The Empire Strikes Back is a "junk movie" — Page 10

ProgMetalMan said:

So, uh, on topic, I wonder what this guy thought of TPM.

FWIW, "this guy" is Miss Manners.  If she saw it, she most certainly hated it.  If you take her complaints about Empire and substitute TPM, they all actually apply much better (no plot structure, check, no character studies let alone character development, check, no emotional or philosophical point, check).  If you take her compliments about Empire and substitute TPM, they make no sense at all (Yoda is touted as a successful addition--in TPM, yikes, not so much).

Also, I think I'd like to add there's a pretty apparent bias here when you think about who's writing.  Her objection to the Force centers on its apparent acceptance of rudeness (she's Miss Manners, remember?).  Read through that lens.

I think she's quite right to imply Empire is clearly more directly descended from popular pulp serial works than high culture (score notwithstanding--I do find it odd that this Wagner fan didn't give a little credit for the score).  I think at the time she wrote this, a lot of critics would have shared the value judgment she put on that distinction.  It's easy to look back on this and laugh because the very idea of high culture has now thoroughly collapsed in the modern world.  She didn't know this--she was at the tail end of a different era.  She thought Cultured People would still be attending the rarefied opera and shunning the common cinema.  That's really where she was ultimately wrong.