From the Archive: A Review of 'Return of the Jedi'

Today, Star Wars celebrates its 40th anniversary: the first movie, Episode IV – A New Hope, was released on May 25, 1977. That film was awarded six Academy Awards, including Best Original Score and Best Visual Effects, and held the record for highest-grossing film until 1982, when E.T. surpassed it. 

The third movie in the original trilogy was released exactly six years after the first, on May 25, 1983. Two days before it came out, the WTTW show Sneak Previews with Jeffrey Lyons and Neal Gabler reviewed the film and included interviews with the director Richard Marquand and actor Anthony Daniels, who played C-3PO. Listen to Lyons and Gabler enthuse over the special effects, hear Marquand discuss how this film is different from the previous two, and watch Daniels compare acting with R2-D2 to conversing with a teacup. (One intriguing historical irony is the remark that George Lucas is the Disney of the 1980s, while Disney now owns the Star Wars franchise.)