It brings me no pleasure to be writing back-to-back articles reporting on the deaths of two well-known industry individuals, but such is the occasion. It’s been reported that Irvin Kershner, director of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, passed away in Los Angeles on Monday morning at the age of 87. His goddaughter Adriana Santini reported the news to AFP.
On top of Empire Strikes Back, his widely seen films include the somewhat unofficial James Bond flick Never Say Never Again and RoboCop 2.
The best thing I can say about Kershner is that he made the best Star Wars film of the six and what he brought to Empire Strikes Back has was never duplicated in any of the four installments that followed.
One thing people that don’t watch a lot of movies love to ask is, “Why do you want to watch a movie more than once?” Sometimes it takes that many times to watch a movie before you realize how good or bad it truly is. Perhaps if everyone had only watched the first three Star Wars movies only once the wow factor of the first film may be what most people remember, but as time wears on and you watch the movies more and more, the flaws, or lack thereof, become more apparent and nothing could be closer to the truth when comparing the Star Wars films with Kershner’s Empire. It’s a perfect example of how repeated viewings tell a much larger story.
