Film Analysis: The Empire Strikes Back

In the film, The Empire Strikes Back, Luke unconsciously follows in his father’s footsteps by being corrupted by anger and impatience in his training with Yoda, his encounter with his own soul in the cave on Dagobah, and in his showdown with Darth Vader in the carbon freezing chamber in Cloud City. First, Luke subconsciously follows in his father’s footsteps when he exhibits anger and impatience in his training with Yoda. After the battle of Hoth, Luke travels to Dagobah with his trusty droid companion, R2-D2, and the two crash land on Dagobah in search of the infamous Jedi Master, Yoda. Luke sets up a camp right outside the crashed X-wing Starfighter, and as he prepares his camp, a strange creature appears and the two converse. Luke tells
the creature he is looking for Yoda, and the creature acknowledges this and tells Luke he knows Yoda. Luke demonstrates his first outburst of anger and impatience when he is talking to the creature, who is Yoda, but Luke is unaware, and when he says “You don’t even know who I am. (fed up) Oh, I don’t even know what I’m doing here. We’re wasting our time” and the creature turns away from Luke and speaks to nothing “I cannot teach him. The boy has no patience” (Lucas The Empire Strikes Back 50). The conversation between Yoda and Luke shows that Luke is impatient, just like his father, by using irony, which expresses itself in the situation because Luke is trying to search for Yoda, but he already found Yoda, to show that Luke needs to grasp the situation before trying to rush ahead. Luke, also, shows his anger and his anger infers that he is following in his father’s footsteps because he is getting fed up with the only person that he could use to find the Jedi master for training. Lucas uses this to show that Luke is following, slowly, in his father’s footsteps by showing that Luke is impatient and angry because he abuses the knowledge of Yoda, undermines him, and wastes his time.
Lucas delineates this first part of the transformation, so that Luke will proceed to face other transformations by the time he faces off with Darth Vader later in the film. Secondly, Luke unintentionally follows in Darth Vader’s footsteps when he faces his anger, which expresses itself as Darth Vader, in a cave on Dagobah. With Yoda training Luke, they both go through a set of exercises with Luke carrying Yoda on his back. Following, Yoda warns Luke that anger, fear, and aggression led to the dark side, and Luke challenges what Yoda says and shows his impatience and Luke doesn’t understand how to distinguish from the good and bad side and Yoda does not tell him a straight answer so Luke challenges him “But tell me why I can’t…” and Yoda replies “No, no, there is no why.” This shows Luke and his impatience before going into the cave to face himself. Luke enters a cave because he senses cold and death. Luke enters the cave only to find Darth Vader, and quickly, Luke shows his anger and impatience, just like his father. Luke “sidesteps perfectly and slashes at Vader with his sword”
(56). Vader is decapitated and Luke sees himself in the black helmet of Vader. To describe Luke and his actions during the altercation with Vader shows that he is impatient because it exemplifies that Luke is hasty in his actions and never lets the opponent take the first swing, or action. This also shows that Luke exhibits his anger because he takes off Vader’s head instead of just trying to hurt him so that he could capture him, instead of executing him, even though, this is just a pigment of Luke and his imagination. Lucas uses this to show that Luke is becoming more and more like his father and that he is one step closer to passing over into the dark side because all of his anger and resentment, as well as his impatience. He also uses it to show that Luke still has much to learn in order to become a Jedi Knight because he cannot control his emotions, so that means he could not control the spiritual force called the Force. Lastly, Luke follows, unintentionally, in his father’s footsteps when he duels against Darth Vader in Cloud City. After abandoning his training with Yoda, Luke flies to Cloud City in order to attempt and save his friends from the malevolent grip of the Empire. Luke tries to find his friends, but is led straight into a trap set by Vader. Luke is led to the carbon freezing chamber, which the people of Cloud City use to freeze various things, and he is met by none other than Darth Vader. Luke, immediately, goes to his father’s instincts and shows his impatience and aggression. Luke “ignites his sword . .
. lunges, but Vader repels the blow” and then “aggressively drives Vader back” (82). The duel between Luke and Darth Vader shows that Luke is becoming just like Vader himself because Luke uses aggression instead of the calm, serene nature of the Force. It shows that Luke is impatient and angry because he results to violence first instead of waiting, again, for his opponent to strike first. Luke uses his anger to try and wear down Vader, but instead Vader gets the upper hand because Luke is impatient and does not plan his moves accordingly and Vader beats him. He also lets his anger get to him and strikes wildly instead of letting the Force flow through him like most Jedi allow the Force to do. Lucas uses this to show, ultimately, that Luke is unintentionally following in his father’s footsteps and that without a change in path Luke will most likely go over to the dark side just like his father before him, who was overrun with anger and impatience. In the film, The Empire Strikes Back, Luke unconsciously follows in his father’s footsteps by being corrupted by anger and impatience in his training with Yoda, his encounter with his own soul in the cave on Dagobah, and in his showdown with Darth Vader in the carbon freezing chamber in Cloud
City.