Empire Strikes Back

When George Lucas created Star Wars, people instantly fell in love. The release of Star Wars (1977) brought on a new interest in space fantasy that inspired and captured the attention of millions around the world . Three years later Empire Strikes Back (1980) was released and to the surprise of most, was held higher than it’s predecessor. The film is known for it’s tone that differs from the rest of the Star Wars films. Of the many scenes or sequences that express the film’s tone, the lightsaber battle between Luke and Darth Vader best portray it through mise-en-scene, camera angles/shots, and lighting.
Mise-en-scene is commonly characterised by how everything in the frame is organized. The whole sequence is organized very well and it is clear that Lucas put a lot of work in preparation for this …show more content…
The first scene of the lightsaber battle is a great example. Lucas uses a diverse pool of shots and angles in this scene. Lucas used many neutral angle full shots throughout the battle. When Luke sees Vader for the first time, there is a extreme close-up showing Luke’s almost lack of emotion. As Luke slowly walks up the stairs, a mild low-angle shot shows Vader’s dominance. The early stages of the battle has a lot of long, low angle shots mixed with close-up neutral shots of Luke. For most of the battle, Vader is on the left. This draws our eye to Vader because we naturally view things from left to right. Moving to the climax of the sequence, Lucas uses a lot of long, extreme low and high angle shots. There is a lot of extreme close-up shots from high or low angles looking at Luke or Vader respectively. Lucas uses the extreme close-ups of Luke to show emotion through his face. We see the fear knowing he had been defeated and the shock of learning Vader is his father.Lucas uses the close-up shots of Vader to also convey emotion, but does it by the movement of his