1 The Empire Strikes Back tops many polls and lists as people’s favourite Star Wars movie. For example, it is first in IMDb’s poll with over double the number of votes as its nearest competitor – see ‘Poll: Favourite Star Wars Film’, IMDb. Available online: <https://www.imdb.com/poll/uLB4Ikfqs20/results?answer=2&ref_=po_rv>. It tops David Edelstein’s ranking of all the films up to May 2018 – see ‘Every Star Wars Movie, Ranked’, Vulture 21 May 2018. Available online: <https://www.vulture.com/2018/05/every-star-wars-movie-ranked-from-worst-to-best.html>. Similarly, it is number one in the Guardian’s ranking – see Peter Bradshaw, ‘Every Star Wars Film – Ranked!’ 24 May 2018. Available online: <https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/may/24/every-star-wars-film-ranked-solo-skywalker>.
2 Musicians including Madonna and Will Smith have referenced The Empire Strikes Back (for example, Madonna’s video for Die Another Day (2002), Dir. Traktor, USA and UK: Moving Picture Company), and television shows including Buffy the Vampire Slayer (‘Conversations with Dead People’, UPN, 2002) and 30 Rock (‘Don Geiss, America, and Hope’, NBC, 2010) have also referred to the film.
3 See, for example, Peter Krämer, The New Hollywood: From Bonnie and Clyde to Star Wars (London: Wallflower, 2005); Iain Robert Smith, Hollywood Meme: Transnational Adaptations in World Cinema (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017); Sean Guynes and Dan Hassler-Forest (eds), Star Wars and the History of Transmedia Storytelling (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2017); and Yvonne Tasker, ‘Women, SF Spectacle and the Mise-en-scène of Space Adventure in the Star Wars Franchise’, Science Fiction Film and Television vol. 12, no. 1, 2019, pp. 9–28. Matt Hills suggests that film theory seeks to distance itself from the industrial and commercial aspects of filmmaking despite academia being ‘enmeshed in commercialised systems of meaning’. See ‘Star Wars in Fandom, Film Theory and the Museum: The Cultural Status of the Cult Blockbuster’, in Julian Stringer (ed.), Movie Blockbusters (London: Routledge, 2003), p. 186.
4 Gregory E. Rutledge, ‘Jedi Knights and Epic Performance: Is the Force a Form of Western-African Mimicry?’, in Peter W. Lee (ed.), A Galaxy Here and Now: Historical and Cultural Readings of Star Wars (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2016), pp. 106–37.
5 I am indebted to Donna Haraway’s concept of situated knowledges, which proposes that feminist objectivity is embodied, critical, and always aware of its subjective position. See ‘Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective Author(s)’, Feminist Studies vol. 14, no. 3, 1988, pp. 575–99.
6 Kimberlé Crenshaw, ‘Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color’, Stanford Law Review vol. 43, no. 6, 1991, pp. 1241–99.
7 Many accounts of the franchise are officially sanctioned Lucasfilm narratives that prioritize white men as contributors to, and consumers of, Star Wars. Even an academic book chapter by former Twentieth Century-Fox marketing specialist Olen J. Earnest appears to be pre-approved by Lucasfilm in advance of publication (he writes to ‘express his appreciation to Sidney Ganis, Senior Vice President, Lucasfilm Ltd., and Thomas Casteneda for their assistance in the preparation of this article’). See ‘Star Wars: A Case Study of Motion Picture Marketing’, in Bruce A. Austin (ed.), Current Research in Film: Audiences, Economics, and Law, vol. 1 (Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing, 1985).
8 bell hooks, Black Looks: Race and Representation (Boston, MA: South End Press, 1992), p. 6.
9 In much criticism and scholarship on Star Wars, creator George Lucas is uncritically designated as an auteur and attributed with all decision-making power over the original trilogy. For example, critic Tim Allen says that ‘Lucas, like [Walt] Disney and [David O.] Selznick, is a true auteur from conception to final cut’ (‘What Empire?’, Village Voice 26 May 1980, p. 50). Kevin J. Wetmore is right in his assertion that ‘the making of the films is mythic and mythologized by those who write about it’, but it is Lucas in particular who is mythologized, despite evidence that contradicts his mythic status appearing within the very scholarship that elevates him. See The Empire Triumphant: Race, Religion and Rebellion in the Star Wars Films (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2005), p. 9. In one minor example, J. W. Rinzler, who asserts Lucas’s total mastery of the film, recounts how Empire producer Gary Kurtz authorized the expansion of the Millennium Falcon cockpit to accommodate the actors, so that it seems to grow in size between Episodes IV and V. Lucas was not pleased about it yet was powerless to intervene. See Star Wars The Blueprints: Inside the Production Archives (Bellevue, WA: Epic Ink, 2011), p. 122. Tara Lomax discusses this phenomenon in more depth. See ‘“Thank the Maker!” George Lucas, Lucasfilm, and the Legends of Transtextual Authorship across the Star Wars Franchise’, in Star Wars and the History of Transmedia Storytelling, pp. 35–48.
