RETURN OF THE JEDI (1983)

Directed by Richard Marquand

Written by Lawrence Kasdan and George Lucas

Starring Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher

KATY SAYS: I hear it happens in space

ERIC SAYS:
Here’s a poorly written story about the last time I saw Return of the Jedi.

At the many, many screenings of the Star Wars movies I’ve been to, people applaud characters’ entrances, as if it’s The Fonz showing up at Arnold’s to proffer advice to Richie (I’m old). That’s the way it is. That’s what these movies were built for. Cheer the heroes, boo the villains. Laugh, applaud, be boisterous! Be seven years old!

The last time I saw Jedi in the theatre, it was in 2022, and the score was performed live by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Besides Luke, Vader, and Leia, you know who got the biggest cheers? Not Boba Fett. Not Palpatine. It was Obi-Wan. Because I wasn’t sitting in a room full of 50 year-old fanboys angry that there had been changes to the movie, I was sitting with the kids who grew up with *all* of Star Wars – The people in their 20s and 30s who were raised on the (unfairly maligned – fight me) prequels and the sublime Clone Wars series.
And then, at the end, when Hayden Christiensen appeared as a Force Ghost, the audience went absolutely wild. At that moment, we were all seven years old again.
Also, the action figures were rad.