Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guest Luke Dunne, The 250 is a fortnightly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released Saturdays at 6pm GMT.
So this week, Irvin Kershner’s The Empire Strikes Back.
It is a time of galactic strife. Following the Empire’s defeat at the Battle of Yavin, the Rebel Alliance finds itself on the run. A surprise attack on the ice planet of Hoth scatters the rebel fighters to the wind, with Luke embarking on training with a mysterious figure named Yoda while Han Solo attempts to ferry Princess Leia to safety. However, things are not as they appear.
At time of recording, it was ranked 15th on the list of the best movie of all time on the Internet Movie Database.
Show Notes:
- Recorded 5th October 2019.
- The Empire Strikes Back at The Internet Movie Database.
- The IMDB 250 as it appeared at time of recording.
- Read Luke’s work at Film in Dublin.
- Follow Luke on Twitter.
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- Jessica Roy at The Los Angeles Times on how The Star Wars Holiday Special came together, November 2018.
- Lisa Tozzi at The New York Times reports on Carrie Fisher’s account of The Star Wars Holiday Special, January 2010.
- Alex Pasternack at Vice on the legacy of The Star Wars Holiday Special, December 2014.
- Noel Murray at The Dissolve on the Star Wars cast’s promotional appearance on The Muppet Show leading into The Empire Strikes Back, February 2015.
- Noel Murray at The Dissolve on the tie-in trading cards released even before The Empire Strikes Back, August 2013.
- Nathan Mattise at Wired on Black Angel, the short that played before The Empire Strikes Back, December 2012.
- Geoff Boucher at The Los Angeles Times talks to Gary Kurtz about his concerns about the merchandising of Star Wars, August 2010.
- Jeremy Bulloch talks to Vanity Fair about receiving an action figure of Boba Fett before he had even played the role, October 2010.
- John Saavedra at Den of Geek on Leigh Brackett’s original draft for the sequel to Star Wars, May 2019.
- Leigh Brackett’s first draft of a script for the Star Wars sequel, February 1978.
- J.W. Rinzler talks to Vanity Fair about the development of The Empire Strikes Back, October 2010.
- Irvin Kershner discusses directing The Empire Strikes Back with Vanity Fair, October 2010.
- Chris Gould at DVDactive looks at the changes made to The Empire Strikes Back, October 2004.
- Matt Singer at ScreenRant argues that The Empire Strikes Back defined modern blockbusters as much as the original Star Wars, December 2015.
- Darren Mooney at Escapist Magazine on how The Empire Strikes Back came to define the modern sequel, September 2019.
- Jordan Moreau at Variety looks at the use of amputations and dismemberments in Phase II of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, March 2019.
- Ian Freer at Empire Magazine on the key production decisions that shaped The Empire Strikes Back, October 2010.
- Sulking with Lisa Loeb on the Ice Planet Hoth by Chuck Klosterman at Amazon.com, September 2010.
- Peter Beinart at The Atlantic on whether there will ever be a Generation X President, October 2019.
- Janet Maslin at The New York Times on the eighties New Age-isms of The Empire Strikes Back, February 1997.
- David Sims at The Atlantic on the tragedy of Admiral Piett as a middle manager, December 2015.
- Barbarians At The Gate by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar at Amazon.com, 1989.
- Edelman at Intuit Quickbooks on lessons that small businesses can learn from Lando Calrissian, November 2013.
- Billy Dee Williams objects to Digital Spy about the characterisation of Lando’s “betrayal” of Han at Bespin, April 2019.
- Michael Walsh at Nerdist offers a comprehensive defense of Lando Calrissian, December 2015.
- Damon Lindelof explains to New York Magazine why contemporary blockbuster climaxes are so large in scale, August 2013.
- Mike Ryan at Uproxx discusses the oddness of Darth Vader’s elaborate ambush on Bespin, October 2019.
- John Scoleri offers an annotated guide to Ralph McQuarrie’s Star Wars art at StarWars.com, January 2014.
- Billy Dee Williams discusses with Esquire what he thinks Lando has been doing in the years following Return of the Jedi, November 2019.
- Janet Maslin at The New York Times reviews The Empire Strikes Back, and particularly its use of race, May 1980.
- Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian hosts a summit of all the black people in Star Wars for Saturday Night Live, May 2018.
- Monique Jones at /Film on the blaxploitation roots of Lando Calrissian, February 2018.
- Black Space by Adilifu Nama on Amazon.com, March 2008.
- Alyssa Rosenberg at The Washington Post on the enduring appeal of Lando Calrissian, November 2015.
- Tom Butler at Yahoo! on reports that Lando was considered for the DJ role in The Last Jedi, December 2017.
- Megan Farokhmanesh at The Verge on how Lando introduces a lingual shift to the Star Wars universe, April 2018.
- Jess Dunne at Film in Dublin on Star Wars as a story about dads and dogs, December 2016.
- Stephen Marche at Esquire on the daddy issues baked into the Star Wars franchise, December 2015.
- Elliot J. Cosgrove at The Times of Israel on the Freudian reading of Star Wars, January 2016.
- Force Material discusses the symbolic castration of Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back, October 2016.
- Mark Hamill talks to Home Theatre Magazine about working on The Empire Strikes Back, September 2007.
- William Murphy at Forbes debunks the myth that “Darth Vader” means “Dark Father”, November 2017.
- Brian Cronin at Comic Book Resources on when Star Wars first became “Episode IV”, June 2014.
- Kate Willaert at A Critical Hit on contemporary fan reaction to The Empire Strikes Back, December 2017.
- Rian Johnson admits to Uproxx that he was a little disappointed by The Empire Strikes Back, September 2019.
- Marc Bernradin at io9 on how The Empire Strikes Back introduced a generation to tragedy, May 2010.
- The Birthday Boys’ “Starwars” sketch, April 2015.
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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: bespin, cocaine, dad stuff, Darth Vader, dogs, eighties, empire, Freud, george lucas, luke dunne, star wars, star wars holiday special, the empire strikes back, vader, yoda |
the m0vie blog 
Empire is still the best film in the franchise, I think. It’s paced well, and probably has the best writing in the series as well. It set up a lot of challenging conflicts for Return of the Jedi to resolve. Which promptly bungled almost all of them.
Yep. Empire is arguably the series’ masterpiece. I could see an argument it’s the only truly great film in the series, in that I think it belongs on lists of great American movies on its own quality as much as for its cultural impact. (I think the original is great fun and hugely influential, but it’s nowhere near as sleekly produced and well-made.)