RIP Irvin Kershner

So I’m really at a loss for words here. Odds are if you’re reading this that you know how I feel about Star Wars and The Empire Strikes
Back in particular. This morning Irvin Kershner, the director of The
Empire Strikes Back, passed away.

Kershner brought the best out of the characters and worlds that George had created. It was his directing, along with Kasdan’s script,
that elevated this world above the realm of Kid’s Stuff. He showed us
our heroes at their lowest points, and though they ended the film
defeated, he saw brought them to a point of hope, though greatly
diminished from where they left off in A New Hope. Kershner made these
characters real, even giving life to a little green elf and a man in
head-to-toe golden plastic. Good vs. Evil is universal, fairy tale
conflict, but a crisis of faith (Luke), spirituality (Yoda), love (Han
and Leia) and heartbreaking betrayal (Lando/Vader’s big reveal) are
universal, real-world struggles that strike a chord in all of us one
way or another. These were the things that made The Empire Strikes
Back, despite all of it’s otherworldly spectacle, the most
down-to-Earth of the films.

Star Wars’ legacy has already shown that, 30 years after The Empire Strikes Back was released, these films still prove to be just as
powerful as ever. Kershner’s contribution both to that legacy and to
fandom as whole, like the Force, will always be with us.