Feature Category: Article

BOOK WORMHOLE: JONATHAN STRANGE & MR NORRELL – VOLUME I

After two books greatly steeped in aliens and androids and lasers, I thought it was time to delve into one of the other areas of genre fiction, specifically fantasy. I’ve read fantasy before, and in fact loved it first before I fell for science fiction. I’m not sure how far back it goes; The Wizard of Oz was a definite start, The Chronicles of Narnia another. I fell hard and fast for Harry Potter and spent six months reading The Lord of the Rings (and somehow managed to do all of my school work too). It was somewhere between Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince that my dad read an article about book recommendations for Potter fans, and pointed out Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell to me in a bookshop. At the time, it was in plain black hardback, striking and intriguing, but daunting in its size (and this from the girl who later read Deathly Hallows in two days).

I ignored it.

Now, seven years after its original release in 2004, I have finally decided to give it the attention it deserves—volume by volume. Because at 1006 pages the paperback makes a satisfying thump when you set it on a table; the hardcover could probably kill someone. If I have one criticism it’s that it would be far easier to read if it was broken up into three separate books, one for each volume, much like a number of editions of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy have been. Carting it around to coffee shops and on spontaneous holidays is difficult when you have to put it in a separate canvas bag because it won’t fit in your purse.

Set in early 19^th Century England, the text reflects it, although I’m not sure if it’s to the novel’s betterment. While the prose has that formal Austen-esque tone to it, it’s not as weighty; not as rife with semi-colons or paragraph-long sentences. In fact, it’s a surprisingly easy read. Clarke does, however, throw in the occasional Romantic spelling, such as “chuse” and shewed” (in fact, I believe those are the only two words spelt differently in the whole of the first volume), and I can’t say I’m a fan of it. As opposed to the stylistic nod it’s probably supposed to be, I found it jarring, each use a stone in the text making my eyes trip and stumble right out of the narrative. But it’s the only thing that does, as aside from the prose there is also another nod to 19^th Century literature: pictures.

For the most part, pictures are now firmly relegated to children’s books, however, illustrations have been used in literature for centuries—literature firmly aimed at adults. Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist was illustrated, for example, and I happen to have a lovely copy of Jane Eyre from the 1930s that is filled with block prints. The illustrations are beautiful, almost haunting, and by artist Portia Rosenberg. They are reminiscent of the ones in the American editions of the Harry Potter books (drawn by Mary GrandPré), although they are lacking in the shocked expressions—wide eyes and round mouths—that seem so prominent in GrandPré’s work. There’s something sinister about them, something hazy, the edges smudged and all done up in shades of grey. They’re like flashes from a dream, and they support the text wonderfully, bolstering ones image of the described characters rather than serving to paint another picture of them entirely.

Supporting the text are also copious footnotes, sometimes ones so long that they go on for pages, but always giving more detail, always serving to make the alternate universe Clarke is creating fuller. Many of the footnotes regard texts mentioned by Mr Norrell, or stories mentioned in passing in the primary narrative. It’s all very Terry Pratchett to me (as footnotes are one of his trademarks), although in this case while the deviations are enjoyable, sometimes their length can become distracting.

The first of the three volumes is titled “Mr Norrell”, although it hardly starts with him. Instead, the book opens with The Learned Society of York Magicians, who instead of waving wands and brewing potions “read each other long, dull papers on the history of English magic”. These so-called “gentleman-magicians”, who can no more practice magic than we readers can, “enjoy[ed] a reputation as some of the wisest and most magical men in Yorkshire”, and yet, at the behest of one of their newest members, they contact a “practical magician”: Mr Norrell. It’s an interesting contrast, the academic magicians versus the practitioner, and one can’t help but wonder if Clarke is making some kind of comment on those who spend their lives talking about something without ever actually having experienced it themselves. The researcher versus the scientist? The critic versus the writer? In any case, the York Society is painted as being ineffectual and silly which, if a comparison does lie within the narrative, doesn’t bode well for researchers, critics, and academics. When they do meet him, Mr Norrell isn’t at all like the York Society expects, being “small” with a quiet voice “as if he were not used to speaking his thoughts out loud”. Appearance is a common theme within the book, and within 19^th Century literature as well, the motif’s typical operation being that a character’s personality reflects in their physical appearance. Fair faces and blonde curls mean innocence and virtue, while dark hair and sharp eyes mean cruelty and intelligence and, in women, wild sexuality. George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss uses this very motif to juxtapose two of her characters, the primary one not, in fact, being the virtuous blonde, and many more authors have both made use of this motif and subverted it. Clarke seems to be doing a bit of both, because often times the expectations many of the characters have of magicians are dashed. Magicians are supposed to look like Vinculus, “lank hair and a dirty yellow curtain”, doing spells on the street and, generally, swindling people. They are not supposed to be small men who wear wigs and read books, although cheating people seems to be something both Norrell and Vinculus have in common. It’s early on in the volume that Norrell offers to show the York Society practical magic, all for the price of them renouncing their titles as gentleman-magicians and ceasing their study of magic. It’s a perfect example of Clarke’s subversion of the motif, because just as none of the characters would mistake Norrell for a magician on sight, neither would they think he would be so cruel as to try and stamp out others’ pursuit of magic.

In Norrell, there’s a very interesting (and very real) contradiction of ideas, because as I said, he hordes all knowledge and practical magical application for himself, however, his move to London is exactly the opposite: the desire for a Renaissance. Like works such as Vanity Fair, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell does not shy away from the political occurrences happening within the book’s time period. The novel opens a few years into the Napoleonic Wars (which ran from 1803 to 1815), and it plays a key part in the first volume. Mr Norrell uproots himself from his home in Yorkshire to London, with a desire to use his magic to help defeat the French, and to revive practical English magic. But for all that he yearns for English magic to flourish, he wants to be the only one wielding it. This kind of dichotomy is typical of 19^th Century fiction, two forces—two worlds—often opposing one another. Rich versus poor and man versus woman are very popular, and there are numerous examples here in this novel: the British versus the French; magical versus non-magical; self-interest versus selflessness; fairy world versus human world. Even the brief glimpses we are given of Jonathan Strange via footnotes and some not-terribly-cryptic foreshadowing lead one to wondering if Strange and Norrell will be pitted against one another. Their introductions are very different, after all, because for all that it is Norrell’s volume, there are glimpses of Strange in there too.

The first time we’re introduced to him, on the first page, is through a footnote, a reference to a book he had written. There are many more like that, some even referencing Strange as Norrell’s pupil, and I’m not entirely sure I like that. Granted, it does make one wonder, as the volume progresses, how Norrell eventually acquires Strange as a student. Is Strange a distant relative? A homeless boy taken in á la Oliver Twist? One of those Vinculus-like charlatan magicians who actually has magical talent? However, revealing the nature of Norrell and Strange’s eventual relationship is almost disappointing and, for all that I am still unsure about whether or not I like it, it took some of the magic out of their story for me. Nevertheless, after numerous footnotes, in Chapter 14, we are introduced to Laurence Strange, Jonathan’s father. Laurence Strange is Ebenezer Scrooge without the tragic past, without any qualities that would make him redeemable save for allowing his son to grow up largely away from him (although even that is due to a desire to “avoid[ing] paying for the boy’s food and clothes for months at a time”). The chapter is largely devoted to him, although we get glimpses of his son: Jonathan Strange who is quiet, Jonathan Strange who hides sherry bottles in odd places, Jonathan Strange who doesn’t appear to have any magical aptitude at all.