10 I am paraphrasing Laura Dern’s character Vice-Admiral Holdo in The Last Jedi, who is encouraging the Resistance (the sequels’ Rebel Alliance) to fight against the tyranny of the First Order (equivalent to the original trilogy’s Empire): ‘We are the spark that will light the fire that will burn the First Order down.’
11 ‘Jedi is Not a Religion, Charity Commission Rules’, BBC News 19 December 2016. Available online: <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38368526>. The Charity Commission ruled that ‘Jediism’ was not a religion.
12 George Lucas sold Lucasfilm, which owns the rights to the Star Wars franchise, to Disney in 2012. See ‘Disney Buys Star Wars Maker Lucasfilm from George Lucas’, BBC News 31 October 2012. Available online: <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20146942>. Industrial Light and Magic is a division of Lucasfilm that is responsible for the films’ visual effects and digital animation.
13 See Flash Gordon (1936), Dir. Frederick Stephani, USA: Universal Pictures. The serial has thirteen episodes.
14 For more on generic fluidity, see Sandy Rankin and R. C. Neighbors, ‘Horizons of Possibility: What We Point to When We Say Science Fiction for Children’, in R. C. Neighbors and Sandy Rankin (eds), The Galaxy Is Rated G: Essays on Children’s Science Fiction Film and Television (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2011), p. 2. Susan Sontag discusses the links between westerns and science fiction. See Susan Sontag, ‘The Imagination of Disaster’, Commentary, 1965, p. 42, as well as Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska, Science Fiction Cinema: From Outerspace to Cyberspace (London: Wallflower, 2000), pp. 11–43.
15 Carol A. Crotta, ‘Stalking the Star Wars Myth’, LA Herald Examiner 5 June 1980, p. 1.
16 Christine Cornea, Science Fiction Cinema: Between Fantasy and Reality (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007), p. 113.
17 Tara Lomax, ‘“Thank the Maker!” George Lucas, Lucasfilm, and the Legends of Transtextual Authorship across the Star Wars Franchise’, in Sean Guynes and Dan Hassler-Forest (eds), Star Wars and the History of Transmedia Storytelling (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2017), p. 40.
18 Clyde Taylor, ‘The Master Text and the Jedi Doctrine’, Screen vol. 29, no. 4, 1988, p. 99.
19 THX1138 (1971), Dir. George Lucas, USA: American Zoetrope.
20 Peter Krämer, The New Hollywood: From Bonnie and Clyde to Star Wars (London: Wallflower, 2005), pp. 90–1.
21 Robert A. McLean, ‘Toy Maker Strikes Back with Yoda’, Los Angeles Times 22 June 1980.
22 Howard Maxford, George Lucas Companion (London: B. T. Batsford, 1999), p. 78.
23 J. W. Rinzler, The Making of The Empire Strikes Back: The Definitive Story (New York: Del Rey Ballantine Books, 2010), p. 10.
24 Greg Kidlay, ‘Selling – The Force Has Nothing to Do with It’, LA Herald Examiner 21 May 1980, p. 4.
25 ‘Paris Parley Plots Release of Empire, Star Wars Sequel’, Variety 27 February 1980.
26 Saul Cooper, ‘The Empire Strikes Back Breaks House Records in the UK’, Twentieth Century-Fox Press Release 24 June 1980.
27 Devan Coggan and Tyler Aquilina, ‘Here’s How Every Star Wars Movie Did at the Box Office’, Entertainment Weekly 7 November 2019. Available online: <https://ew.com/movies/star-wars-movies-box-office-comparison/>.
28 The Eyes of Laura Mars (1978), Dir. Irvin Kershner, USA: Columbia Pictures.
29 Gerald Clarke, ‘The Empire Strikes Back’, Time 19 May 1980, p. 67.
30 See, for example, The Red Shoes (1978), Dir. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, UK: The Archers; and All That Heaven Allows (1955), Dir. Douglas Sirk, USA: Universal.
31 Gary Arnold, ‘Darth Vader’s Surprise Attack!’, Washington Post 18 May 1980, p. M1. While some critics enjoyed the horror tropes, other reviewers dismissed them, demonstrating what scholar Vivian Sobchack refers to as the ‘uneasy connection’ between horror and science fiction which has ‘bothered many critics’. See Screening Space: The American Science Fiction Film (New York: Lexington Books, 1988), p. 25.
