The Empire Strike Back: One of the Greatest Experimental Films of All Time Timothy Sexton College

It is difficult to think of another film which has been so substantially changed for the first-time viewer more than the second entry in the original Star Wars trilogy, the 1980 sequel to the eponymously-titled blockbuster which started it, The Empire Strikes Back. In the history of Hollywood film there are essentially two plot twists which stand out above all others for the shocking impact they had upon those lucky enough to be among the first wave of audience members who lined up to watch the films in all their intended glory flickering in the darkness of being projected into a huge screen inside a cinema. Still the king of the first-act plot twist by which all others will forever be judged is the (minor spoiler alert for the two people who do not already know) shocking result that occurs when Marion Crane decides to take a shower in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.

The king of the climactic plot twist which brings the movie to a stunning end, however, is still the (minor spoiler alert for the one person who has yet to hear) revelation of what actually became of Luke Skywalker’s father which issues forth from the mechanized voice of Darth Vader near the conclusion of The Empire Strikes Back. All kidding aside, the percentage of the...