Star Wars - Episode VI, Return of the Jedi (Special Edition)

Star Wars - Episode VI, Return of the Jedi (Special Edition)
Binding: VHS Tape
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
Amazon.com:
The high-energy, special-effects-laden conclusion to George Lucas's ambitious Star Wars trilogy delivers the final confrontation between Luke Skywalker (a more confident and mature Mark Hamill) and his nemesis-father, Darth Vader (David Prowse, voice of James Earl Jones), as the rebel alliance makes its last stand against the evil Empire. The film opens with an impressive set piece in the cave of the monstrous Jabba the Hut, who holds both Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) for his decadent pleasure until Skywalker comes to the rescue. The final battle pits an enormous armada of rebel ships against the rebuilt Death Star, the planet-killing weapon of the first film, while guerrilla forces battle Empire soldiers on the planet below with the help of a cuddly army of pint-sized, teddy-bear-like creatures known as Ewoks (Lucas's one concession to merchandising) and Skywalker confronts Vader and the emperor on the Deathstar. Director Richard Marquand invests the tale with plenty of humor and a vigorous sense of adventure without losing the seriousness of Skywalker's mission. The special edition adds, among other effects, more creatures and a bouncy song-and-dance number to the Jabba the Hut scenes, and an extended celebration that literally encompasses the galaxy at the film's jubilant conclusion. --Sean Axmaker
List Price: USD 19.98
Lowest Used Price: USD .
Lowest New Price: USD 4.42
Price is accurate as of the date/time indicated. Prices and product availability are subject to change. Any price displayed on the Amazon website at the time of purchase will govern the sale of this product.
Average Rating:
Format:
  • Closed-captioned
  • Color
  • Original recording reissued
  • Original recording remastered
  • Special Edition
  • THX
  • NTSC
Actor:
  • Kenny Baker
  • Michael Carter
  • Kenneth Colley
  • Dermot Crowley
  • Anthony Daniels
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
ISBN: 6304539274
Release Date: 1997-08-26
Languages:
Original Language: English
Customer Reviews


Awsome movie
This movie, and the other part of the trilogy, as well, are the best of Lucas Film.

This time the movie was re-edited and digital improvement helping you to see in the new format of DVD and TV.

I bought this one and the other of the trilogy to have all the original in my house... and because now are seeing them by my son.


100+ Words on a truly great movie!
Not to get into the whole "Clerks" which movie was better argument here, but I always liked "Return of The Jedi" better then "Empire Strikes Back". The reason I love "Jedi" is that within this film you get everything that you saw in the first two within one movie. The amazing opening act at Jabba's palace and the skiff battle. Luke becoming a Jedi master on Degobah. Then the amazing third act. Luke and Vader's final battle, the battle on Endor with Han, Leia, Chewie, and the Ewoks against the storm troopers. And of course in my opinion the greatest space battle of the Star Wars saga. I remember when I was a little kid, watching that space battle and how I was amazed by it. That was one of the first great movie experiences for me as a movie lover. "Return of the Jedi" is everything you could ever want in a Star Wars movie, but beyond that everything you could want in a truly great movie.


2 stars for comedy value
I've been watching the SW movies again lately out of nostalgia. I don't think I;ve seen any of them since I was 10, except the 7-hour long toy commercial known as the Prequel Trilogy. This one, ROTJ, sucks. Terrible acting, horrible dialogue, plot full of gaping holes, cheesy effects, all of that. Cool when I was a kid, worthless now. I did get several laughs out of it, especially during the climactic battle, during which the "writers" spontaneously invent new rules for the force:

- If a jedi slices off your hand, it will mess up your whole program, a mortral wound (exception, if the jedi doing the slicing is a bad guy, no problem, you get a robot hand and you're good to go)

- If a jedi is firing lightning at you from his fingertips, he is 100% vulnerable to the secret jedi attack of... Grabbing A Dude From Behind and Hoisting Him In The Air (an arcane jedi technique I'm sure Luke spent hours perfecting with yoda)

- Luke employs a heretofore unknown jedi art... Jedi Hide And Seek!!!!

By the way, they seem to have grafted a musical number onto the jabba's palace portion of the movie, so bad that I would have rather had film of George Lucas dragging his nails across a chalkboard for three minutes. It would have been more enjoyable and less out-of-place.


A great ending to a great trilogy!
So what about the Ewoks, it's always been for kids. And this is the weakest of the three, only cause the rest are so great! See it.


To restore freedom to the galaxy
RETURN OF THE JEDI was the STAR WARS film which thrilled me most as a kid. I loved the ewoks, though now I find them to be a bit irritating. I loved the scenes in Jabba's palace, though now I think the use of Jim Henson's Creature Workshop was a bit over the top. I loved and still love the fast paced action sequences and the climactic lightsaber duel at the end. Looking back, I now prefer EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, A NEW HOPE, and even REVENGE OF THE SITH to this one. But JEDI still ranks high in my book, if for no other reason, it was just downright fun. And it still is.

The Special Edition of this film did little more than bog it down with a lot of useless junk. I refer primarily to the musical (using that word rather loosely) interlude in Jabba's palace. I'm sure I laughed at it first time I saw it in theaters in 1997, but since then only irritated feelings have I felt for that scene. The celebration scenes at the end were fine, but I don't think anyone ever missed their absence. Superimposing Hayden Christensen's image in "spirit" next to Alec Guiness and Yoda at the end seemed to me rather bizarre. Luke "saved" his father. When this happened his father did not bear Hayden Christensen's image but that of actor Sebastian Shaw. So why do we see a young Anakin at the end of the film instead of the old, dying man who got "redeemed"?

All this to say I don't think RETURN OF THE JEDI is worth watching in the special edition format; which makes me all the gladder that it has now been presented to us as we saw it in its original form in 1983.

Product Information and Prices stored: January 7, 2009, 5:07