32 Taylor, ‘The Master Text and the Jedi Doctrine’, pp. 101–2. Furthermore, Carlo Silvio suggests that the original trilogy Star Wars films express and attempt to resolve the ‘historical transition’ to global capitalism, as human culture was subsumed by the logic of capital and the expansion of centralized financial and communication networks, which are represented onscreen by the Empire. See ‘The Star Wars Trilogies and Global Capitalism’, in Carlo Silvio and Tony M. Vinci (eds), Culture, Identity, and Technologies in the Star Wars Films: Essays on the Two Trilogies (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2007), pp. 55–6.
33 David S. Meyer, ‘Star Wars, Star Wars, and American Political Culture’, Journal of Popular Culture vol. 6, no. 2, 1992, p. 103.
34 Stuart Hall, ‘The Great Moving Right Show’, Marxism Today January 1979, p. 14. Thatcher’s election on 4 May 1979 (somewhat ironically for a government more readily associated with the power of the Empire) led to the first widely recorded use of a now famous date in Star Wars fans’ calendars. Taking out an advertisement in the London Evening News, the Conservative Party celebrated with a Star Wars reference – ‘May the Fourth Be With You, Maggie. Congratulations’. As recounted by Alan Arnold, Once Upon a Galaxy: A Journal of the Making of The Empire Strikes Back (London: Sphere Books, 1980), p. 76.
35 Robin Wood, Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986), p. 162.
36 Ibid., p. 167.
37 Ed Guerrero, Reframing Blackness: The African American Image in Film (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1993).
38 Taylor, ‘The Master Text and the Jedi Doctrine’, p. 99.
39 Quentin Falks, ‘Another Strike for Gold’, Screen International 24 May 1980, p. 7.
40 Kevin J. Wetmore, The Empire Triumphant: Race, Religion and Rebellion in the Star Wars Films (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2005), p. 2.
41 Vivian Sobchack, ‘Child/Alien/Father: Patriarchal Crisis and Generic Exchange’, in Constance Penley, Elisabeth Lyon, Lynn Spigel, and Janet Bergstrom (eds), Close Encounters: Film, Feminism, and Science Fiction (London: University of Minnesota Press, 1991), p. 14.
42 Hans Von Storch and Nico Stehr, ‘Anthropogenic Climate Change: A Reason for Concern since the 18th Century and Earlier’, Physical Geography vol. 88, no. 2, 2006, pp. 107–10. The authors offer an overview of cultural conceptions and responses to climate change from the eighteenth century to the late twentieth century.
43 Adilifu Nama, Black Space: Imagining Race in American Science Fiction Film (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2008), p. 14.
44 Ibid., p. 32.
45 Judy Klemesrud, ‘A Marriage That Was Made for the Heavens’, New York Times 3 June 1980, p. 12. Discussing identity in narratives about space exploration, Lorrie Palmer and Lisa Purse contend that ‘the story of spaceflight omits women and people of colour in favour of a raced, gendered pseudo-utopia in which white men brave the wilderness to establish a pathway that others may (eventually) follow’. See ‘When the Astronaut is a Woman: Beyond the Frontier in Film and Television’, Science Fiction Film and Television vol. 12, no. 1, 2019, p. 1.
46 In A New Hope women’s screen time accounts for approximately 15 per cent of the film and incorporates both Leia and Aunt Beru; in Empire it increases to 22 per cent despite Leia being the only female character in the movie. See Rebecca Harrison, ‘Star Wars Women: The Stats’, Writing on Reels [Blog], 29 May 2018. Available online: <http://www.writingonreels.uk/blog/previous/2>. On Leia’s qualitative representation, see Carolyn Cocca, Superwomen: Gender, Power and Representation (London: Bloomsbury, 2016), p. 89.
47 J. W. Rinzler, The Making of The Empire Strikes Back: The Definitive Story (New York: Del Rey Ballantine Books, 2010).
48 This was the case on the troubled Solo production in 2017–18. See Chris Lee, ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story Actor Shares New Details About the Troubled Production’, Vulture 26 March 2018. Available online: <https://www.vulture.com/2018/03/solo-a-star-wars-story-actor-details-production-troubles.html>.