Of course, with two more volumes before us, it is only a matter of time before Strange the Younger develops an interest in magic, one that holds his attention longer than any other profession he’s entered into before. A prophecy also heralds his interest, a popular plot device in fantasy fiction. I will admit that, post-Harry Potter, another fantasy story with its leads entangled in a prophecy is a little bit eye-roll worthy. However, prophecy has a long history in fantasy literature, reaching back into what could be called the beginnings of fantasy: ancient myth. Not only did the ancient Greeks firmly believe in the divinations from the Oracle at Delphi, but their myths are riddled with prophecies, most often concerning what happens when they are ignored, such as with the Trojan War. Clarke even borrows a plot device from the aforementioned war myth, casting Vinculus in the role of Cassandra, who delivered the prophecy of the destruction of Troy at the hands of her brother Paris.

Stupidly, no one believed her.

Despite readers being bluntly told that Strange becomes Norrell’s pupil, it does make one wonder how easy it’s going to be for that to occur. Strange, who is wealthy with an estate in Shropshire, is hardly likely to stroll up to Mr Norrell’s front door in London asking to be tutored, and Norrell is hardly likely to take him on seeing as he would rather be the only magician in Britain. But obviously it does happen, and it is something that keeps you moving towards the second volume. To Clarke’s credit, Norrell’s campaign to revive English magic is not an easy one, adding a realism which I love. Prior to his move, one of the members of the York Society, Mr Segundus, writes “AN APPEAL TO THE FRIENDS OF ENGLISH MAGIC” in the hopes of drumming up support, but it isn’t instantaneous, and since Norrell is as solitary and socially awkward as any massive bibliophile can be (and I say this as a bibliophile myself), he ends up acquiring assistance in order to do what he wishes to do: help in the war.

How Norrell goes about convincing the government of his usefulness is when magic truly starts to take hold in the novel. Oh, magic was performed before, but the enchantment used at the beginning of the volume pales in comparison to what comes later. The novel is not about the kind of magic that makes you think of sunshine, that enchants teapots and does the washing and turns bees to butterflies. Instead it’s the kind of magic that makes you think of winter, the very opening month of the book, January with slate-coloured skies and frigid breezes and everything cast in cold blue light. It’s the kind of magic that tricks armies and does unnatural things, with consequences this volume only touches on.

Because this early on, things can only get worse.

The first volume of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is set up rather brilliantly. It introduces the titular characters, major themes, as well as an antagonist known only as “the gentleman with the thistle-down hair”. While the content of the next two volumes is hinted at, it’s just enough to keep you reading, as, of course, is the prose, modeled after Romantic writers and wonderfully crafted. It does everything that a good book should, to ensure that its readers will refuse to put it down.

I know it’s cast its spell on me.

Article originally published in July 2011.

Five Films to Check Out on Horror Channel This Week – 211220

To save you getting lockdown blues, we’re going to be giving you our picks of what to watch on Horror Channel each week. Here are some of our favourites this week:

Tuesday December 22nd, 8pm – Andromeda – If the Wheel is Fixed

Season Three of the Kevin Sorbo-starring sci-fi show begins with another exciting episode in which the crew of the Andromeda face a threat in the form of a dimensional tunnel.

Wednesday December 23th, 10.50pm – Scanners (1981)

David Cronenberg – the king of body horror – had his mainstream breakthrough with this head-exploding classic. Michael Ironside as one of the telekinetic few who wants to take down a company who look to weaponise the ‘scanners’.

Thursday December 24th, 4pm – This Island Earth (1955)

A genuine sci-fi classic in which aliens contact a group of scientists to help them on their home planet, which is at war with a neighbouring race. Featuring the memorable Metaluna Mutant, this is a Christmas treat you won’t want to miss.

Friday December 25th, 10.55pm – Dr Terror’s House of Horrors (1965)

An Amicus anthology that’s perfect for Christmas night. Starring horror stalwarts Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, as well as less likely actors such as Alan Freeman, Roy Castle, Kenny Lynch, and Donald Sutherland, it’s one of the best of the portmanteau films from Hammer’s closest rival.

Saturday December 26th, 10.55pm – Tower Block (2012)

Following a teenager’s murder, a block of flats becomes under siege from a sniper intent on silencing the tenants. Written by James Moran (Cockneys vs Zombies), it’s a taut, bloody thriller starring Sheridan Smith, Julie Graham, Russell Tovey, Jack O’Connell.

Tune into Horror Channel on Sky 317, Virgin 149, Freeview 68, Freesat 138.

COMMEMORATION OF AN EMPIRE: 40 THINGS WE LOVE ABOUT THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

It could come as a surprise to some readers, but fandom’s relationship with the second entry in the STAR WARS saga wasn’t the universal love-in it currently is, with audiences initially split by the movie’s shocking tonal swerve, its then-frustrating cliffhanger, and the peculiar choice to have a muppet as a main character. Of course, over time, these criticisms would eventually become the very aspects that elevated its status to not only one of the best sequels ever made, but to one of the best movies ever made, period. Prompted by the film’s ruby anniversary (“most impressive”), we reconvened our own Jedi Council to brainstorm a countdown that would pay an appropriate tribute to the George Lucas-produced, Irvin Kershner-directed masterpiece. Punch it.…

THAT TWIST

Let’s get it right out of the way upfront. Yes, there have been great twists in cinema history – Bruce Willis being dead, that yucky bit in Oldboy, Kevin Spacey being a sex pest all along (not to mention Keyser Söze, obviously) – but few compare to the absolute jaw-dropper towards the end of Empire. For the best part of two movies now we’d been set up to think Vader was an out-and-out bad guy who Luke was destined to destroy. And then with just four words, Lucas turns the entire saga on its head. It adds depth to both characters and sets things up for a thrilling final instalment. The Empire Strikes Back’s climax may lack A New Hope and Return of the Jedi’s epic space battles, but it achieves more with dialogue than a thousand exploding Death Stars ever could. | IR

THE EXECUTOR

TESB introduces us to The Executor, a Super Star Destroyer that dwarfs all other Imperial vessels around it (although it is still a fraction of the size of the Death Star). It’s also Vader’s home from home. It’s the ultimate statement of the Empire’s might, and even when doing nothing is meant to look terrifying. It replaced The Devastator as Vader’s flagship, and is among the largest vehicles ever made for the Empire. As if to emphasise its sheer scale, rarely does the entire ship fit into a single frame during the movie, unless seen from a great distance. Maybe Vader is compensating for something.… | JH

IT MADE HARRISON FORD A TRUE MOVIE STAR

While it’s a misconception that Harrison Ford broke through from complete anonymity to superstardom in 1977’s Star Wars (he’d had supporting roles in George Lucas’ American Graffiti, then one of the highest-grossing movies ever, and Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation), it was undoubtedly the film that made him a familiar name to cinema-goers. Roles in Heroes, Force 10 from Navarone, Hanover Street, Apocalypse Now, The Frisco Kid, and the ill-fated More American Graffiti, all followed A New Hope, but The Empire Strikes Back cemented his position and adjusted his route to megastardom. How? Beyond a stellar performance, it was Empire that convinced Steven Spielberg to persuade George Lucas that the man to play Indiana Jones was right under their nose, and the rest is movie history. | MN

DAGOBAH

The mist-laden, swamp and forest-filled world that Yoda took refuge on after the Jedi Order fell in the wake of Order 66, is a planet that has a mystic feel unlike any other. Largely absent of major activity, this nature-dominated world is strong with the Force and feels drawn straight out of classic myth and fables. The film – for large stretches of the plot – strands Luke here, but it was a perfect setting for the young man to take his first steps into becoming a Jedi master. Danger at every turn, droid-devouring creatures, and a spooky cave that’ll make you lose your head in shock. And speaking of which.… | JB

