out more. It’s understands it’s own intentions to split the main cast throughout the majority of the movie if that can helps the audience learn more about them and who they are. It’s unafraid to put Luke, Han, Leia, and Chewbacca in constant peril and even actively punish him if that can help raise the personal stakes and help further the development of them. It has the balls to purposely not kill anyone (despite Han’s faith being in the air) because by the end of it, the fact they survived doesn’t matter, what matters is how permanently scarred they have become for what has transpired.
Middle chapters of trilogies are always tricky to pull off. The main reason being is that it’s hard to establish the correct stakes and create an interesting enough journey for the characters that we mostly, deep down know can’t truly die in this installment. After all, how can there be a third movie in a trilogy if most of the cast in the movie don’t live on to fight enough day. However, The Empire Strikes Back is able to pull it off arguably better than any other Part Two out there. It gets the conflicts it puts the character go through, the stakes it establishes, and even doesn’t bother to properly wrap up the story in a satisfying little bow. The Empire Strikes Back works because it’s know it’s not the beginning or ending of a story, but only the middle of it. And it’s also an acknowledgement that sometimes the middle chapter of someone’s story can not only be the most important part of it but also the most interesting or even tragic.
Return of the Jedi- The Bittersweet Third Act
If Empire Strikes Back was the one that most justified itself as being firmly the middle of the story, then Return of the Jedi is no doubt the one that justifies itself as being the end of the story.
When you get right down to it, Jedi feels nothing more like an extensive third act. It’s only real true purpose of existence is to tie up the loose ends that the previous film left off and provide a conclusion to the characters that have carried all three of these films. There’s not much of an actual plot to it. The crew has to rescue Han Solo and joined the Rebels to destroy the second Death Star and finish off the Empire once and for all. That’s pretty much it. Sure, there are some teddy bears thrown into the mix and of course the superb confrontation between Luke, his father, and the Emperor but there really isn’t much more to the plot besides that. However, in this case, that’s all it needs to be.
The first third of Jedi is the one act that feels more like the end of a second act of a movie. Or in the case of Empire, an actual payoff to that supposed cliffhanger that movie left unresolved. It answered that one question that most folks had on their mind for three years after they saw Empire for the first time, can they save Han Solo and will he ever be the same again? The answer is of course, a very satisfying yes. The sequence does go on a bit longer than most prologues out there, mostly because it needs to be at least long enough to count as being the first act to the movie. Nevertheless, that first third only purpose is to wrap up a certain loose end so we can get the rest of the movie underway.
It’s then we get to the other two thirds of Jedi that basically plays as one giant climax with a few characters and plot elements thrown in to make it feel a bit longer. There’s a subplot where the crew has to shut down a shield generator in order to be able to properly destroy the Death Star this time, the Ewoks are introduced to make for a certain social commentary on nature vs technology, and there are multiple scenes of Luke confronting his father and his master as they duel for the future of the galaxy and most importantly, the force. Oh and also, Leia happens to be Luke’s sister. While there can definitely be a sense of certain elements being thrown in to pad the runtime, revisiting old ideas, and add some emotional weight, it mostly done in a pretty satisfying way that it ultimately doesn’t matter much.
The one thing that does matter in Return of the Jedi is that everything is resolved by the end of it. Sure, there might be a few questions when it’s over but it’s done in a completely open-minded way that it doesn’t matter if there ever was a continuation to this story. While Empire‘s clear cut goal was to provide a darker and intriguing middle chapter to the story, then Jedi‘s clear cut goal is to provide a more uplifting and satisfying end to the story. It may not deliver more than that but it does deliver exactly that. And sometimes that’s just enough.
In Conclusion:
There’s not many trilogies out there that can capture the lightning in a bottle that the original Star Wars movies provided. Whether that’s because how good they are, their intentions with each individual film, or even just the fact that they came out first before many others, it just is the way it is. With movies nowadays trying to be as big, massive, and throw in as much elements it can as possible, we often tend to forget that sometimes making a successful trilogy is just a simple as making it a solid beginning, middle, and end. Sure, you always want to design your film trilogy in a way that will stand the test of time, but you don’t have to try so hard to meet your certain goals. All you have to do is believe in yourself, what you are making, and how each film serves it’s own purpose and ties into the others. That’s what the original Star Wars trilogy was able to do by establishing it’s own set rules of screenwriting and film structure. It’s able to do that successful not in spite of going against traditions but works because of it. And that my friends, is the key to making a successful trilogy of films.
Oh, and of course, happy May the 4th!
Next up: The Prequel Trilogy
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