The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

Empire Strikes Back director Kershner dies at 87

A great disturbance in the Force

Ensure Ease of Recovery with Asigra’s Agentless Software

Irvin Kershner, the man who directed what was arguably the best of the six Star Wars films — The Empire Strikes Back — died over the weekend at his home in Los Angeles. He was 87.

"I knew that it was going to be a dark film, with more depth to the characters than in the first film," Kershner told Vanity Fair about Empire just last month. "It took a few years for the critics to catch up with the film and to see it as a fairy tale rather than a comic book."

Kershner also told Vanity Fair that he turned down the third film in the original trilogy, Return of the Jedi, because "After working for two years and nine months doing Empire, and having it take so much out of my life and having given me so much, I felt that it was a complete experience and it was time to move on."

But after a few years spent recovering from that experience, Kershner "would have said yes" to directing one of the prequels to the original trilogy.

Had he been asked, perhaps The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith would have been less execrable — although it would have taken a cinematic genius to have raised the character of Jar-Jar Binks from insufferable to merely tolerable.

Although he may be best remembered for his work with Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, and that blonde kid from Corvette Summer in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, Kershner also directed Richard Harris in The Return of Man Called Horse, George C. Scott in The Flim-Flam Man, Barbra Streisand in Up the Sandbox, Faye Dunaway in Eyes of Laura Mars, and Sean Connery in Never Say Never Again.

Before directing and co-writing his first feature film — Shakeout on Dope Street — in 1958, Kershner studied music and art in his home town of Philadelphia, along with painting and photography in New York and Los Angeles. His acting credits included an appearance in Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ. ®

Regcast training : Hyper-V 3.0, VM high availability and disaster recovery

jar jar binks could be made tolerable

If Obe Wan Kenobi came back and sliced and diced him with a light sabre within seconds of his first appearance.

5
0

Sad indeed

Lucas has had 3 good movies (One collaberative). THX 1138, Star Wars and Indiana Jones with Spielberg. Everything else he has touched has been crap.

Kershner took the second installment and made it the best of the Star Wars saga. If Lucas had directed I am sure we would have had to suffer more Ewok and Jar Jar annoyances and it probably would have flopped.

3
0

Hum?

..."what was arguably the best of the six Star Wars films ..."??? It was the best. Period. He should have directed all of them and done the screenplay as well. And written the story too. The original trilogy is light years better than that 3 pieces of crap people call "new movies" and Empire Strikes Back is the best of the 3 original ones.

3
0

More from The Register

Reg hack prepares to live off wondergloop Soylent
Our man puts eating people powder Food 2.0 to the test
Oracle's Ellison outlines plans for Hawaiian Electriclarryland
Solar-sourced eau d'Oracle the key to island revival
 breaking news
Who's to be the next Dr Who? Sherlock beats Maurice - says you
Cumberbatch EXTERMINATES Ayoade, Atkinson, Pegg - and Tilda Swinton
Chewbacca held up by TSA stormtroopers for having light sabre
'Mrauuun' 'Right, Chewie, giant man do need giant cane'
 breaking news
I told you I'd be back: Arnie set for another career revival
Don't worry voters, Schwarzenegger's talking about Terminator 5
Waving an Eye-of-Sauron pulsating mock cock? STOP IMMEDIATELY
Mains-powered sex aid recalled ... Ultimate O turns into ultimate OH NO
ROBOT COW teaches Saudi kids where milk comes from
Udderly ridiculous bovine intervention is beyond the pail
At #guardiancoffee, we can now TASTE THE FUTURE through a PRISM!
I have measured out my life in espresso spoons
Soylent days and soylent nights
Food 2.0 fails the post-pub nosh test
Google erases G8 venue from Earth: Microsoft doesn't
Cameron and chums to hold confab in empty field, apparently