THE DARK SIDE CAVE

The moment Luke enters the ‘cave’ on Dagobah (through a hole in the ground), clambering through the roots of the trees, his trusty lightsaber by his side (“What’s in there?”; “Only what you take with you…”) heralds perhaps the closest the saga gets to classic cinematic horror. The motif of the cave as a metaphor for self-discovery goes back to the birth of stories, and here Luke’s anxieties about the power of the Dark Side come to fore. It’s the foreboding atmosphere and use of slow-motion that seals the deal for the audience, though. Like Perseus on the quest for Medusa’s head, Luke faces his biggest fear but we are all disturbed by what he finds. | MU

THE WAMPA

The wampa is akin to the Abominable Snowman, except with a pair of goat horns. Heavy, tall, and powerful, it’s the top predator on Hoth. One wampa falls foul of a momentous moment for Luke: the first time you see him use the Force and swing a lightsaber in anger. Interestingly, wampas were originally going to have a much larger role in the film. George Lucas considered opening Empire with a full-scale wampa assault on Echo Base, scenes that were shot but ultimately not included. A wampa pen was also going to be included inside the rebel base itself, an idea eventually scrapped, probably after it dawned on everyone just how stupid keeping those things in your home would be! | JH

THE CONTINUATION OF A STAR WARS TRADITION

There are a few Star Wars franchise traditions to speak of, but the frequent hand/limb-lopping is one not always discussed. Disney’s Star Wars flicks have been lighter with this but, as continued by the prequels, the original trilogy had an early history of appendage assault (most commonly hands being taken). The first occasion was in A New Hope with C-3PO losing his arm after a great fall, followed not long after by Ponda Baba’s infamous arm loss in the Cantina. However, Empire embraces the trend, with Luke disarming an unfortunate wampa early on, before Vader does the opposite of giving Luke a hand in the final clash, by lightsabering off our hero’s mitt! (Mind you, Luke gives daddy dearest a receipt the next time they duel.) | JB

LOBOT

In the same way that Batman has Alfred, Lando has Lobot, his servant and Cloud City computer liaison officer. Sporting some chunky cybernetic implants around his head, Lobot is loyal to Lando and plays a small but important role in helping his boss double-cross the Empire. He doesn’t say much. In fact, he doesn’t say anything. But he adds the kind of detail and intrigue that the most imaginative Star Wars worlds have. Since Empire, his backstory has been fleshed out considerably, and now incorporates just how he ended up with those implants and his struggle to liberate Bespin from Imperial control following Lando, Leia, Luke, and Chewie’s escape. | JH

THE TOYS

It’s 1980. Your mind has just been freshly blown by the first-ever Star Wars sequel. But those 124 minutes flew by so fast you barely had time to process what you saw and the VHS release was five years away! What to do?! Get yourself straight to Toy & Hobby, that’s what. With a new Star Wars movie comes cool new toys, and no amount of fully-animatronic Baby Yodas will ever compare to the potency of the original 3.75” action figure line from Kenner/Palitoy, which was replenished with over 20 new TESB-inspired additions. Who needs a HD Digital Download on repeat when you could simply replay everything you (thought you) saw in the movie with a dozen or so bits of brightly coloured plastic and the boundless power of a child’s imagination! And if, like many of us, that collection was unceremoniously binned the minute you moved out of your parents’ house, we have good news – Hasbro has recently revisited the original TESB range with their Retro and Vintage Collections! Wonder if the Imperial Tie Fighter Pilot still smells of strawberries? | KH

THE RESILIENCE OF THE CAST & CREW

Ask anyone what their favourite Empire moments are, and more often than not, the Hoth scenes are seared into their memories. They’re unforgettable for the cast and crew too – for entirely different reasons. Filming in Finse, Norway was a frozen nightmare, the area getting hit with a historic blizzard and subzero temperatures. When the crew first arrived they found all their equipment and sets buried in snow. It was so bad that Luke’s escape from the Wampa Cave was actually filmed from the ski lodge where they were staying, the camera positioned in a doorway and Hamill himself the only one of the crew on the outside! No one has a better Hoth story than Harrison Ford though, who was scheduled later in the shoot than everyone else. By the time Ford arrived, he had to catch a ride to Finse on a snowplough sent to clear an avalanche. He got there around midnight, drunk as a skunk after sharing a bottle of vodka with the driver! | VB

2-1B

Star Wars droids span all shapes and sizes, from resilient astromechs to overwhelming battle droid infantries, but sometimes droids not involved on the front line are just as awesome. The Empire Strikes Back presents one such contender, in medical droid 2-1B, an Echo Base-stationed Rebel Alliance droid responsible for fixing Luke up after his confrontation with the wampa. This is not some mere background character; this droid is actually a great piece of world-building, representing our first look into the medical side of Star Wars. Since Empire, others have enriched this area, such as The Last Jedi’s IT-S00.2 medical droid, or Revenge of the Sith’s Chroon-Tan B-Machine midwife droids with their bothersome ice cream scoop-like hands! 2-1B, we salute you! | JB

ADMIRAL OZZEL FAILING VADER FOR THE LAST TIME

One of the coolest – and darkest – scenes in The Empire Strikes Back is undoubtedly Darth Vader’s Force-choke. Set up perfectly by John Williams’ Imperial March, an unhappy Vader instantly displays his dissatisfaction with an unlucky Admiral Ozzel – seen elsewhere on a comms screen – by choking him to death using nothing but the Force. As well as some great, almost OTT acting by Michael Sheard, it’s made even better as Captain Piett is promoted in the very same moment his superior collapses to the floor. As well as inspiring many a hilarious meme, George Lucas called it his favourite death scene. | JA

CARBON FREEZING

Vader’s plan for Luke, and Han Solo’s fate, both involved them being frozen in carbonite, a process that looks every bit as haunting as it sounds. Once the process is complete, and Han’s tortured figure is seen beneath the hard carbonite, it is nothing short of chilling. This is easily one of the most brutal moments of any Star Wars movie. The drama is heightened by there being no guarantee that Han will even survive, and the way it cuts Han and Leia’s blossoming romance short. It is this heart-wrenching moment that also seems to turn Lando against his Imperial allies. Since TESB, carbon freezing has cropped up multiple times in the galaxy far, far away, and was recently seen as Din Djarin’s method of choice when it came to delivering his bounties in The Mandalorian. | JH

THE BATTLE OF HOTH

Despite the fact that a slightly ridiculous looking, bosom-shaped cannon neutralised the Star Destroyer fleet to ensure the Rebel’s escape from the Hoth system, this was still one hell of a battle! Drawing influence from real trench warfare, it was filled with explosive action and is one of Star Wars’ most beloved and iconic conflicts. The David and Goliath battle between the Empire’s mighty war machines even went on to influence Spider-Man himself! (Though we hear Ant-Man wasn’t such a big fan. So to speak.) | JB

THE AT-AT REVEAL

Continuing on from the last entry, has there been a cooler moment in the whole franchise than when these hulking behemoths appeared on the horizon through the icy mist and set seismographs into spasms? With armour too strong for blasters, the Rebels knew that they had to get closer to take them on if they were to have any chance of survival. Standing for All Terrain Armoured Transport, these metallic Trojan horses were originally developed during the Clone Wars and stood at over 20 metres tall, at least until Luke realised that their major weak point was to just hogtie the damn things with the Snowspeeder tow cables. R.I.P. Dak Ralter! | JG

CLOUD CITY

High above the clouds of Bespin, there floats a beautiful metropolis named Cloud City. Run by Lando Calrissian, it profits by mining Tibanna gas from the planet below. It is also home to a myriad of races who see it as a sanctuary from the events unfolding elsewhere in the galaxy. Cutting a deal to keep the Empire out of this haven, Lando sets into motion a series of events that sees our heroes find the city a potential deathtrap as both Vader and Boba Fett arrive to take them apart, one by one. The views are understandably amazing, even if the air may be a little thin. | JG

