Gaspari: Triumph Over the Dark Empire

In the first two installments of Star Wars we see the conflict directly as a problem between rebels and imperial power structure. In the third installment we see a different issue that continues to grow more pressing. The conflict between Luke and Darth Vader, the struggle between father and son represents a special interest emotionally and psychologically to the audience. I think that one of the most powerful parts of this film is the ambiguity of Luke's character, we know he is good, but we start to see that he has a lot of power, maybe more than he knows how to properly control.
      One issue that always strikes me as important in Return of The Jedi is that the situation of the Ewoks in relation to the rest of the characters is possibly more moving than the heroic struggle of Luke.

Of course as an audience there is an expectation, Luke must follow the path of the hero, he must follow the good path and be righteous. It is important to see the confrontation of Luke and Vader, however there is a bit of an anticlimax, as we know that the hero must win. By the third movie there is so much expectation already built and we know that there has to be an end coming soon. I personally think that Return is the most entertaining of the trilogy, however others critics believe differently. "Return is the least satisfying entry in the series, but that is not meant in an entirely negative way... obsession with state-of-the-art special effects and elaborate sets and incredible action sequences frequently overwhelms the human elements of the story"(Pfeiffer, 133). I think that the human side of the story, the following of Luke's quest of the hero is a crucial part of the film still, however the ideas of this part of the movie are already built up. I for one am more distracted by the battle on Endor than I am by the father-son lightsaber duels.

        The development of the hero, the jedi and the fight against the dark side are definitely strong in Return, we see Luke progress from saving Han, returning to Dagobah, and finally facing his destiny head on and fighting his father, than refusing to fight him and nearly losing his life. I think that the most interesting part of the conflict is definitely that Vader saves Luke and kills the Emperor. In the end, we see that Vader and Luke really do share something in common, they both have that darkness inside them but Vader succumbed to it and Luke rejected it. Still overall, I think that the side story on Endor is much more entertaining than the quest of the hero, and I think the set design and structure of the story is excellent.