49 The Empire Strikes Back Press Book, 1980, p. 7, Margaret Herrick Library.
50 Ibid., p. 7.
51 Peter MacDonald and Mike Brewster, interview with author, March 8, 2020.
52 John May, The Empire Strikes Back Collector’s Edition (London: Clanose Publishers, 1980), p. 47.
53 The Empire Strikes Back Press Book, p. 6.
54 Chris Brown, ‘The Empire Strikes Back Wars: Johnson Fires Imagination’, Screen International 24 May 1980, p. 12.
55 May, The Empire Strikes Back Collector’s Edition, p. 60.
56 Joe Nazzaro, ‘From Dagobah to Delta City’, Starburst, Special No. 21, October 1994, p. 57.
57 Madelyn Most, interview with author, 8 March 2020.
58 Ibid.
59 Brown, ‘The Empire Strikes Back Wars’.
60 John Brosnan, ‘The Star Wars Interviews Part Five: Brian Johnson’, Starburst vol. 3, no. 2, 1980, p. 39; Bruce Nicholson, ‘Composite Optical Photography for Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back’, American Cinematographer vol. 61, no. 6, 1980, p. 562.
61 Nicholson, ‘Composite Optical Photography’, p. 612.
62 Pat Jankiewicz, ‘Life After Luke’, Starburst, Special No. 21, October 1994, p. 11.
63 Julie Turnock, ‘The True Stars of Star Wars? Experimental Filmmakers in the 1970s and 1980s Special Effects Industry’, Film History vol. 26, no. 4, 2014, pp. 121 and 124.
64 Ibid., p. 133. Turnock notes that many of the more experimental film-makers working on the Star Wars films have been left out of official ILM histories.
65 One of the VistaVision cameras was reportedly an old, converted Technicolor camera used to film Gone with the Wind in 1939 – Alan Arnold, Once Upon a Galaxy: A Journal of the Making of The Empire Strikes Back (London: Sphere Books, 1980), p. 47; see also Rinzler, The Making of The Empire Strikes Back, p. 91; Richard Edlund, ‘Special Visual Effects for Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back’, American Cinematographer vol. 61, no. 6, 1980, pp. 553 and 605.
66 Harrison Ellenshaw, ‘Creating the Matte Paintings for Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back’, American Cinematographer vol. 61, no. 6, 1980, p. 610.
67 Friedrich Kittler, Gramophone, Film, Typewriter (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1986), p. 191.
68 Ibid., pp. 96–7.
69 ‘Through the Galaxy from Ice Planet to Bog Planet’, American Cinematographer vol. 61, no. 6, 1980, p. 558.
70 May, The Empire Strikes Back Collector’s Edition, p. 41.
71 Ibid., p. 45; see also Arnold, Once Upon a Galaxy, p. 35.
72 Ronald C. Goodman, ‘Filming the Aerials for The Empire Strikes Back’, American Cinematographer 61, no. 6 (1980), p. 626.
73 J. W. Rinzler, Star Wars The Blueprints: Inside the Production Archives (Bellevue, WA: Epic Ink, 2011), p. 106.
74 Aljean Harmetz, ‘Space Sounds for Empire had Terrestrial Genesis’, New York Times 9 June 1980, p. 12.
75 Lee Grieveson describes the conditions of the military-industrial complex as emerging from the complicity between the state and its technological industries – such as cinema – in the early twentieth century. See Cinema and the Wealth of Nations: Media, Capital, and the Liberal World System (Oakland: University of California Press, 2018), p. 74.
76 Quentin Falks, ‘Another Strike for Gold’, Screen International 24 May 1980, p. 7.
77 Chris Brown, ‘Toying with a Great Idea’, Screen International 24 May 1980, p. 12.
78 Ivor Beddoes, The Empire Strikes Back Shooting Schedules, Chapter II Productions Ltd. Call Sheet No. 8 (Studio), Tuesday 13 March 1979, British Film Institute, p. 2.
79 Sian Barber, ‘Government Aid and Film Legislation: “An Elastoplast to Stop a Haemorrhage”’, in Sue Harper and Justin Smith (eds), British Film Culture in the 1970s: The Boundaries of Pleasure (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2012), pp. 17 and 21. Barber notes that the Association of Independent Producers, formed in 1976, was anti-union – thus the politics of the film industry were not indistinct from the growing anti-union rhetoric of right-wing Conservatives who took power during Empire’s production.
80 Arnold, Once Upon a Galaxy, p. 40. Also contrasting with the UK team’s adherence to union rules, Lucas demonstrated a lack of regard for labour organizations in the US, when Lucasfilm was fined $25,000 by the Director’s Guild for failing to credit Kershner in Empire’s opening titles as per the Guild’s rules. See Michael H. Franklin, ‘Star Wars Report’, Letter to the Editor, Los Angeles Times 16 August 1981.
