Posted on 5.28.21: “Chris Gore asserts that one of the main reasons that The Empire Strikes Back is the greatest Star Wars film ever made is because it doesn’t blow anything up at the finale.
“HE has long maintained that Episode 5 is actually a film noir — an action-and-thrills chase film about (a) losing, (b) forebodings of dark destiny and (c) in the end being badly beaten.
“A well-constructed, crackerjack flick in which the bad guys always have the upper hand and the good guys are constantly running and hiding and dodging laser bullets, and in the end they’re battered and bruised (minus a hand, carbon-frozen) with their asses totally kicked.
“No other fantasy adventure flick has ever embraced the noir aesthetic like The Empire Strikes Back. It’s basically about ‘you can run but you can’t hide from the Empire…try as you might and brave as you might be, a happy ending is not in the cards for you guys…not this time.”