Star Wars: The Empire Strikes back is one of the best science fiction films ever made. It's also 30 years old today, so we give you official permission to feel old. While every movie in the original trilogy is endlessly quoted and referenced in pop culture, Empire Strikes Back is the film that comes the closest to being a great movie.

The film is jet black in tone. Luke lost the only person he knew that connected him to his father, and to the legacy of the Jedi Knights, when Obi-Wan was struck down by Vader in A New Hope (or as older Ars staffers still refer to it, Star Wars). Han Solo is biding his time with the rebels before leaving to return to his life of being a professional smuggler and scoundrel; the bounty on his head is becoming too much to bear. The rebels may have destroyed the Death Star, but they're still undersupplied and on the run, holed up on a frozen hell of a planet. Darth Vader is scouring space to find them, and he seems oddly preoccupied with a young pilot named Luke Skywalker. It only goes downhill from there.

Lucas backed off, to the credit of the film

Empire Strikes Back may have had the least input from George Lucas, and the all-too-human characters and dialog is proof that this was a good move. The film was written by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan, based on story notes from Lucas. Star Wars is above everything else a grand adventure, and Kasdan would go on to write another legendary pulpy adventure when he penned Raiders of the Lost Ark. Watch the opening scenes with Han Solo at Echo Base as Harrison Ford chews the scenery with glee. "Then I'll see you in hell!" he calls to another soldier after being told that it's suicide to go after a lost Luke Skywalker. Kasdan knew how to write for Ford's charms, and Han Solo steals the scenes he's in.

Mark Hamill suffered a car accident before filming began, which lead to the Wampa attack and healing process in the film to explain his scarred face. Skywalker seems lost in the movie, nearly dying on Hoth and fighting his impetuous nature during his training with Yoda. Near the end, he is soundly beaten by Darth Vader in their first confrontation, losing both his hand and a piece of his soul when he finds out why Vader has been hunting him with such single-mindedness.

Image credit: 20th Century Fox

It's impossible to watch Empire without noticing the striking visual direction of Irvin Kershner, who went on to direct... Robocop 2? Echo Base looked like an actual military base, and the AT-AT assault on the installation as the rebels bravely try to buy their friends time to escape by counter-attacking with outgunned Snowspeeders was amazing. Who can forget the first glimpse we're given of the four-legged mechanical beasts through the binoculars of a rebel soldier? Luke Skywalker was first and foremost a pilot before he was a Jedi, and this gave us another chance to catch a glimpse of the leader he could become.

Yoda proved latex was more powerful than a computer

It's not worth dragging the new trilogy out to beat it up again, but pay attention to Yoda in this film and contrast him with the soulless creation of the later films. Brought to life in both physical performance and voice by Frank Oz, Yoda in Empire Strikes Back was emotional, sly, and as the movie progressed, we began to see the hidden wisdom.

This was also the first real explanation we were given of the Force, and Yoda was an eloquent teacher, speaking of a religion he had spent his life studying. Luke tries to convince Yoda to teach him the Jedi arts, but Yoda quickly shames him. "A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind. This one a long time have I watched," Yoda says. "All his life has he looked away... to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. What he was doing. Adventure. Heh. Excitement. Heh. A Jedi craves not these things. You are reckless."

Everyone focuses on the "do or do not" line from Luke's training sequences, but the ensuing speech is much better. Yoda is trying to convince Skywalker that he is able to lift his ship out of the swamp where it rests. Luke, of course, thinks the task is impossible. This is why Yoda tells him:

Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? And well you should not. For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you; here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes. Even between the land and the ship.

These aren't hollow words, as Yoda proceeds to lift Luke's sunken X-Wing from the swamp using the Force. While Lucas later thought Yoda needed to fight to seem like a powerful character, this feels better: Yoda proves his strength by calmly doing what seems to be the impossible. Luke is energized by the act, but Yoda seems defeated. "I don't believe it!" Skywalker says breathlessly.

"That is why you fail," is the reply.

This is good writing, and compelling characters. In the prequel trilogy, we learn that the Force is just parasites in our blood. In Empire it's something magical, something that lives inside all of us. We are told that we can do amazing things by mastering our feelings and believing in something greater than ourselves. We are, as Yoda puts it, luminous beings, not just flesh and blood. Is it any surprise this movie remains so amazing to children and adults alike?

He's got a cape, a Lobot, and he can talk to the ladies

Lando Calrissian. Even the name has a certain flair to it. He runs Cloud City, trying to make something approaching an honest living while staying under the Empire's radar. It doesn't work, as we all know, and the scene where the door opens to reveal Darth Vader sitting down to dinner like he's simply waiting for some friends is more shocking for the civility of the setting.

Lando isn't a bad guy. Like the best characters in film, he has his own motivations, and is trapped inside an impossible situation. Lose everything, or give up an old friend who happens to be flying around the galaxy in your old ship? (Is there any quote from the new trilogy that's as good as Han Solo's parting shot to Leia? "I love you!" she tells Han as he's lowered into the carbonite chamber to become Jabba's favorite decoration. "I know," is his reply, as he waits for his fate.)

Calrissian later comes around, but things are bleak. Luke is told the truth about his father after leaving Yoda's training too early, although that timeframe has always been slightly confusing if you stop to think about it.

The second film in the original trilogy puts all the characters in the worst situations possible, and it ends without resolving much. Han Solo is gone, but there is a rescue mission being planned. Luke is left to deal with the fact that everything he thought he knew has been a clever falsehood meant to guard him from his past. Then we get credits. Even standing alone, before we're introduced to Ewoks and a giant space slug that's also a gangster, this is an amazing film.

How best to watch it now?

There is no Blu-ray version of the original trilogy, and the only DVDs available have been covered in CGI, color-corrected, and smoothed endlessly so that none of the original film grain can be seen. They're flashy, overly bright, hollow versions of the film we remember.

While we'll likely never get an official release that's worth a damn—read the amazing story of the original copy of the film from the incomparable Secret History of Star Wars site to learn why—there is a bootleg version of the Laserdisc edition that continues to look amazing, sound great, and Han continues to shoot first. Edit: In 2006 there was a DVD release of the original trilogy that was unaltered, and this is another good place to start. While the transfer is non-anamorphic widescreen and the sound is only presented in 2.0 stereo, it is certainly worth a damn. Thanks to the comments for pointing this out.

In conclusion

Empire Strikes Back is a science fiction movie with a soul and a beating heart. The characters are put in peril, they say interesting things to each other, and they learn about themselves and the world around them. Why is this such a great movie when the rest of the series is so flawed? It's endlessly arguable, but it doesn't take away from the fact that it's a film that stands the test of time, and remains a grand adventure. Happy 30th birthday, Empire.