Mark Hamill Shares What His Favorite 'Star Wars' Movie Is

As with any cast member of a tentpole movie franchise or enduring series, one of the most common questions is “What’s your favorite?” As fans, we want to know because we wonder if they share the same opinion and have the same taste as us and if it’s for the same reasons. We also want to know if it differs from ours and why. I find it all fascinating. My son, for instance, loves the universally panned (by critics and Joe Public alike), and he claims, “anyone who says they don’t like it, doesn’t understand it.” So when Mark Hamill shares what his favorite Star Wars film is, we take note.

Although Star Wars fans are known to be some of the most argumentative group of people (with a shared passion) on the planet, there is one thing, in general, most seem to agree on. The Empire Strikes Back is the best film of the whole series.

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So, it’s not surprising that I felt that even before I read what Mark Hamill’s favorite Star Wars film was, I was sure I knew it was Episode V. Why? For several reasons…

1. In addition to discussing those reasons, I want to offer some thoughts on why I think it is still the best Star Wars film to date for the rest of this post.

2. Purely from an acting point of view and in terms of character development, Mark Hamill gets to dig a little deeper with his portrayal of Luke Skywalker than he did in A New Hope and even Return of the Jedi.

3. While A New Hope is iconic and definitely a beautifully-crafted popcorn muncher of a space caper, The Empire Strikes Back adds the meat to the bones. Yes, you care about the farm boy, about the princess who has just seen her planet wiped out, and see Darth Vader as a menacing badass of a villain.

However, in The Empire Strikes Back, we really see what’s going on, like how complicated Vader is and that Luke has to do a lot of growing up throughout that film, even before he comes face to face with Vader and then finds out who he really is

4. Vader and the Emperor look like they have won, and all is lost for the good guys. By the end of the movie, all that hope established in the first film seems to be in tatters. Han is out of the picture. Luke loses an arm and is confused about everything and angry. It ends on such a downbeat.

5. It is the best film. There is no debate or argument required (Okay, that might be just my opinion…well, and Mark Hamill’s too, but I stand by it) While some of the other chapters are good Star Wars films, and some are very hit and miss, The Empire Strikes Back, and perhaps Rogue One (another purely personal opinion being thrown in there) are the two films that stand out as great films beyond their place in the timeline and canon.

The Empire Strikes Back still has the incredibly campy stuff and is a space caper with a lot of pew-pews but has a more profound tale of morality and darkness and light.

In his interview, Hamill picked up on that last point when he said, “It’s like, pick your favorite child. You like them all for different reasons. I guess I’d have to go with Empire, only because it was so unexpected to have the protagonist be so soundly defeated. Losing the hand and his dad Vader, all of it was pretty unexpected.”

Remember When Empire Was Divisive?

It’s fascinating how that quote from Hamill ended because back when it was initially released, it was not as clear-cut the favorite and actually was very divisive among critics and movie fans because of the very things it’s applauded for today; the darker story and elements. Empire also became the archetype for the second film in each Star Wars trilogies.

Empire The Groundbreaker

The enduring thing for me in The Empire Strikes Back from a storytelling and filmmaking standpoint is that the antagonists (Vader, the Emperor, the Empire) win. Even though that has become a pretty common trope, it is still something that many directors and writers avoid because…well, they figure most people want a happy ending.

Dark films with dark themes and endings, even in the big franchises when you expect the heroes to always win. Avengers: Infinity War is an obvious and recent example of that.

Given how opinions of films change with time and a sense of nostalgia and the addition of series like The Clone Wars, it will be interesting to see if one of the other films will ever take the place of Empire as the overall favorite. I believe it’s unlikely, simply because The Empire Strikes Back is an extraordinary visual and storytelling feast from start to finish. It may not be flawless, but it’s pretty damn close to it.

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Written by Paul Stewart

Source(s): Slashfilm

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