LANDO CALRISSIAN

Ol’ smoothie managed to stand out as one of Empire’s – and indeed Star Wars’ – most memorable characters. Charming and roguish with a glint in his eye, Lando’s good looks betray his originally dishonest intentions. But after his shock at realising that the Empire are, in fact, the bad guys (who’d have thought?), he becomes the hero we know him as now. His relationship to Han is as complicated as it needs to be, and his attempts to woo Leia fall somewhat flat, but most importantly, he emerges as an important ally in the fight against evil. His rousing return in The Rise of Skywalker is a testament to how well this dapper, smooth-talking gentleman went down in Star Wars folklore. | JH

THE MYSTERY OF LANDO’S FALCON FASHION

Dapper Lando may be, but there’s one fun, fan-debated exception: after spending most of the film in a dashing cape, Calrissian can be seen piloting the Millennium Falcon as they set off to rescue Han.… while wearing Solo’s clothes. It’s apparently a meaningless costume choice, but once you see it, it’s just a bit weird. Family Guy even took time out of their Empire Strikes Back parody specifically to point this out (and with Brian talking directly to the camera, it was one of the most memorable parts of that special). But we should point out that Lando fled Cloud City in a hurry. We see his journey to the Falcon; at no point did he have the chance to stop at his place and pack. And after an adrenaline-charged chase through the city, he was probably stinking. So he goes into the Falcon and has to make do with what’s there. Which turns out to be a dead ringer for Han’s shirt and vest combo. So then, do we blame Lando for wearing Han’s clothes? No. We blame Han for only owning one outfit. | SV

JULIAN GLOVER

The Empire Strikes Back, like all movies in the franchise, has its fair share of cameos, but Julian Glover’s maybe our favourite. Many know Glover as The Last Crusade’s Walter Donovan, or For Your Eyes Only’s Aristotle Kristatos, but he’s had an enormous career spanning TV (Game of Thrones) and film (Harry Potter) and his small role in Star Wars was brief but impactful. His 3.75” action figure was simply named ‘AT-AT Commander’ by Kenner, and he really was ‘the’ commander as he led the Empire to their victory on Hoth by taking down the Rebel’s shield generator. As General Maximilian Veers, Glover’s part in Star Wars may only be small, but the beloved classical English actor gave us another memorable villain to add to the annals. | JB

THE OTHER CAMEOS

Further to Glover’s appearance, the movie contains many more noteworthy cameos. The legendary conceptual designer and artist Ralph McQuarrie features as Pharl McQuarrie, a Rebel General on Hoth, and he was joined by A New Hope’s matte artist and The Empire Strikes Back’s matte painting supervisor Harrison Ellenshaw, who likewise played a Hoth Rebel. In fact, the Rebellion had more stars in their midst, with Cheers actor (and future Pixar stalwart) John Ratzenberger playing a Rebel, alongside actor Treat Williams, who ended up playing an Echo Base Trooper after visiting the set. Meanwhile, actor Jeremy Bulloch, while playing Boba Fett, also featured in a cameo role as Empire Lieutenant Sheckil at Cloud City, after filling in for an unavailable actor. | JB

WILLROW HOOD

Another blink-and-you’ll-miss chap occupying the corridors of Cloud City is Willrow Hood, aka Ice Cream Guy, who is seen running with an odd-looking device in his hands. According to the lore (and confirmed in a Season 1 episode of The Mandalorian), he’s carrying a camtono, a sort of high-tech safe. To those in the know though, it’s obviously an ice cream maker. (In fact, camtono means ice cream!) He’s also got one of the easiest costumes to make, because all you need is a Sear’s brand Model 245 Ice Cream Freezer (or a bucket) and an orange boiler suit. This has led to a thing called ‘The Running of the Hoods’, a tradition at Star Wars Celebration, in which everyone dresses up as Willrow and runs around the convention centre. A great example of fans being fans! | EF

THE SCORE

Has there ever been a hotter streak in music than the run John Williams enjoyed between Jaws in 1975 and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in 1984? Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, Raiders, E.T., all indelible compositions in the soundtrack of cinema that resonate as strongly with us today as they did on release. Add to that incredible list The Empire Strikes Back, the gold standard for movie sequel scores. It wasn’t the first time he had revisited prior works – 1978’s Jaws 2 holds that distinction – but who can argue against The Imperial March, The Asteroid Field, and Yoda’s Theme. Williams would compose further entries for Star Wars, Indy, Jurassic Park, and Harry Potter, but The Empire Strikes Back stands above them all. | MN

THE BOUNTY HUNTERS

Star Wars has sometimes excelled at making classic characters out of limited screen time, but The Empire Strikes Back, in many ways, perfected the trend – one scene, in particular, stands out like a hefty bounty! On a bridge of Vader’s Super Star Destroyer, the heavy-breathing Sith lord addresses a ragtag group of colourful mercenaries, each cooler looking than the last, who are tasked to hunt down the crew of the Millennium Falcon and bring them back alive and un-disintegrated. Since then, each bounty hunter here has garnered a fan following, from Dengar and Bossk’s The Clone Wars adventures, to IG-88’s Forces of Destiny appearances, to 4-LOM and Zuckuss’ expanded universe stories. Then there’s that other guy…. | JB

BOBA FETT

If we’re honest, Boba Fett didn’t do anything particularly exciting in the entirety of Empire. He spoke a few lines, waited in debris for the Falcon to set off before tailing it, and fired a gun a few times. But sometimes, when you’re just badass, that’s all you need. Fett has been responsible for much Star Wars lore ever since, from the Mandalorians to the Kaminoan cloners, to the bounty hunters guild, he was the character that inspired it all. Few people in Star Wars have as huge a fanbase. While he technically debuted in the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special, the feared bounty hunter made his real start in Irvin Kershner’s masterpiece and – unlike so many other antagonists – he actually got his man! | JB

TAUNTAUNS

Although they may resemble two-legged oversized goats, Tauntauns are actually a species of snow lizard that roam wild on Hoth. Domesticated by the Rebels to use as transport on a planet that freezes vehicle engines, they prove to be very useful when patrols are needed to keep a lookout for any pesky Imperial droids or wandering wampas. Considering they are accustomed to the weather conditions, they aren’t afraid of having a moan when they’re getting too cold. Oh, and in case you were wondering, they smell worse on the inside than they do on the outside, even if they make a handy sleeping bag in an icy pinch. | JG

FORCE GHOST OBI-WAN

When Obi-Wan tells Vader that he will become more powerful than he could possibly imagine should he be defeated, it wasn’t clear what he meant. Empire gives us a clue. Just before Luke abandons Yoda’s training to help his friends, Obi-Wan appears in a ghost form, blue light emanating from around his body. Until now, he had only been a voice that talked to Luke seemingly from nowhere. To ‘survive’ death in this way points to the incredible potential of the Force, a power that is expanded on even further in the subsequent films. It’s just yet another way that Empire added to Star Wars lore in fascinating, mind-bending ways. | JH

THE ASTEROID CHASE

Backed by John Williams’ absolutely riveting score which is at its very height in this breathtaking sequence, Han, Leia, Chewbacca, and C-3PO’s daring and death-defying navigation of an asteroid field to evade the Empire’s Star Destroyers was pure cinema. It’s an edge of seat exhilaration with a pulse-racing exhibition of big-screen heroics. Sat there seeing (or rather experiencing) Captain Solo defy the odds (not that we’d ever tell him about ‘em) and enter an asteroid field for cover and escape Vader has to be one of Star Wars’ most exciting moments, not to mention one of the most constantly unpredictable…. | JB

