Hamill-time

For part of my birthday present, my wife watched "EMPIRE STRIKES BACK" with me (she said she knew it would be a treat for me because I often hold off on watching such things as often as I'd like to, because if I did that we'd have to get a divorce; or at least serious marriage counseling; and she was right).

So aside from the usual stuff you notice as you watch something for the zillionth time (like how smooth the transitions are between scenes; we just saw R2D2 get eaten and spit out by a swamp monster, then we go to 3PO in the Falcon asking, "Where is R2 when I need him?"), I realized that Mark Hamill is sadly underrated in this film. He has only two scenes in the entire movie with another human face. Every other scene is with a puppet, a mask, a monster or all of the above.

What's more is he makes those puppet/mask/monster scenes work, and therefore makes the entire movie work. Everyone wanted to give Frank Oz all the credit for making Yoda effective, but if Hamill didn't appear like he was buying it, none of us would have either.

It could have looked horrible. Acting without any real people around you is very difficult. When you don't do it well, it looks like this...

Or this...


Or this...

What you want is this:
A confused, yet ambitious look of desire and hope. He wants to be great. He needs to learn patience and responsibility.

Yeah, I'm probably over stating his abilities purely based on my own nostalgia. I probably take Luke more seriously than I should because I'm hanging onto the feelings I had as a child, letting my memories and perceptions become truth. BIG DEAL. That doesn't mean it's NOT true. And in this case it is. 100%.

We'd be lost without you, Mark. You were the rock.