I was watching Steven Miles’ “52 Reasons I Make Movies” video when a snippet from the Luke vs. Darth Vader showdown in Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back played. I haven’t seen the film in some time, but I was reminded of the scene’s composition and how quiet it is, choosing to rely on Ben Burtt‘s wonderful sound design. It isn’t until about three minutes in that John Williams‘ score kicks in and even then it fades away to nothing more than a whisper throughout much of the rest of the sequence.
There were few moments such as this to come in the next four Star Wars films and I hope, with J.J. Abrams co-writing Star Wars: Episode VII with Empire co-writer Lawrence Kasdan that memories of scenes such as this played a part in the writing process. Ideas of how to dial it back and getting away from the childishness of the prequels, but remaining a part of the Star Wars universe, best captured (in my opinion) in the scene below.
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