THE EXOGORTH

….Case in point: when the Millennium Falcon crew found a cave to ride out the TIE Bombers raids in, all seemed well, until some pesky Mynocks that is! If only those winged critters and their power cable gnawing was all that they had to worry about. “This is no cave,” says Solo to a startled Leia. Indeed not, and as a big set of pearly whites start slowly closing ahead of the Falcon, cinema audiences everywhere met the mighty Exogorth, commonly referred to as ‘that space slug’! Our heroes almost got digested there; a peril that would actually repeat itself in the next film with the Sarlaac. (Note to self: avoid toothy space landscapes.) | JB

LORTH NEEDA’S APOLOGY

Lorth Needa is the Imperial Lieutenant Commander of the Star Destroyer Avenger, who gives chase to the Millennium Falcon shortly after it escapes the asteroid field. However, he manages to lose them, unsure where it could have gone. Humbled, he boards The Executor and apologises to Vader directly. The look on his face says he probably knows what’s coming. Vader takes it in good spirits, choking the life out of him before mockingly accepting his apology, ticking off yet another cool-but-disturbing dark lord moment. The Falcon, meanwhile, floats away with the rest of the garbage. Watch closely for a semi-blooper when troops come to take Needa’s body away. He visibly locks his legs to help himself up, even though, y’know, he’s dead and all. | JH

THE UGNAUGHTS

Isn’t it amazing how something so small can years later turn into something so big? Star Wars is full of these instances, and The Empire Strikes Back, in particular, has a few examples. Already we’ve mentioned the bounty hunters and big bad Boba but little did we know the hardworking Gentes natives the Ugnaughts, introduced in this film, would have a sizeable legacy, in fact, this often gets overlooked (sorry, we really aren’t intending for all these short puns, honest). Maybe this is largely down to Nick Nolte’s character Kuiil in The Mandalorian reviving interest in the alien species and shedding light on their past as Imperial slaves. Respect the Ugnaughts. We have spoken. | JB

THE GREAT AND POWERFUL OZ

Diehard Frank Oz fans know Yoda is one of his greatest characters, but the role almost wasn’t his. Initially offered to Lucas’ friend Jim Henson, he was unable to do it and suggested Oz as a replacement. Little did they know, Oz was about to perform one of the most difficult roles of his lifetime. In order to stay hidden on set, Oz crammed his six-foot, two-inches, twelve and a half stone body into a tiny bunker, making it impossible for him to see or hear anything. Even worse, the mineral oil used to create Dagobah’s swamp-like atmosphere made him so nauseous he had to wear a gas mask. To lighten the mood, Oz had one of his other iconic characters, Miss Piggy, visit the set – much to the delight of co-star Mark Hamill! | VB

BEN BURTT

As much as the visual spectacles of the galaxy that had been developed by ILM or the creature shop creations of Stuart Freeborn, the sounds of Star Wars helped anchor us in the reality of the exotic worlds we were about to visit. By the time we reached The Empire Strikes Back, creatures like the tauntaun, the wampa, and mynocks were added to the pantheon we had met in 1977 and A New Hope. The scream of the TIE Fighter, the blast of a laser, the roar of the Falcon or the clank of an AT-AT, all created and manipulated by his team and married to the iconic music of John Williams. Star Wars owes Burtt and Sprocket Systems (the original name of Skywalker Sound) a huge debt. | MN

SNOWTROOPERS

Specialist stormtroopers who were trained for operations in arctic conditions – although we’re not too sure how many ice planets there are in the Star Wars universe beyond Hoth and Carlac – these Imperial troops used breath heaters, insulated suits, and protective hoods along with belt capes, rugged boots and survival backpacks. The invasion of Echo Base managed to put the Rebels on the back foot, causing them to evacuate, but in a similar vein to their trooper brethren, these hooded army men still struggle to shoot for toffee, allowing Solo and the others to escape to fight another day. | JG

THE ROMANCE

“I love you”, “I know”. We all know it and love it. Crazy to think were it not for Harrison Ford having a chat with the makers, we might have got a bit of wordier exchange. The budding and feisty romance between Han and Leia is undoubtedly Star Wars’ greatest ever love story. Free of some of the, shall we say, soppier dialogue (oh George you hopeless romantic you) that Anakin and Padmé had to do battle with years later, Han and Leia’s connection is more real, built on resilience and strength, as the cause brings together two warriors, two allies, two rebels in love, and makes the Cloud City carbonate-freezing send-off more emotionally powerful. Just don’t dwell on that Luke and Leia snog. | JB

THE COMEDY

One area people often overlook in critical discussion of Empire is the film’s impeccable sense of humour. Of course, when you watch it, you come away reeling from the twist, thrilled by Luke vs Vader, or humming John Williams’ Imperial March, but you also find yourself quoting some great lines of comic dialogue. “Who’s scruffy lookin’” and “laugh it up fuzzball”, anyone? Han was dynamite in this film, with his back and forths with Leia or C-3PO, and let’s not forget Yoda’s tomfoolery, or C-3PO’s problematic re-assembly in Cloud City where we learn that while Chewie plays a mean game of Dejarik, the Wookiee certainly ain’t got a future in droid maintenance! | JB

IT GAVE US OUR FIRST PEEK UNDER THE HOOD

Up until The Empire Strikes Back, Vader was virtually a monster; his backstory was that of a failed pupil turned “more machine than man”. It was not until Empire that the galaxy’s most feared individual was anything closely resembling a human. Of course, this was cemented later in the film with that twist, but a good while before that shattering moment, there is a brief glimpse at the scarred head beneath the helmet. As General Veers is set to update Vader, we see him sat in a meditation chamber, and before the machine fits his helmet back in place, we see Vader is still a man, and this glimpse at his inner humanity (literally) seeds things to come. Anakin still lives within that machine. | JB

THE ADVANCEMENTS IN SPFX TECHNOLOGY

After the release of Star Wars, the special effects genie was out of the bottle as the wizards at ILM moved to other projects – Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Battlestar Galactica to name two – to hone their craft for the advancements that The Empire Strikes Back would require. The scale of work required for the sequel was dizzying compared to the 1977 original, and advancements in technology and process included go-motion, which gave ILM the capacity to add motion blur to tauntauns and AT-ATs. Quad printers to eliminate matte lines, the Dykstraflex camera system, and Kodak manufacturing bespoke film stock for ILM to use would combine to see Empire push the envelope even further on the road to the company’s magnum opus, Return of the Jedi. | MN

THE EMPEROR

We weren’t fully introduced to the evil Sith lord Emperor Palpatine until Ian McDiarmid donned the robe in the next film, but The Empire Strikes Back gave us our first-ever glimpse. Darth Vader was bad news, but little did we know that the order of command only grew more sinister, as a remarkably hierodule-like Vader answers the call of his master by hologram, and anyone who Vader kneels to is seriously not to be trifled with (less kneel before Zod, more kneel before old sod). Originally played by a masked Marjorie Eaton, with Clive Revill providing the voice, 2004 saw McDiarmid reprise his iconic role and replace them, in what has actually become one of the most well-received adjustments to the original movies. | JB

IT’S A SEQUEL THAT DIDN’T PLAY BY THE RULES

Looking back at Star Wars 42 years on, its heroes journey storyline now seems well-trod. Series such as Harry Potter and The Matrix have followed in its path, but no one could have imagined the twisting road The Empire Strikes Back would take its viewers on. It placed the main battle at the start of the film, found a diminutive master hiding on a swamp planet, and revealed the villain was the heroes father. What two films are more different than A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back? TESB took the spirit of its predecessor, but instead of rehashing it as so many sequels do, the movie wove a very different, darker path towards the trilogy conclusion three years later. | MN

THE EMPIRE DOES, INDEED, STRIKE BACK

The title warned us that the bad guys were going to come back to kick the Rebellion’s arse, but it’s amazing just how far the movie pushes it. Even before the Rebel’s Hoth base is destroyed, Luke – the seemingly invincible hero – gets the shit kicked out of him by a yeti. Then, after the crew of the Falcon spend most of the movie fleeing for their lives, we get to that ending. Lando’s betrayal, Han frozen in carbonite then shipped off to Jabba, and Luke thoroughly bested by Vader – both physically mutilated and emotionally crushed. Not only was it the best set-up for a final act ever, for an audience primed to expect more of A New Hope’s feel-good heroics it was a devastating gut-punch, unforgettable even four decades later. | IR

[This article was originally published in issue 472, July 2020.]

