PICTURE if you will a fourteen foot heaving mass of sybaritic ugliness, with a striking resemblance to Roy Jenkins. was it the Kahn of Hut?) chief obstacle to the progress of our chirpy bunch of heroes and heroines in the first twenty minutes of the latest edition of the Star War saga Luke Skywalker, Chewhacca, Princess Liah, friends and 'droids' are attempting to rescue Hans Solo, who has.ended up as the likely prize exhibit in cavern of alien delights at the end Wars film The Empire Strikes Back.
Reviewed by Brian Heron Poor old Hans has been fused with 'carbonite' making him look like a new variety of ice lolly. He looks down at assorted allen grotesques jiggling around to music reminiscent of the Shadows, while their master eats live frogs and drops various recalcitrants down a hole to be eaten by THING! big horrible The Return of the Jedi (pro-republican knights, trained in the Mysteries of the universe) full Battle in Europe Sunday 26 June Channel 4 DONALD Trelford, editor of the Observer chairs discussion in which a bunch of EuroMean journalists grill the JATC Supreme Commander of Europe on the nuclear build-up. Dimbiedy the British scribbler.
Vietnam - The End of the Tunnel Monday 27 June, 9.00, Channel 4 LAST of the series ailu the end of the war. The takes us to April 1975 when the North Vietnamese tanks finally roll into the Presidential Palace. There you have the Hut of Kahn (or — Return of the Jedi. 'horrible things' that try I various ways• lo cal ult LUVU CUD. When they are not being saved digestion they are whizzing around in and on various supersonic ware, while all around are, literally, loosing their heads.
The film pokes some fun (Hut's guards walking versions of Disney rhinoceros guards the cartoon Robin Hood.) Ferocious teddy bears prove the undoing of the villains in the end. But that is about all that remains of any subtleround technological As Reagan puts more miles between us and Vietnam all the shades between Gone is the and wilful princess. Gone is the reluctant and nervols no who Necor the loot, the machinery need for heavy philosophising which marked The Empire Strikes Back.
The nearest thing characters in the Return of the Jedi are the androids. The humans have become complete ciphers.
Believe it or not this detracts The makers of Superman started with …ine presence Marlon Brando. Star Wars Guiness When they appear to take it seriously it helps you swallow the mixture. The Return starts with princess Liah being 'forced' into a bikini for the glutenous delight of Hut. So its back to those lurid covers of the 1940's Sci-Fi magazines. Semi-clad 'victim' being advanced upon by rapacious alien. A tried and true formula:
bit depressing now as it was then. stability of the set up) are She is able to faithtully. spoon after both men. One neatly turns out to be her brother. Instead the 'real' conflict resolves itself into the fight between walker his dad Darth Vadar. Will young Luke be won over to the dark side of the force b' Lets dear on dad sees te throttle him and cut head off?
'Yes, ... I can feel your Kill your alcer C... father and become my ap pasty-faced emperor. When Luke refuses the emperor flashes a few thousand volts and dear old dad doesn't know which way to jump But everything turns out for the best in the end. We see Alec Guiness. Yoda (the now dead master of the good side of the force) and dad all lined up grinning away in their ethereal glow and their change of linen. They look like the picture of heaven my old prayer book.
have joined '5 per cent of the Gross' club I'll still queue for the next one though.
Britain in the Thirties Thursday 30 June, BBC2 FOLLOWING the gramme about Mosley's followers, this week the series looks at the influx of refugees Germany during the thirties.
It concentrates mainly on the benefits to science in this country by the recruitment of Jewish scientists.
Civilisation Friday 1 July, BBC2 HAVING departed for the Great Art Gallery In The Sky, the BBC showing Lord Kenneth Clark's very knowledgable but somewhat elitist (to say the least) look at the development of civilisation and culture.
Worth watching
you can put up with the pretentiousness.