Talking about what part is «better»: I never felt the need to put one SW movie over the other in the OT since for me the whole thing is a single story, so I never thought of any of these, «this one is good, that one is better and that one is worse» - I just didn’t pay attention to this type of criteria and especially now, with the prequels, I feel that the OT is like a shining star, a homing beacon in a vast sea of desperation seeded by the PT, and to judge in this manner for me is like ruining my whole view and the childhood. People often complain of «bad acting», «poor directing» and «bad scripting» when they don’t like a movie and the most blatant aspect is that the majority of them isn’t professional to talk about it with enough competence. While I agree that the ordinary moviegoer really feels the inner truth or falsehood of storytelling, acting but even then he/she often confuses totally different things about what he/she likes and dislikes in reality. For example bad acting isn’t synonimous with both bad scripting and bad directing and there several combinations can be made: you can have a bad script but as much as it depends on acting skills actors can try to deliver it as convincing as they’re capable of even if directing is weird though this is an extreme situation and is highly unwelcomed; you can have horrible script, but a director, if he’s competent enough and passionate about his profession, can outbalance the fallacies of writing and shoot at least a more or less decent movie. And lastly even a perfect script and a brilliant directing can not save the picture if acting is awkward. And I’d dare to state that many people couldn’t tell such a subtle difference - only professionals involved could. As for the rest of us mortals, there’s only single thing that counts, that is: emotional resonance and it’s a very subjective thing. When you read that «the movie is considered the best/worst» then the question is «by who»? By critics? I always wasn’t of a very high opinion of this niche, since we all know that to «professionaly» criticize (i.e. being payed for) is not the same as to create and, besides, frankly, how many names of critics are you aware of and, more importantly, you think will stand test of time? When I read that «majority of fans and critics bla-bla-bla» I always think, «so what?» There’re two ways - either to compel myself to this «major opinion» denying my own feelings - the sort of behavior I’ve always hated or stay ON MY OWN and you guess what I’m prone to. My own scale is much more important for me than any public opinion. And if all 3 originals - Jedi included - resonate with me, then I love them. And on the opposite side, the prequels don’t resonate on the same level. I don’t care about the characters in them as I do throughout the ENTIRE OT. I don’t pay attention to what Kurtz, Kershner, Carrie, Harrison or whatever else thought or thinks of ROTJ. I like it. That’s the main point. The actors, or producers and directors are doomed always to be critical of themselves, the predecessors and successors and that’s very human and there’s nothing unusual, it’s like generals who always seek to glorify their victories and to remain silent about their fiascos, to emphasize their own significance and to neglect their rivals. Let actors, directors play their games but let’s not follow them in their capriciousness. I found a lot of intimate moments in ROTJ that speak to my heart and make me take with: I liked the scene on a Ewok bridge (Luke&Leia and then Han), Luke vs Vader, enjoyed the performance of Ian (in fact I was terrified when I saw his entrance the first time round and I felt stress during all scenes on DS 2) and the Jabba palace part kept me on tenterhooks up to Falcon and the X-wing blasting off from Tatooin. I don’t mind the Ewoks and frankly don’t even understand problems that people have with them. As for «the other», of course it would be cool if that «other» was not Leia (that seems to be anoying for many) so we could see Luke’s quest for her across the galaxy but the thing is that there’re always a great many other ways to tell a story. SW galaxy offers huge opportunities and Leia being sister is one of them that worked for me and fitted in nicely . It added some melodramatic quality unseen in SW and made it look warmer.
As for «alternative» ROTJ a la Kurtz dark or «bittersweat» version there were so many pros and cons said but I have to say this from a different perspective: let’s accept the idea that OT is a symphony. As a musician myself I can easily recognize in the OT the type of musical compositional structure that is referred to as sonate allegro - the 3-section piece - ABA. The 1st section (A) is called Exposition where all themes (characters - protagonists and antagonists) are introduced. The 2nd one (B) is called Development section where all the themes introduced in the 1st one are in conflict with each other and usualy is more dramatical («darker» if you wish). The 3rd (A) section is called Recapitulation. In it all original themes return. The most distinct feature of the 3 section development is tonality. Let’s pressume that our Star Wars symphony is in a major key. In Exposition the themes that are introduced are of two kinds - the main subject and the second subject. If the main theme/subject is in a major key (represented by the main chord of a tonality that is formed from the first tone of every scale), then second one is formed from the fifth tone of that scale that is also would be in a major key and at the same time marks the end of the whole 1st section (Death Star 1 destroyed, the Awarding Ceremony). As a rule the 1st section is always tonally stable. Contrary to that the 2nd section is tonally unstable and mostly deals with various complex transformations of the original themes with numerous tonal deviations (characters evolve, suffer, struggle - Luke encounters Vader, losed his arm, Leia reveals her love to Han but immediately loses him). One of these deviations (reunion of the remaining group at the rendezvous point) leads to the start of the 3rd section where all themes return in the main major key - the main tonality. Here the main and the second themes are resumed and although there’s also a room for conflict but the dominating mood and thematical elements resemble those of the 1st act (Death Star 2, Tatooin, aliens, even the very first frame with the bilge of a Star Destroyer passing above the surface of a planet - not Tatooin, but Endor this time) and contrary to dramatic collisions of the middle act all twists and turns that were initiated get resolution. The finale of the whole 3-section piece is, thereby, major, but as opposed to the 1st part both the main and the second themes are in the same key (defined by the chord that is formed from the 1st tone and is called tonic) thus delivering uplifting, triumphant finale. The major requirement for this type of compositional structure as you could possibly notice is symmetry of its architechtonics. Let’s put aside how «great» would be or wouldn’t ROTJ if the model proposed by Kurtz was accepted. The problem was not about merits of the ROTJ but the whole trilogy in itself. The bittersweat ending would obviously ruin that symmetry and I’m not talking about huge psychological impact on psychology of the viewers (me included) when one of the main characters (and I suppose the one many watch Star Wars OT for) dies, the girl he loved is left alone without him and her dear friend who «wanders off»: such partition of the ways of the main characters would create a void in the hearts of many people, but to me it would look like «bittersilly» and grotesque, completely out of place even if to take into account the 3rd trilogy that was supossed to be done back then. It would be ok if ROTJ was a single movie, but in the context of trilogy as it had been carried out by the beginning of the filming of ROTJ it looked utterly absurd. If you wanted to kill Han, you should’ve done it in ESB otherwise leave him alive and happy. I see the disturbing trend that the more a movie is «darker» and «unexpected» the more it’s considered «better» and vice versa. I disagree. The Original Star Wars set up a tone of optimism not pessimism of «dark» or «bittersweat» endings. I don’t support the notion that the creator should kowtow the audience, but in this case the filmmakers should’ve considered what audiences were expecting. But even judging from formal viewpoint that I covered above the «bittersweat» finale was inappropriate. Sorry, Gary Kurtz, you missed your chance to kill Solo, crown Leia as «the Queen of her people», and make Luke rove in every land. These ideas were from much earlier treatments that had seen its days. They even hadn’t been written in any of Jedi drafts. I agree with Kershner what he hated about American movies all of them having happy endings as opposed to european movies but again many seem to forget that Star Wars is a fairly tail, not a life drama. Fairy tails have happy endings, not «bittersweat» ones. And, seriously, ESB served perfectly as the MIDDLE act of the story! The conclusion should be and was light. If Kershner and Kurtz ideas won then we’d have ESB-2, not only Han dead but Vader unmasked ant other such «elaborate» decisions.