BOOK WORMHOLE: DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?

Blade Runner is my dad’s favourite film. All the while I was growing up, not a month wouldn’t go by that it wasn’t on the television, be it because he put in the VHS (and later, DVD), or because he had found one of the stations playing it and couldn’t resist even having it on in the background. It has been a nigh-constant presence in my life, always hovering, but I never actually sat down to watch it. As a kid, the dark cinematography was unappealing. Reading books and wearing out my tape of The Wizard of Oz seemed a better use of my time. Later, Japanese anime and Victorian fiction and spending time with my friends overcame any desire I had to watch my dad’s film.

Teenagers…

Now, as an adult (or as adult as I’ll ever get), my tastes have changed—widened—and my foray into science fiction has led me to a classic not just of the genre, but also of film itself. Imagine my surprise to discover it was first a book?

I’m not sure why Ridley Scott et al changed the title, aside from it being a bit of a mouthful, but Blade Runner was first penned as Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick in 1968. Said title is a question that never gets answered, but the rest of the book more than makes up for it. Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter, tasked with ‘retiring’ six androids. With the money he makes, he hopes to buy a real sheep, to replace the electric one that sits on the roof of his apartment building amongst everyone else’s real animals. Because in this post-World War Terminus Earth, those who hadn’t packed up and headed for Mars are obsessed with owning real animals, with the hope they can feed them and breed them and, someday, make Earth like it was before birds started dropping out of sky. Of course, androids and toxic nuclear fallout don’t make it easy.

The book is vastly different from the film, and not just in the change of the title and the tweaking of names (the Rosen Association of the book becoming the Tyrell Corporation, for example). Many of the primary themes of the novel are absent from the film, and while it makes the film no less entertaining, I believe the novel is far richer for their presence. And it is a rich book; Dick’s use of language is fantastic, and I could go on and on about his lovely turns of phrase like “despotic force of time” and the way language works with character and his vivid, almost cinematic imagery. There are a number of plotlines within the book as well that aren’t fully fleshed out within the film, such as John Isidore’s, a “special” (those with “distorted genes” and a low IQ courtesy of the nuclear fallout) and the sole occupant of an apartment building who makes friends with androids, a character who is sweet and painfully human. But the novel’s complexity isn’t overwhelming, and it’s a surprisingly quick read. Which, I think, is the best way to do it, because it’s a bleak book; not only in action, but also in how many of the themes of the novel play out.

Nature is one of the big themes—if not the biggest—of the novel. The toxic state of the planet affects everyone’s daily lives, from their having to dress in protective gear such as an “Ajax model Mountibank Lead Codpiece” to living in nigh-constant fear that the nuclear fallout will erode their brain and twist their DNA until they’re labeled “special”—defective. But it is in animal ownership that this theme is strongly and unceasingly displayed, starting first with Deckard’s electric sheep. Owning an animal is a status symbol, more so in the novel than it is for us now, with celebrities carting around doll-like dogs in their designer handbags, like the dog was something that came with their piece of Prada. But it isn’t just status that has people keeping horses and goats on the roofs of their apartments—it’s necessity. It’s unheard of, in the novel’s alternate 1990s, to find an animal in the wild, and because of their scarcity, they dominate most of the dialogue. Deckard keeps a well-thumbed catalogue with him at all times, called “Sidney’s Animal & Fowl”, and his thoughts are consumed with replacing his electric sheep with a real animal. It is, I think, the driving force behind everything he does. Oh, sure, he questions other things (his feelings towards androids, for example) and he needs the money he makes for supporting himself and his wife, Iran, but those are always passing thoughts. It’s the animals he dwells on. It’s like being back in the 19^th Century, or any time before technology and urban sprawl reduced our reliance on, and subsequently the importance of, animals. In many cultures, animals were traded, used as a form of currency, and in fact a conversation between Deckard and one of his neighbours, Bill Barbour, sounds very much like one that might have happened between farmers years ago, when having prime livestock was the focus of their lives.

The psychological aspect of pet ownership has been a frequent focus in twentieth century psychology. Pets provide companionship and security, but within the novel, the way characters cling to animal ownership demonstrates just how important animals are to human life. Not just having a pet—a dog or cat or rabbit—but having nature present in our lives. The environmental message in the book is huge, and one that, as an environmentalist, I eagerly devoured. As previously stated, the world of the novel is one almost bereft of nature. The air is toxic, the flora brittle and contaminated, and the fauna almost non-existent. It’s the very definition of a wasteland, one that it is obvious humans can’t sanely inhabit. With so many people living in cities, you might think that you would get on fine without pigeons dirtying your car windscreen and flies invading your home. Ants and mosquitoes and spiders, hell, life would be perfect without insects ruining picnics and the clothes you forgot to stuff full of mothballs. But imagine walking down a street, with a shining sun and wind in the trees and there is…silence. Imagine strolling through the country with only the sound of your footsteps, with only your footsteps, because there are no squirrels on branches or sparrows in trees. Imagine barely being able to recall what a sparrow even looks like.

There are reasons why green spaces in cities are so important. Not just for human physical wellbeing, but for emotional and psychological wellbeing too. It’s not purely for estheticism that there are trees and hedges decorating carparks and that there’s always one potted plant in every home. People need nature in their lives, need the sense of connection it gives us to our evolutionary and historical past when we weren’t so removed from it. We need the sense of calm it brings, the joy, and we need it to remind us that no matter how advanced we become, no matter how much we construct and how much we take, nature is always the superior force. So much of what happens on our planet is outside of our control, and while acts of natural disaster can be taken at face value—as disaster—they can also been taken as a reminder of our own insignificance. At the heart of it, we are animals, and like animals we are subject to and reliant on the planet we inhabit. Because like I said, we need nature; it’s why groups like Greenpeace and World Wildlife Fun exist, and it’s something everyone in the novel has come to learn, in a way hopefully we don’t have to. The fate of the environment (both earth and animals) always hovers in the background of the novel, a desperate, didn’t-know-what-you-had-until-you-lost-it hope that it will recover and be like it once was.

Unfortunately for Deckard and everyone else, it seems to be a useless hope.