81 Barber, ‘Government Aid and Film Legislation’, pp. 10–12.
82 Arnold, Once Upon a Galaxy, p. 23.
83 The Empire Strikes Back Press Book, p. 5.
84 The Empire Strikes Back [premiere programme], May 1980, Margaret Herrick Library.
85 A recent and brief biography of Ashley Boone, the pioneering Lucasfilm marketing and distribution consultant with responsibility for the release of Empire, points to the erasure of Black film-makers from film history, too. See Scott Feinberg, ‘He was Star Wars Secret Weapon, So Why was He Forgotten?’, Hollywood Reporter 6 February 2020.
86 Rinzler credits Eileen Baker, however her husband (who also worked on the film) and various other creative talent have confirmed that Rinzler has made an error. See Rinzler, The Making of the Empire Strikes Back, p. 308.
87 Ibid., p. 15.
88 Ibid., p. 41.
89 Leigh Brackett, The Empire Strikes Back [original screenplay] (1978), p. 45.
90 Goodman, ‘Filming the Aerials’, p. 624.
91 Melanie Bell, ‘Learning to Listen: Histories of Women’s Sound Work in the British Film Industry’, Screen vol. 58, no. 4, 2017, p. 440.
92 Ibid., p. 455.
93 The Empire Strikes Back Press Book, p. 6.
94 Rinzler, The Making of The Empire Strikes Back, pp. 90–1.
95 The Empire Strikes Back [premiere programme].
96 Giuliana Bruno, Atlas of Emotion: Journeys in Art, Architecture and Film (London: Verso, 2002), p. 16.
97 Toby Neilson, ‘Different Death Stars and Devastated Earths: Contemporary SF Cinema’s Imagination of Disaster in the Anthropocene’, Science Fiction Film and Television vol. 12, no. 2, 2019, p. 246.
98 Twentieth Century-Fox, ‘Stamina, Invention, Zen, Vegetables – And Courage’, in The Empire Strikes Back Pressbook, 1980, p. 9, Margaret Herrick Library Production Files.
99 Alan Arnold, Once Upon a Galaxy: A Journal of the Making of The Empire Strikes Back (London: Sphere Books, 1980), p. 19.
100 Ibid., p. 95.
101 Sandy Rankin and R. C. Neighbors, ‘Horizons of Possibility: What We Point to When We Say Science Fiction for Children’, in R. C. Neighbors and Sandy Rankin (eds), The Galaxy Is Rated G: Essays on Children’s Science Fiction Film and Television (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2011), p. 114.
102 Kevin J. Wetmore, The Empire Triumphant: Race, Religion and Rebellion in the Star Wars Films (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2005), p. 20.
103 Gregory E. Rutledge, ‘Jedi Knights and Epic Performance: Is the Force a Form of Western-African Mimicry?’, in Peter W. Lee (ed.), A Galaxy Here and Now: Historical and Cultural Readings of Star Wars (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2016), p. 119.
104 Wetmore, The Empire Triumphant, p. 39.
105 David Seed, American Science Fiction and the Cold War: Literature and Film (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999), p. 94.
106 Susan Sontag, ‘The Imagination of Disaster’, Commentary, 1965, p. 47.
107 Twentieth Century-Fox, ‘Love in a Cold Climate’, in The Empire Strikes Back Pressbook, 1980, p. 8, Margaret Herrick Library Production Files.
108 Nama argues that the alien creatures in Star Wars are racialised ‘others’ in a predominantly white universe. See Nama, Black Space, p. 28.
109 See, for example, Taylor, ‘The Master Text and the Jedi Doctrine’; Nama, Black Space; and Mara Wood, ‘Feminist Icons Wanted: Damsels in Distress Need Not Apply’, in Peter W. Lee (ed.), A Galaxy Here and Now: Historical and Cultural Readings of Star Wars (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2016), pp. 62–83.
110 Carolyn Cocca, Superwomen: Gender, Power and Representation (London: Bloomsbury, 2016), p. 87.
111 Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan, The Empire Strikes Back – Script, Fourth draft, 24 October 1978, pp. 2 and 5, Marcus Hu Collection, Margaret Herrick Library.
112 Here I am paraphrasing another fictional female character, Jessica Rabbit, whose deviance is self-reflexively acknowledged as being the product of her creators, not the character herself (‘I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way’). See Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Dir. Robert Zemeckis, USA: Walt Disney Animation Studios.
113 Nama, Black Space, p. 32.
114 Timothy White, ‘Star Wars Slaves to the Empire’, Rolling Stone 24 July 1980, p. 37.
115 Tasker, ‘Women, SF Spectacle and the Mise-ensce ne of Space Adventure in the Star Wars Franchise’, p. 22.
116 Christopher Deis discusses Vader’s Blackness in ‘May the Force (Not) Be With You: “Race Critical” Readings and the Star Wars Universe’, in Carlo Silvio and Tony M. Vinci (eds), Culture, Identity, and Technologies in the Star Wars Films: Essays on the Two Trilogies (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2007), p. 93.
