Bingowings said:
Sure that sequence is powerful but I remember seeing the audience leaning forwards 45 degrees gripped during the Death Star run in ANH both in 1977 and 1997 (as much down to Hamill's performance as the naive farm boy caught up in an adventure as the special effects and the music) and the utter bewilderment that resulted from the gantry scene in ESB.
In all the films he has responded to machines (or actors dressed as machines) and puppets with such conviction you forget and see them just as differently shaped people (the Dagobah scenes in ESB are an acting masterclass).
100% agreed on this!
Mark didn't do anything new in ROTJ, arguably without all the work he had put in before those sequences wouldn't have had any of the impact it had.
I think he showed emotional restraint--which I think was intentional given the fact that he was now a fully trained Jedi----makes it even more powerful when he lets loose after he shouts "Never!"
Visually it's dazzling (at times it's silly but only slightly more silly as some of the conceits in the ROTJ duel) but because we don't have the emotional investment it If the PT actors had built up as much of an album of solid characterisation as Mark did in his films the final duel in ROTS would have been much less of a dance.doesn't mean anything and that is incrementally built up over three films.
Agreed--the OT was a (a very advanced)product of it's time---just like Avatar is now----these moments in time are unique and can never be replicated----it probably applies to all forms of art.
The other carried over characters are running on fumes in ROTJ.
Again I disagree---in terms of emotion--in 1983:
When Obiwan told Luke, Leia was his sister---it was agreat moment.
When Luke told Leia he was her brother and that Vader was his father it was great moment.
When Luke finally takes off Vader's mask it was a moment we had all been waiting for 6 years(Ok---2 years for me---I saw SW and ESB for the 1st time back to back in 81'!)
When Leia tells Han Luke is her brother ---- another cool moment.
These were characters who were discovering new dynamics and relationships between each other...and we the audience were discovering it with them.