The film’s primary focus is the androids, and while I saw the environmental message as something greater, I also found it constantly at war with the presence of the artificial within the novel. And it’s not just Deckard vs. the androids, it’s other things as well. In a world so consumed by a desire for the natural—who believe its superiority over those manmade androids and pets—it is perfectly all right for humans to fabricate their emotions. The first glimpse of Deckard and Iran that we get is of them being awoken by their “Penfield Mood Organ”, a piece of technology that allows them to “dial” specific emotions, even “a setting that stimulates [their] cerebral cortex[es] into wanting to dial”. The only way of identifying an android is even through emotions, as they cannot feel empathy, and yet this supposedly highly-held hallmark is being willingly degraded. And I say degraded, because while alone in their apartment, Iran says she “heard the…[e]mpty apartments” and felt nothing, and “realized how unhealthy it was, sensing the absence of life, not just in [the] building but everywhere and not reacting”. This moment is a jumping off point for everything else in the novel, as for every question Deckard has about androids, every doubt, every time he looks within himself and wonders at his feelings towards androids, is because if he can figure that out—if he can find a definitive difference that is more than just biological—then he can be safe knowing that for all that he is chipping away at his own humanity, he is still separate from androids. But of course, that isn’t an easy quest, and Deckard frequently finds himself in existential crises concerning the androids. “‘Do you think androids have souls?’” Deckard asks, at one point, gun still hot from ‘retiring’ one; “Empathy towards an artificial construct? he asked himself. Something that only pretends to be alive? But [the android] had seemed genuinely alive; it had not worn the aspect of simulation.” He desperately tries to find a way to explain his sudden, naturally-occurring feeling, to find some sort of truth. If something is man-made, it isn’t alive. It may have the skin of a living thing—a talking doll or toy dog that can walk or electric sheep—but it’s a machine. It doesn’t feel. It’s no better than your toaster. But when does it get to the point that technology has replicated life? Is life personality? Unprompted speech? Independent movement? Is it taking up an occupation or owning an animal or, even, having a relationship? When does a machine stop being a machine, and start being…something else entirely?

There is a definitive difference between humans and androids that is made clear in the novel: belief. The easiest way this is shown is through Mercerism, the religion that greatly resembles Christianity, from the animal symbolism (important animals are “[t]he donkey and especially the toad”) to miraculous healing (making “the dead return[ed] to life”) to the promise of a Second Coming for the Christ-like Mercer (“He had sunk down into the tomb world. He could not get out until the bones strewn around him grew back into living creatures; he had become joined to the metabolism of other lives and until they rose he could not rise either.”). In itself, it’s fascinating to see that the human ability to believe in a godly figure doesn’t appear to have faded even after nuclear disaster. The religions we know may have died, but another took their place, and while Wilbur Mercer’s religion is interesting on its own, the notion that just like humans can’t live without nature neither can they live without the ability (and the option) of believing in something far greater than themselves is far more fascinating.

That’s what the entire novel comes down to, in the end: belief. If there is one overarching theme throughout this book, it is the question for reality—for truth. The whole book is filled with lies, fictions within a work of fiction; everything is questioned, from the androids to the animals, even the veracity of Mercerism is called into question, and there is a desperation, so poignant that as a reader you can feel it, to find something that is truthful.

Belief is the truth of the novel.

The human ability to believe, in a concept or a person or a religion, to believe that things will get better, is something that cannot be replicated. The characters in the novel spend massive amounts of money on animals, feed them and care for them, firmly believing that it makes a difference. People remain on a planet that is slowly killing them, because they believe that there is a chance that it may get better. Androids operate on facts, on things that are tangible, and while they have an academic understanding of belief, they don’t understand it. Towards the end of the novel, a climax of action although there is, I think, a second much more internal one for Deckard’s character, there is a revelation, but it doesn’t lead to the victory the androids were hoping for. “‘They will have trouble understanding why nothing has changed,’” one character remarks, because for we humans, sometimes the facts don’t matter. Sometimes, it’s not the messenger that’s important but rather the message itself. One of the trademarks of humanity is that we hold on to hope even in the bleakest of situations, and that is a truth put on brilliant display here, even if that hope appears to be rather hopeless.

Do Android’s Dream of Electric Sheep? is a beautiful novel and, I think, a great companion to Blade Runner. As I read and watched, I didn’t find myself preferring one over the other, rather I found that they acted as compliments (and from what I’ve read, Dick agrees with me). Of course, it’s not perfect; there is a trope used in the novel, albeit briefly, that I’m sure for its time was innovative. But it’s become such a science fiction cliché that for all the action, I found myself somewhat bored with it. Luckily, as I said, the use of the trope is brief, and I’m not about to condemn a forty-year-old book for twelve pages. It does, of course, speak for the power of the book that such a trope has continued to be used in fiction for decades. There is a timelessness to the novel, for all that it is set in a 1992 that (thankfully) never came to pass. Its message is just as relevant now as it was then, and in fact, even more so. It’s a warning of what our future could be, if we don’t do something to change it.

We just have to believe we can.

Originally published in June 2011

ESSENTIAL HONG KONG CINEMA TOP 5: COP DRAMAS

It’s never a bad time to celebrate the golden age of Hong Kong cinema (running roughly between 1980 and the early 2000s) but the festive season is fitting, due to Channel 4’s Asian season of films, which ran late into the night, over Christmas and New Year in the early ‘90s. Luckily the below titles are now available on Blu-ray or on various streaming services, to watch at your leisure, with Eggnog and a mince pie in hand! We start with the exploits of the Royal Hong Kong Police…

POLICE STORY (Dir. Jackie Chan, 1985)

The one film to rule them all! Jackie Chan’s magnum opus is a reactionary picture, to show James Glickenhaus (who directed Chan in the lacklustre The Protector, released 6 months earlier) how to make a police procedural. The story of Inspector Chan Ka-Kui being framed for murder by the drug dealers he helped bust, is surprisingly poignant, illuminating the price of fame and vanity. But you are here for the action, and boy does it deliver, with two bone-crunching set pieces in the opening scene. The shantytown dash and Chan hanging from a bus, merely warm you up for the glass-soaked finale, set in a Hong Kong shopping mall, it is one of the finest action montages ever committed to celluloid.

TIGER CAGE (Dir. Yuen Woo Ping, 1988)

A surprisingly gritty movie from veteran Yuen Woo Ping. It concerns the classic theme, to be found in so many HK Cop Dramas; corruption in the force. Featuring great performances by Jacky Cheung, Simon Yam, and a brief role for a young Donnie Yen, the police battle a nasty group of drug kingpins, who have bent coppers hiding behind every corner. It perfectly captures the zeitgeist of the time; neon lights, food stalls, and corruption. It’s filled with shoot-outs, bombastic car chases, and plenty of murder. The other two films in the series are lighter with more martial arts action but don’t contain the realism and sense of danger that this hidden gem exhibits.

TIGER ON THE BEAT (Dir Lau Kar-Leung, 1988)

Even though a Tiger is also featured in the title, this is a much lighter affair than Tiger Cage. Chow Yun Fat is a womanising detective, who likes to drink raw eggs for breakfast. He is teamed up with Conan Lee’s straight-laced Kung-Fu cop, to take down some drug dealers (drugs really were the hot issue of the 1980s). So, we get a liberal sprinkling of shoot-outs, hand-to-hand combat, and a car chase for good measure. The two mismatched leads bounce off each other beautifully and look like they are having as much fun as the audience. All the action is first class, especially the concluding chainsaw fight between Conan and Gordon Liu. If that doesn’t sell the movie, then nothing will!

HARD BOILED (Dir John Woo, 1992)

Chow Yun Fat and John Woo were a match made in heaven, producing a plethora of films together. Hard Boiled (famous for its cover featuring Chow, a baby, and a shotgun) is one of the most polished, featuring some outrageous action scenes, which made Hollywood truly take notice. The fabulously named Inspector Tequila Yuen (Chow Yun Fat) is your standard tough-as-nails cop who teams up with an undercover agent (Tony Leung) to take down a triad boss. The gunplay on show is exemplary, starting off in a claustrophobic tea house, birdcages littering the scene, while multiple handguns are drawn to inflict chaos. The film never lets up, skilfully walking a tightrope between fun and serious. We end up in a hospital with said baby and shotgun, in one final, spectacular shoot-out. Simply great filmmaking.