117 Veronica A. Wilson discusses the links between the Sith and historically marginalized women. See ‘Seduced by the Dark Side of the Force: Gender, Sexuality, and Moral Agency in George Lucas’s Star Wars Universe’, in Culture, Identity, and Technologies in the Star Wars Films, pp. 134–52.
118 Sara Ahmed, ‘Orientations: Toward a Queer Phenomenology’, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies vol. 12, no. 4, 2006, pp. 543–74.
119 Jack Halberstam, In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives (New York: New York University Press, 2005), pp. 1–7.
120 Hannah Hamad, Postfeminism and Paternity in Contemporary US Film: Framing Fatherhood (London: Routledge, 2013), p. 1.
121 Megen de Bruin-Molé, ‘Space Bitches, Witches, and Kick-Ass Princesses: Star Wars and Popular Feminism’, in Sean Guynes and Dan Hassler-Forest (eds), Star Wars and the History of Transmedia Storytelling (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2018), p. 221.
122 Marketing Studies, The Empire Strikes Back – Trailer Test – London, Twentieth Century-Fox 7 September 1979, p. 1, Olen J. Earnest Collection, Margaret Herrick Library.
123 Ibid.
124 Greg Kidlay, ‘Selling – The Force Has Nothing to Do with It’, LA Herald Examiner 21 May 1980, p. 4; Jimmy Summers, ‘Empire Fever Gripping Industry’, Boxoffice vol. 116, no. 19, 1980, pp. 1 and 3. Andrew J. Neff reports that there were 126 theatres signed up for the first-wave of screenings, although there are some minor variations of that figure (125 or 127) reported elsewhere. See ‘Empire Soars to $9 Mil in Six Days; $10 Mil Week Seen’, Variety 27 May 1980, pp. 1 and 8.
125 ‘Highlights Hollywood: The Empire Strikes It Rich’, New York Times 1 June 1980, p. 19.
126 Olen J. Earnest suggested in 1985 that media costs for a film launch were equivalent to approximately two-thirds of the entire production budget, which reveals the enormous budget and scope of the planning required to successfully launch a blockbuster film. See ‘Star Wars: A Case Study of Motion Picture Marketing’, p. 4.
127 Timothy White, ‘Star Wars’ Slaves to the Empire’, Rolling Stone 24 July 1980.
128 Kidlay, ‘Selling – The Force Has Nothing to Do With It’.
129 Ibid.
130 Gary Arnold, ‘Film Notes’, Washington Post, Style Supplement, 5 April 1980, p. 4.
131 Ibid.
132 ‘Stars Shine Bright for “Empire” Day’, Screen International 24 May 1980.
133 Neff, ‘Empire Soars to $9 Mil in Six Days’, pp. 1 and 8.
134 Saul Cooper, ‘The Empire Strikes Back Hits $11,000,000 in International Markets’, Twentieth Century-Fox Press Release, 18 August 1980, Margaret Herrick Library.
135 Saul Cooper, ‘The Empire Strikes Back Outgrosses Star Wars in Puerto Rico’, Twentieth Century-Fox Press Release 27 June 1980, Margaret Herrick Library; Saul Cooper, ‘The Empire Strikes Back to be Presented at Venice Film Festival September 6’, Twentieth Century-Fox Press Release 14 August 1980, Margaret Herrick Library.
136 George C. Wilson, ‘New Military Relationship with China is Developing’, Washington Post 29 May 1980, p. 17.
137 Art Harris, ‘Up to Their Kazoos in the Empire’s Line’, LA Herald Examiner 21 May 1980.
138 Terri Hardin, interview with author, 18 September 2019.
139 Marcy Moran Heidish, ‘Line Wars: Learning to Love the Wait’, Washington Post 30 May 1980, p. 17.
140 Carla Hall, ‘Trekking to Star Wars II’, Washington Post, Style Supplement, 22 May 1980, p. 12.
141 Charles Schreger, ‘The Force is with the Fans’, Los Angeles Times 22 May 1980, p. 1.
142 White, ‘Star Wars’ Slaves to the Empire’.
143 Ibid.
144 Hardin, interview with author.
145 Jay Arnold, ‘Star Wars Fans Wait 36 Hours to get into Sequel’, Associated Press 21 May 1980.
146 Hardin, interview with author.
147 Charles Schreger, ‘Star Wars Fanatics Strike Back’, Los Angeles Times 26 May 1980, p. 5.
148 Hardin, interview with author.
149 Ibid.
150 Cinema Score Card, ‘The Empire Strikes Back’, Box Office 23 June 1980.
151 Marketing Studies, The Empire Strikes Back Ad Comparison Study, Twentieth Century-Fox 2 April 1980, p. 4, Olen J. Earnest Collection, Margaret Herrick Library.
