Darth Vader lives!

Memories are fuzzy but in the summer of 1977, when heat-transfer T-shirts were a big deal along the boardwalks in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, the first T-shirt I bought on family vacation read: MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU. I was 14. My second T-shirt pictured a gleaming black samurai head against a field of stars along with these words: DARTH VADER LIVES.

Back then we weren’t so sure. Yes, some critic had cynically mentioned that the villain of this new summer movie, “Star Wars,” had managed to stop his ship from spinning “in order to be ready for the sequel,” but I had arguments against it. Hadn’t Darth been blasted into space in a small, limited-range fighter? And hadn’t his home base, the Death Star, been blown up? So where was he gonna go? The rebel base? He had nowhere to go. He was doomed.

Secretly, of course, I hoped otherwise. Thus: DARTH VADER LIVES. The ’60s had “Che Lives” and we had this. It was our generation’s great political statement.

Seductive qualities of the Dark Side

[Darth] was evil, but a cool kind of evil, not like the other men of the Empire, pasty white British guys with bad haircuts and flared nostrils who bickered needlessly and couldn’t pronounce ‘sorcerer’s ways’ correctly.

Why did Darth Vader appeal so much? In a time of detente, of nuance, there was a purity about “Star Wars,” and no one was more pure than Darth Vader. He was the biggest baddest man on the biggest baddest ship in the galaxy. He wore black. He was evil, but a cool kind of evil, not like the other men of the Empire, pasty white British guys with bad haircuts and flared nostrils who bickered needlessly and couldn’t pronounce “sorcerer’s ways” correctly. No, Darth got it. The movie was about spirituality over technology, but only three people were really aware of this spirituality enough to control it, and one was wise but old (Obi-wan Kenobi), and one was idealistic but young (Luke Skywalker), while the third, Darth, was just right. You believed him when he told Obi-wan, “Your powers are weak, old man.” If “Star Wars” is the first modern super hero movie then Darth is the only one who seems super in it. He even has the cape.

We imitated him. We argued over Luke or Han (I was a Luke guy, just as I was a Paul guy on the Beatles question), but Darth was the only one we imitated, cupping our hands over our mouths, breathing heavily, and trying out James Earl Jones’ basso profundo: “Do not underestimate the power of the Force.” We heard rumors. There would be nine films in all (wow!) and “Star Wars” was the fourth (huh?), and the films would follow the adventures of C3PO and R2D2.

And Darth? Would he live? During a winter re-release of “Star Wars” two years later, a friend and I were slowly filing out of the theater when, after the final credits, the screen suddenly filled with a preview for...oh my God...the new movie! Everyone who remained quickly sat down. Was this supposed to be here? Shut up! Did you know about this? Shut up! Images zipped by like X-wing fighters but one stayed in my mind: a door opening and revealing Darth Vader at the end of a long dining table. Coo-ullll! It took forever for summer to arrive.

Vader unleashed
I’ll say this for “The Empire Strikes Back”: It understands Darth Vader’s appeal. Leia was right in the first film — Governor Tarkin held Vader’s leash — but in the sequel he has no one to restrain him and subordinates fall like flies. No line is funnier than the Captain’s: “I shall assume full responsibility for losing them and apologize to Lord Vader.” HA! Bye-bye, Captain.

The other characters change but Darth becomes more himself. Leia loses her baby fat and wisecracks, and is easily caught by Han — like her mother, she’s drawn to the bad boy — while Han is a tamed rebel, and a recruiter to the cause. As Luke was to him in the first film, so he is to Lando in the second. And Luke? The unanswered question from the first film — would he get Leia? — suddenly becomes a non-issue. Plus he’s no longer pretty or happy or idealistic. Off a desert rock, he finds himself stuck in a swamp, upstaged by a muppet. Yoda has all the best lines. “Much anger in him, like his father.” Anger in Luke? When was he ever really angry? How about: “Much whining in him, like his father”? That’s actually a truer line but not the grand lesson George Lucas wants to impart.

The purity ends with “Empire.” The planets stay pure (desert, ice, swamp, forest), but light (Luke) and dark (Darth) are forever intertwined. Back then I was against it, and felt betrayed by George Lucas. I was a whiny teenager myself who craved absolutes. As an adult I appreciate the revelation. Luke’s dilemma is every boy’s dilemma. You mean my father’s not a great man? You mean my father’s a dick? You mean I might become like him? Purity is for children, and first films.

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