INFERNAL AFFAIRS (Dir. Andrew Lau, Alan Mak, 2002)

As we come to the end of the golden era, The Unceasing Path (the literal Chinese and far superior title) is an example of how far the industry had come. Hong Kong cinema was known, more for its action than its storytelling. However, this film concentrates on the latter in a taut and twisting thriller. Tony Leung plays a police officer who is placed undercover in a triad organisation, whereas Andy Lau is a triad, hidden in the police force. Each of them must gain as much information as possible over a ten-year period. An all-star cast, which also features Eric Tsang, brilliantly playing against type as the mob boss, really delivers. The emotional stress of the assignment is conveyed to aplomb here, and as an audience, you are on the edge of your seat to see who comes out on top, no real heroes here. It is no coincidence that Martin Scorsese won his only Best Picture Oscar for The Departed, a remake, which diverges very little from this masterpiece. For an industry obsessed with police corruption, this is the finest example.

Click here for ESSENTIAL HONG KONG TOP 5: SUPERNATURAL KUNG-FU

Click here for ESSENTIAL HONG KONG TOP 5: MARTIAL HEROES

For more from author Jacob Walker, visit his website www.jakeonfilm.com

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Once Upon a Time in China In 19th century Canton, Wong Fei-hung battles ruthless imperialist forces determined to subjugate his country and enslave his people, leading to a climactic fight sequence still regarded as one of the best ever filmed.

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Once Upon a Time in China III Wong Fei-hung travels to Peking and is forced to enter a martial-arts contest in order to prevent an assassination attempt against a prominent Chinese diplomat who wants to showcase traditional Chinese martial-arts, and restore national pride.

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Rachel Nichols | BREACH

Breach is an alien invasion thriller directed by John Suits, and which stars Bruce Willis, Rachel Nichols, Cody Kearsley, and Timothy V. Murphy as the crew aboard a spaceship carrying precious cargo, which they must protect from a malevolent cosmic force intent on their destruction. Ahead of the movie’s releases on December 18th, STARBURST spoke with genre icon Rachel Nichols (Continuum, G.I. Joe, Star Trek) about her turn as ship medic Chambers.

STARBURST: As always, it’s great to see you in an action sci-fi role! What attracted you to this film, and more specifically to the character of Chambers?

Rachel Nichols: The first thing that attracted me to the film was John Suits. He directed it, and I had done a movie with him a couple years ago – I say a couple, I think it was about five years – called Pandemic. We did it on a tiny budget, but the cast was great, we had Missi Pyle, Mekhi Phifer, and Alfie Allen, and John had such a vision for it. The whole experience was very special and different, and interesting. It’s a movie that I’m very proud of. And so John was the reason that I wanted to do Breach, I saw his name on the script and I went, “Oh my gosh, of course I want to work with him!”. And I sent him a text saying, “Hey dude, I just saw your script, I’m so excited” and he went, “I’ve been trying to text you, you weren’t responding!”. And I asked like, “What number do you have for me?” and it turns out he had my old Canadian number. I don’t know who this person was that was at the receiving end of his texts, but we got it all straightened out. And it was also an interesting character who was a doctor, it was sci-fi, Bruce Willis and Timothy V. Murphy were going to be in it, it all just came together.

That sounds really lucky though, because had you not then seen the script you might not have heard from him again!

Oh, 100%. I actually texted him yesterday because I’m filming in the depths of Mississippi right now, and we were having such issues with the connection here. And I texted him, like, “John, I don’t want you to think I’m not doing interviews for Breach, I’m having a really hard time getting connected and wanted to reach out to you specifically, because I didn’t want to lose connection with you!”. And he was just laughing via text, like “I know, they told me things may or may not work!” but I needed to make sure that the misconnection didn’t happen again.

Of course. And you mentioned working on Pandemic, which was another end-of-the-world apocalyptic movie just like Breach. What do you like most about this kind of sci-fi sub-genre?

You know, I love sci-fi because it’s a genre that you can have fun with, and it allows you to escape reality. But also, there are a lot of rules and regulations that go along with sci-fi and how it works; whether you’re talking about time travel, or whether you’re talking about New Earth, or a zombie apocalypse, you’ve got to abide by a certain set of guidelines for sci-fi fans, because they’re very particular. And if you do something right, they love you; if you do something wrong, they’ll come for you. And I’ve always been drawn to that because, like I said, you can have fun with it or you can think about it and pick it apart. And you know, I shot a movie called Pandemic and look where we are now! And now we have Breach where we’re shipping people off to a different planet because we’ve ruined Earth – and I don’t think that’s so far out of the realm of possibility. There’s a part of me that believes that could happen, and that’s what’s super interesting about the genre.

As well as sci-fi roles, you tend to pick ones like GI Joe and Continuum that are also very action-heavy. What keeps you coming back to these?

I love them. I love action. I mean, first fight scene I ever did in my entire career was on Alias, and I was playing a Russian hooker. I had a red wig, a very short Dolce Gabbana dress, and I loved it. It was just so cool, and there was such a great team of people. Funnily enough, Zoë Bell was in that fight scene doubling Amy Acker in my coverage, and I ducked a punch but came up too soon. And Zoë clocked me, and she felt terrible! She’d never hit anyone ever before, and it was totally my fault but she felt so bad. And years later we did a film together called Raze and we have a massive fight scene in which she totally kicks my ass. But we were laughing because I’m the only person she’s ever hit and she still felt bad about it after all these years! I love action stuff. I will do fight scenes until I’m too old and my body starts breaking down.

Zoë Bell is of course a huge action star, but you also work with Bruce Willis in this one, and he’s pretty much synonymous with the action movie genre. What was it like working with him?

He’s such a badass, but he’s also kind of a teddy bear. He’s super nice to everyone, and everyone on set. And I asked him questions about the films he’d made, and I also told him I had watched the Comedy Central Roast of Bruce Willis before I came to do the movie, and I was more excited to meet Bruce in person than I was to meet Bruce, the actor. And he totally lived up to expectations. He’s a goof, he’s funny. He tells these amazing stories, hilarious stories about when he was doing Tears of the Sun. Or one of my favourite movies of all time is Moonrise Kingdom, so I got to ask questions about that. And he’s very open and very honest, and just fun to be around. He’s amazing.

Sounds like a great atmosphere on set.

It really was, between him and John, and all the other people involved. It was a really great experience, even though we were in a small town in Georgia where I also got no service! We made it work and had a great time.

They’re just picking these shoot locations to keep you focused.

I think so. Like no internet, no cell service, no Netflix. Sorry!

The film is being called Breach or Anti-Life, depending on territories. Which do you think best represents the movie?

I definitely prefer Breach. It makes more sense to me given the plot-line of the film.

What was your favourite scene to shoot?

The cafeteria scene was certainly one of my favourites. We just laughed a ton! And I think Johnny Messner ate his weight in pancakes that day.

So what is it that you’re filming in Mississippi right now?

It’s a sci-fi, thriller type movie called Demigod. There is a character in this movie that reminds me of the Crone from Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves.

Do you have other upcoming projects you’d like to share with us?

I also have two films, Climbing Life and Night at the Carriage House which are slated for next year. They are all very different kinds of roles and stories, so I am very excited. It is really nice just to be back at work!

And lastly, what do you think your odds are of surviving an alien attack?

I think I stand a pretty good chance. I would grab my husband, my pup Lolo and go into hiding at my dad’s secluded cabin in northern Maine. Aliens would never find us!

BREACH releases in select theatres, on demand and digital on December 18th.