45 Movies For 45 Years: 1983

I turned six years old in 1983. That was the year that I started the first grade. That’s pretty much the only thing that I remember about being 6. I went to school, and I watched a lot of Sesame Street. I wasn’t watching many movies at the time, but there were a lot of them coming out that year. John Travolta was Staying Alive, Matthew Broderick was playing War Games, and 007 was back in Octopussy.

I looked at the movies released in 1983. I tried to ask myself the tough questions. Is this your favorite movie of the year, or are you just saying that because of the others? Well, as I looked through the list once…twice…three times…there is no doubt that my favorite film of 1983 is Return Of The Jedi.

Jedi is the final installment of the original trilogy of Star Wars films. And, other than a couple of terrible Ewoks TV movies and a short-lived cartoon called Droids, it was the last we would see of the Star Wars universe for over 15 years.

It is my favorite movie from that year, but it is the weakest film in the trilogy. The level reached in Empire could not possibly have been matched or brought back down with satisfaction. Audiences had already expected how the story would end, and nothing that Lucas could have done was going to scratch the itch just right. So, we got the Ewoks…which were a weird species to enter the franchise. They were small, cute, teddy bear-like creatures that threatened our heroes with cannibalism and defeated an army of Storm Troopers with sticks and stones.

The story was a lot more loosely constructed than the last two had been. It was as if the studio decided that it would be three films and three films only. The trilogy was the king. Had it been fleshed out into four installments, it may have connected a little better.

But for its faults, it still has some great moments that are some of my favorites from the entire series. The scene in Jabba’s palace is a classic. The death of Yoda still makes my eye twitch when I see it. And the unexpected revelation that Luke and Leia were siblings…a revelation that was probably a shock to Lucas as well, since no one believes that he had planned that from the beginning.

Watching Vader sacrifice himself to save Luke was a wonderful scene as well. I don’t know if that one moment of goodness should absolve him of all the death and torment he had caused in his life, but it worked for the story.

So, every story has its ending…and while Jedi wasn’t a perfect ending to Star Wars, it is still a great installment in the franchise. And it is by far my favorite movie from 1983.