In addition to Pac-Man, today is also the 30th anniversary of another major signpost in the pop-cultural landscape: the premiere of The Empire Strikes Back. But perhaps you’ve not heard of it? It was, after all, just a little-known sequel to a cultish fantasy movie about a farm boy who befriends a trashcan and a walking carpet…

Okay, so that was a really lame attempt at humor. Sorry about that.

I don’t have much to say about the movie itself. We’ve all seen it. We all know the shocking twist at the end. Popular consensus long ago determined it was the best of the six Star Wars films, and I don’t disagree with that assessment. (I do, however, hold about the same level of esteem for both it and the original Star Wars. They’re quite different in many respects, but I love them equally.) It remains, even after decades, the textbook example of everything a good sequel ought to do: its plot was original and compelling, not simply a redo of the original; it expanded upon the established setting without rewriting any rules; it deepened the familiar characters, added new ones that were equally as interesting and/or lovable, and offered more sophisticated themes. Like the Harry Potter novels would do years later, the Star Wars saga was growing up, keeping pace with the maturation of its primary fanbase. It’s a shame that Return of the Jedi was in so many ways a step backwards… but that’s a blog entry for another time.

I have several strong memories associated with the release of Empire, most notably the fiendish way in which I found out about Vader’s big revelation to Luke, but quite honestly, I don’t have the time right now to do that story justice. So what I’d like to do is share with you the little-seen teaser trailer that was released a year before the movie itself:

In my humble opinion, this is the best trailer of the entire saga, possibly one of the best movie trailers ever. It is certainly unique in that I remember seeing it for the first time about as clearly as I do the film itself. It was attached to the 1979 re-release of the original Star Wars, which I of course talked my parents into taking me to, despite having seen it at least a dozen times in its first go-round. I was nine years old, and had a vague notion of what sequels were, as well as an equally vague notion that there was one in the works for Star Wars. But I had no idea I was about to see a preview for it. When the logo appeared, I thought it was the start of the movie… but no, the announcer was talking about a new adventure, new worlds, new monsters. I was caught completely by surprise and left trembling, literally trembling, with excitement. It was the first time I’d felt that level of anticipation for anything, and I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve felt that way since.

I’ve long thought that this trailer was technically brilliant. I’m sure that Ralph McQuarrie’s beautiful pre-production art was used instead of actual footage because there wasn’t much completed footage available at that point, but in a way, the artwork was better. It whet our appetites without really showing us what Empire was going to look like, and that drove our imaginations wild for the next year until the movie itself arrived. And that technique of vertical “strips” assembling themselves into completed images of our heroes was amazing, completely memorable and, as far as I know, unique to this one trailer. At least I can’t recall ever seeing it anywhere else.

Movies used to be much more disposable in the pre-home-video days — you saw them in the theater, and maybe on television a year later, and then they were gone forever. Trailers were even more ephemeral, and for years this one was just a memory that no one else seemed to share. Then one day my friend Cheno showed me a genuine treasure, an ancient Beta cassette of his father’s, the first home-video release of Star Wars, and right there at the beginning of the tape was… the trailer. More or less exactly as I remembered it. The sense of vindication was sweet indeed. As I recall, Cheno told me he’d hung onto that particular cassette and the equipment to play it just because of the trailer. How quaint all that seems now, in the age of YouTube and DVD extras.

The Web is filled today with tributes, blog entries, and news articles dedicated to this anniversary. If you want to read further, I suggest you start with StarWars.com, the official Lucasfilm website. It has a special Empire theme at the moment, as well as a whole lot of articles, a nifty photo gallery, and other goodies to peruse. I recommend in particular this piece, which documents a special charity screening of the movie that was held Wednesday night at the Arclight Theater in Los Angeles. Harrison Ford, who is known to shy away from Star Wars-related events, was in attendance, a most unexpected occurrence, along with Billy Dee Williams, Peter Mayhew (the man inside Chewbacca’s yak fur), and “Young Obi-Wan,” Ewan McGregor. The photos that accompany the article are cleverly laid alongside vintage publicity stills, and it’s fascinating, if a little sobering, to see how our heroes have changed. I was moved nearly to tears by this one of “Han” and “Chewie” standing together again — Peter Mayhew does not look well to my eye, and Harrison is suddenly so long in the tooth. Damn, I guess we’re all getting old. I’m now older than Ford was when he made Empire, and he himself is older now than Alec Guinness was when they filmed the original Star Wars. Now there’s something that’s tough to wrap my head around.

I wish I’d known about this screening before the fact, as that’s something that would’ve been worth flying out to LA to see. I guess I’ll just have to settle for my DVD when I get home tonight. It’s a bootleg, of course, of the pre-1997 edition… the true edition. I hope one day to be vindicated on that front as well…