152 Schreger, ‘Star Wars Fanatics Strike Back’.
153 Henry Jenkins, ‘Star Trek Rerun, Reread, Rewritten’, in Constance Penley, Elisabeth Lyon, Lynn Spigel, and Janet Bergstrom (eds), Close Encounters: Film, Feminism, and Science Fiction (London: University of Minnesota Press, 1991), p. 178.
154 All the titles are searchable in fanzine database Fanlore, ‘Welcome to Fanlore’. Available online: <https://fanlore.org>.
155 Excerpt from a male fan letter that originally appeared in Jeff Johnston and Allyson Whitfield (eds), Alderaan: The Star Wars Letterzine vol. 10 (Toledo, OH: Kzinti Press, 1981). See Fanlore, ‘Alderaan/Issues 06–10’, last updated 27 August 2018. Available online: <https://fanlore.org/wiki/Alderaan/Issues_06-10>.
156 Abigail De Kosnik, Rogue Archives: Digital Cultural Memory and Media Fandoms (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2016), p. 159.
157 Summers, ‘Empire Fever Gripping Industry’.
158 Judy Mann, ‘The Impossible Chore: Tracking Empire Toys’, Washington Post Metro 28 November 1980, p. 1.
159 Kenner Toys, ‘Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back’, toy catalogue, 1980, Margaret Herrick Library.
160 Mann, ‘The Impossible Chore: Tracking Empire Toys’, p. 1.
161 For example, see Dr M. F. Marten, ‘Robots – From Artoos to Quasars’, in Kristine Johnson (ed.), The World of Star Wars (Weston, FL: Paradise Press, 1981), p. 9.
162 Lucasfilm, ‘Join the Official Star Wars Fan Club’, advertisement, publication unknown, c. 1980, Margaret Herrick Library.
163 Tom Bierbaum, ‘NPR Signs Deal for Empire Radio Series’, Hollywood Reporter 20 April 1982, pp. 1 and 19.
164 Faye Zuckerman, ‘Star Wars Price to be Cut’, Billboard 4 September 1984, pp. 3 and 61.
165 Jenkins, ‘Star Trek Rerun, Reread, Rewritten’, p. 178.
166 David Ansen, ‘The Force is Back with Us’, Newsweek 19 May 1980, p. 105.
167 Michael Sragow, ‘The Empire Goes for Broke’, LA Herald Examiner 18 May 1980, p. 1.
168 Robert Asahina, ‘On Screen’, New Leader vol. 63, no. 10, 1980, pp. 20–1.
169 Bradley Schauer, Escape Velocity: American Science Fiction Film, 1950–1982 (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2016), pp. 95 and 122–3. See 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Dir. Stanley Kubrick, UK and USA: Stanley Kubrick Productions.
170 Wood, Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan, p. 163.
171 ‘The Empire Strikes Back’, Variety 12 May 1980, p. 14.
172 Vincent Canby, ‘The Empire Strikes Back Strikes a Bland Note’, New York Times 13 June 1980, p. 1.
173 Kenneth Turan, untitled, New West 16 June 1980; Joy Gould Boyum, ‘A Dazzling Sequel That Loses Charm of the Original’, Wall Street Journal 27 June 1980.
174 Tim Allen, ‘What Empire?’, Village Voice 26 May 1980.
175 Judith Martin, ‘The Second Star Wars: Two Views’, Newsweek 23 May 1980, p. 17.
176 Linda Marsa, ‘The Empire Strikes Back’, Daily Breeze July 1980, p. 64.
177 Jimmy Summers, ‘The Empire Strikes Back’, Box Office 19 May 1980.
178 Turan, untitled.
179 Ansen, ‘The Force is Back with Us’, p. 105.
180 Marsa, ‘The Empire Strikes Back’; Stephen Godfrey, ‘Star Wars Sequel a Hit and a Myth’, Toronto Globe and Mail 27 May 1980.
181 Gary Arnold, ‘Darth Vader’s Surprise Attack!’, Washington Post 18 May 1980, p. M1.
182 David Denby, ‘“Star Wars” Strikes Back’, New York Times 26 May 1980, p. 67.
183 Ibid. See The Wizard of Oz (1939), Dir. Victor Fleming, USA: MGM.
184 Asahina, ‘On Screen’.
185 Summers, ‘The Empire Strikes Back’.
186 Gerald Clarke, ‘The Empire Strikes Back’, Time 19 May 1980, p. 68.
187 The original title of Return of the Jedi was announced by Lucasfilm as Revenge of the Jedi. Bill Warren, ‘Warren’s News and Reviews’, Fantasy Newsletter, August 1980, p. 12.
