Best! Summer! Blockbuster! Ever! (That Was Released This Week): ‘The Empire Strikes Back”

Released on May 24, 1984, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom stirred up controversy with its graphic violence and general nastiness and the outcry that contributed to the creation of the PG-13 rating by summer’s end. It’s certainly a darker Indiana Jones movie. It’s also, compared to the great Raiders of the Lost Ark, pretty disappointing, going downhill quickly after a terrific opening. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas course-corrected with the third movie, released in the same summer slot in 1989, teaming Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones up with his dad (Sean Connery) to fight Nazis while traveling the globe. It ended a great series on a high note. (Too bad Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull had to change that.)

Where to stream Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Virtually nobody saw this Jorma Taccome-directed big-screen version of Will Forte’s Saturday Night Live in theaters. That’s a shame, because it’s filled with absurdist humor that expands on the SNL shorts. But like 2016’s Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (co-directed by Taccome), it almost seems to have been designed to nosedive only to return as a cult classic, the sort of movie fans watch over and over again until they have every gag and funny line committed to memory.

Where to stream MacGruber

The Mission: Impossible franchise is now so well established — and critically acclaimed — it’s easy to forget what a risk it was in 1996. Tom Cruise only had two action movies to his credit (Top Gun and Days of Thunder, both of which demanded more of his vehicles and stunt doubles than their star), director Brian de Palma was in the middle of a commercial cold streak, and the the TV series that inspired it had long ago drifted away to the land of hazily remembered reruns. But while some complained about its confusing plot, no one could deny the awe-inspiring action set pieces that centered around a star who’d never been so physical on screen before.

Where to stream Mission: Impossible

A divisive revelation upon release, Thelma & Louise stirred endless debate in 1991, much of which reads as pretty quaint now. (How dare a movie focused on the experiences of women portray men in a less-than-flattering light!) The film, however, holds up beautifully. Scripted by Callie Khouri and directed by Ridley Scott, it follows two women (Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis) on an unexpected road trip that doubles as a tour of the many ways society stacks the deck against women — and a reminder that solidarity is sometimes the only weapon against that treatment.

Where to stream Thelma & Louise

Historically, this has been a good weekend for Ridley Scott. 12 years before Thelma & Louise, his breakthrough film Alien terrified audiences who had no idea space travel could be so terrifying. Made possible by the post-Star Wars boom in all things science fiction, it helped push big screen sci-fi in new, uncomfortable directions.

Where to stream Alien

Speaking of Star Wars, this weekend also saw the release of the original trilogy’s second and third entries: The Empire Strikes Back in 1980 and Return of the Jedi in 1983. They make for a compelling study in contrasts. For Empire, Star Wars creator George Lucas offered director Irvin Kershner a relatively long leash, letting him craft a look that set it apart from the first film, only visiting the set in England a few times and telling Kershner, “Keep doing what you are doing,” when he fell behind schedule. By contrast, Lucas was a frequent visitor to the Jedi set taking a much more hands-on approach. On Jedi‘s commentary track he called director Richard Marquand a “very nice person who worked well with actors.” The former would go on to be considered the original series’ high water mark. The latter would be remembered as a winning but flawed final chapter that introduced the “Yub Nub” song.

To be fair, Empire had some advantages over Jedi from the start. It needed only to push its characters deeper into trouble, not get them out of it. And, as just the second Star Wars movie, it didn’t have decades of history and tradition hanging over it. The film works beautifully because it exploits these advantages so thoroughly, fleshing out characters that read as a bit flat in the first film, letting Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher improv their now-famous farewell scene, and creating a more richer, more dangerou-looking version of Lucas’ universe. Kershner passed on directing the sequel and the comparatively unadventurous Jedi followed. But Empire remains the model of how to make the difficult second chapter of a trilogy. (Worth noting: those so inclined could make this a double feature with The Shining, which opened the same weekend in 1980.)

Where to stream The Empire Strikes Back

Released opposite a pretty lousy new take on Godzilla, Terry Gilliam’s adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s most famous act of gonzo journalism really had a chance at the box office and those who did show up had to contend with Johnny Depp’s sometimes incomprehensible performance as Thompson. But it’s hard to imagine a better adaptation of an unadaptable book and the film gets extra points for a final stretch that questions the consequences of Thompson’s exploits in ways Thompson never did.

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Which is better, a Hollywood system dominated by franchises in which one movie is designed to lead into a theoretically infinite number of follow-ups and spin-offs or one in which sequels to unexpected runaway hits get crapped out as quickly as possible? Before you get too nostalgic for the way things used to be, check out this tiresome cash-in to Paul Hogan’s Aussie-fish-out-of-water sensation. It has no real reason to exist or story to tell. But there it is anyway.

Keith Phipps writes about movies and other aspects of pop culture. You can find his work in such publications as The Ringer, Slate, Vulture, and Polygon. Keith also co-hosts the podcasts The Next Picture Show and Random Movie Night and lives in Chicago with his wife and child. Follow him on Twitter at @kphipps3000.

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