Star Wars Insider – July 2019

40 / STAR WARS INSIDER

INTERVIEW: GARY KURTZ

wasn’t particularly serious,”
believed Kurtz. “You had a good
time, you enjoyed it, and the
characters did a good job, but
you didn’t have to believe in all
of the battle scenes or all of the
elements to make it work for
you. In The Empire Strikes Back,
you believed in everything—the
sword fi ghts; the characters’
relationships, particularly Luke and
Vader, and Han and Leia. The more
time goes by, the more Empire is seen
as a fi lm in its own right. It’s a more
serious working of the storyline and
how it deals with the characters. And
it doesn’t end like a typical movie
would. It doesn’t resolve anythingat
the end of the fi lm. It’s much more
complicated than Star Wars.”

Not Returning
With The Jedi
Kurtz decided to move on after The
Empire Strikes Back, and as George
Lucas set about creating Star Wars:
Return of the Jedi (1983), Kurtz
instead made The Dark Crystal
(1982) with directors Jim Henson
and Frank Oz.

“I thinkit camedowntothe

factthatGeorgewantedtomake

anupbeatconclusionstory,butit

wasoriginallygoingtobea kindof

bittersweet,open-endedthingwith

anentirelydifferentstorythread,”

statedtheproducer.“HanSolo

getskilled,andit wasgoingtobe

muchmoredown.Whenit became

obviousthatGeorgewantedtogoin

a differentdirectionthanI did,we

bothequallyagreedthatit would

bebetterif I left.I feltthatit would

bebetterthatsomeoneelsemakeit

and do the best job that they could

with it while I would do something

that I was more interested in, and

Jim Henson was ready to do The

Dark Crystal.”

Despite his move away from the

Star Wars galaxy, Kurtz remained

gratifi ed by the impact and success

of his work with George Lucas on

A New Hope and The Empire Strikes

Back, and the ongoing appeal of

both movies.

“A movie is a group effort, and

it’s all down to the people making

it, but in the end it’s just a story,” he

said. “You can go and see practically

any fi lm with a group of six people,

and when you come out and

talk about it afterwards everyone

has a different response. There’s

something going on in your life that

it resonates with in a different way

to the person sitting next to you.

In the case of the Star Wars fi lms,

the world that we created resonates

strongly with a lot of people. They

really enjoy it, and enjoy repeating

that experience, which is why they

seeit againandagain.”

In Memoriam Gary Kurtz:

July 27, 1940-September 23, 2018

“It was originally

going to bea kind

of bittersweet,open-

ended thing with an

entirely different

story thread.”

05 Kurtz on the

medical frigate

set with Hamill

and Fisher.

06 Irvin Kershner

directs Harrison

Ford as Kurtz

looks on.

06

05