188 Canby, ‘The Empire Strikes Back Strikes a Bland Note’.
189 Melanie Bell, ‘Film Criticism as “Women’s Work”: The Gendered Economy of Film Criticism in Britain, 1945–65’, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television vol. 31, no. 2, 2011, p. 196.
190 Ibid., p. 199.
191 Janet Maslin, ‘Robots Return in Empire Strikes: Star Wars Sequel’, New York Times 21 May 1980.
192 Marsa, ‘The Empire Strikes Back’.
193 Charles Champlin, ‘In the Star Wars Saga, Empire Strikes Forward’, Los Angeles Times 18 May 1980, p. 30.
194 Sragow, ‘The Empire Goes for Broke’.
195 Bill Warren, ‘“Empire Strike” is a Hit’, Enterprise 25 May 1980, p. 34.
196 Warren, ‘Warren’s News and Reviews’.
197 Canby, ‘The Empire Strikes Back Strikes a Bland Note’.
198 Martin Canon, ‘Lucas’ Empire Strikes Back and the Force is With Him’, Bruin Review 1 September 1980.
199 Richard Grenier, ‘Movies: Celebrating Defeat’, Commentary vol. 70, no. 2, 1980, p. 58.
200 Bethany Lacina, ‘Who Hates Star Wars for its Newfound Diversity? Here are the Numbers’, Washington Post 6 September 2018. Available online: <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/09/06/who-hates-star-wars-for-its-newfound-diversity-here-are-the-numbers/>.
201 Barbara Klinger, Beyond the Multiplex: Cinema, New Technologies and the Home (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006), p. 8.
202 Vertigo (1958), Dir. Alfred Hitchcock, USA: Paramount.
203 ‘Empire Reissue Extended 2 Weeks’, Hollywood Reporter 25 August 1981; Roger Cels, ‘Empire Reissue Among Films on Fox’s 1981 Release Slate’, Hollywood Reporter 22 August 1980, p. 4.
204 John Dempsey, ‘Offer Empire, Star Wars to TV’, Variety 21 October 1981.
205 Faye Zuckerman, ‘Star Wars Price to be Cut’, Billboard 4 September 1984, pp. 3 and 61.
206 CBS Fox Video, ‘Reserve Your Copy Now: The Empire Strikes Back’, advertisement, People 15 October 1984.
207 Howard Maxford, George Lucas Companion (London: B. T. Batsford, 1999), p. 142.
208 Michael Fuchs and Michael Phillips, ‘Part of Our Cultural History: Fan-Creator Relationships, Restoration and Appropriation’, in A Galaxy Here and Now: Historical and Cultural Readings of Star Wars, ed. Peter W. Lee (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2016), p. 227.
209 Daniel Kimmel, ‘Cleaned Up Empire Follows Star Trek’, Variety 24 February 1997.
210 Roger Ebert, ‘Empire Goes to the Heart of Star Wars’, The Outlook Rave! 21 February 1997, p. 7.
211 For more on the aura and reproduction, see Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (London: Penguin, [1935] 2008).
212 Fredric Jameson, ‘Postmodernism and Consumer Society’, in Postmodern Culture, ed. Hal Foster (London: Pluto Press, 1985), p. 116.
213 Emma Pett, ‘“Real Life is Rubbish”: The Subcultural Branding and Inhabitable Appeal of Secret Cinema’s The Empire Strikes Back’, in Disney’s Star Wars: Forces of Production, Promotion and Reception, ed. William Proctor and Richard McCulloch (Iowa City: Iowa University Press, 2019), pp. 166–78.
214 Kimmel, ‘Cleaned Up Empire Follows Star Trek’.
215 David Hunter, ‘Film Review: Empire Strikes Back’, Hollywood Reporter 21–3 February 1997, pp. 6 and 20.
216 Ian Nathan, ‘Retro: The Making of… The Empire Strikes Back’, Empire 1 June 2002, p. 99.
217 Henry Jenkins, ‘Star Trek Rerun, Reread, Rewritten’, in Constance Penley, Elisabeth Lyon, Lynn Spigel, and Janet Bergstrom (eds), Close Encounters: Film, Feminism, and Science Fiction (London: University of Minnesota Press, 1991), p. 172.
218 Kershner’s original line is ‘“it’s possible to fight because you love, not just because you hate”’. Alan Arnold, Once Upon a Galaxy: A Journal of the Making of The Empire Strikes Back (London: Sphere Books, 1980), p. 15. Tico’s line is: ‘That’s how we’re gonna win. Not by fighting what we hate. But saving what we love.’