The third and final film in the original 'Star Wars' trilogy, 'Return of the Jedi', was released to an expectant public in May 1983. Following on from the events of 'The Empire Strikes Back', the story concludes with Luke Skywalker completing his Jedi training and facing off in a final battle against Darth Vader, who by now has been revealed to be Anakin Skywalker, Luke's father.
Production for the movie was shrouded in secrecy, with the producers using the working title 'Blue Harvest' during shooting. This was an effort to avoid a media circus, and also to put a stop to service providers hiking their prices once they found they would be providing services for a 'Star Wars' movie. (That happened to creator George Lucas during production of 'The Empire Strikes Back')
At the time of its release it was (naturally) a huge hit, and was critically lauded as well as commercially successful. However, more recent opinion has shifted to proclaim the previous film 'The Empire Strikes Back' as the best of the three original films, and fans of the 'Star Wars' franchise are less than enthusiastic about the Ewoks, introduced in this movie. The film was also notable for finally introducing us to the villain Jabba The Hutt, only referred to in passing in the 1977 film 'Star Wars', before Jabba was killed off by the captive Princess Leia.
The film, like the others in the series, was remastered in the 1990s and with new digital effects added. This was controversial to many fans, however Lucas persisted and went on to 'refine' the films further for subsequent DVD releases. The most contentious change of all came in the 2004 edition, when in the final scene, Luke is greeted by 'force ghosts' Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, the latter was changed to show actor Hayden Christensen as Anakin, rather than Sebastian Shaw, who played the unmasked Darth Vader/Anakin in the film. Even the selection of veteran actor Shaw was not without controversy, as actor David Prowse (who played Vader in all three films, with voice dubbed over by James Earl Jones) had pushed to be seen as Anakin. However by the time of this film, he had fallen out of favour with Lucas, and his wishes were not to be granted.
Nowadays the film is known as 'Episode VI, Return of the Jedi' and despite the changes, is still a popular film today. Lucas had resisted for many years calls to release the films in their original form on DVD, but finally relented in 2005 when the DVDs of the remastered/reworked films came with a bonus disc, featuring the original film. Although a concession to fans, it still did not satisfy many who felt that they had made a half-hearted effort, as the picture quality on the bonus disc was markedly inferior to that of the reworked versions.
Here is a fan-made trailer for the film 'Return of the Jedi':
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