Well, Han was already an up-and-coming Rebel leader before he was put into carbon freeze so between his being freed from captivity and the role he'd played in the Rebel Alliance over the previous four years or so I guess they promoted him as a gesture of respect.
The rank system in SW is so hopelessly convoluted, don't even try to explain it. That way lies madness.
I like everything about Return of The Jedi except The battle on Endor. The Jabba scenes, The rescue of Han, Luke vs The Rancor, The Sarlac Pit, Luke, Vadar, and The Emperor on the Death Star- all good. In retrospect I wish they had killed off Han in ROTJ. That way he wouldn't have died at the hands of his goofy son in The Force Awakens. I also wish Luke and Leia had stayed unrelated, so viewers could watch their kissing scenes in the first two films without any feelings of squeamishness.
I cannot watch it without the original tune. For me its comparable to redoing Saturday Night Fever, adding dumb CGI, and replacing the orginal Bee Gees songs with some forgettable new song. It was just wrong.
In 1983, after SW1977 and Empire Strikes Back we were expecting even more greatness...a natural progression to the conclusion to this trilogy. I assumed, as a boy, Return Of The Jedi would build upon the first two films...
Ranks in a Rebel Alliance might be a bit odd, based on respect rather than service (if an Imperial general defected, I suspect they might be allowed to retain the title, once suspicion that they were a double agent was done with). Much as I love DS9, a major grumble is that the Bajoran militia are like an established military on day one. With their own weapons and tricorders, not a job lot of captured (Cardassian), bought (Ferengi) or smuggled after 'falling off the back of a shuttle' (Klingon/Starfleet).
I don't give a shit about nitpicks about language or accents or other pointless nitpicks this list is obsessed with, but where ROTJ falls down for me are things like rehashing Star Wars with another Death Star and another raid on it, making Leia a Skywalker so they can tie up that loose end and her having no reaction to the fact she's Darth Vader's kid, chopping Vader's balls off so he's no longer the scheming asshole from Empire ready to overthrow the Emperor. It's not the worst, it's 3rd best in my opinion and would have been great with another hour or less silliness but it was my introduction to Star Wars franchise so I'll always have a lot of love for it.
One of my fondest memories of watching ROTJ is going with my mother to the film, when she was invested into the Star Wars franchise. She brought a bottle of champagne and a wine glass to the theatre and had a ball watching the film. She doesn't care about the franchise anymore and has no interest in watching the Disney trilogy. I haven't seen the film in years. I did not like hearing about the most recent changes, especially the one where Vader is screaming "No!!!" as he threw the emperor down the shaft.
This is how ROTJ has always felt to me. It was just an exercise to complete a trilogy. More of the same, and not a lot else. Oh, they all like the cantina in the first one so here's another big room full of weird aliens. Oh, the death star was popular, so here's another one of those and we'll blow it up at the end again, too! And then there's the fucking ewoks. Woulda been so much more interesting if it had been the wookiee home world instead. And given Chewie a storyline of his own for once. Weakest film of the original three by far. I try to approach these movies as the Saturday morning serial adventures they're mean to be and no over analyze or over think them, but sometimes you just gotta admit that it don't always work.
Gary Kurtz said the success of Raiders Of The Lost Ark affected George in a negative way-He realized the audience would be satisfied with a high octane rollercoaster ride and less emphasis was needed on story. Plus George didn't want to spend the same effort and money that Empire required, which did have reshoots and went overbudget. So no Irvin Kershner.
It's a good thing that ROTJ had the Emperor and Ian McDiarmid. Without those factors it would have possibly been one of the worst films in the entire Saga. A second Death Star, another building on Tatooine full of exotic aliens made of rubber, another visit to Dagobah...as much as I like or even love those aspects of the film they are just not terribly original and need the drama provided by the presence of the Emperor and his plan to lure the Rebel Alliance into a trap to feel bigger and more important than they are. Without the rescue and freeing of Han Solo from carbonite Jabba's Palace would be a largely empty sequence with no dramatic payoff. I adore Jabba but let's face it, he had no real purpose in the film other than be a foil for our heroes in their mission to free Han and save him.
The weirdly thick tv makeup most of the cast are made to wear... Minor nitpick but still visually noticeable, IMO.
Errr okay then... maybe it’s just the quality of the monitors /tvs I’ve viewed ROTJ on... [saddestmoon now unsure of his assertion puts on fake-beard, orange concealer, tan overcoat and starts to shuffle quickly but quietly out the door]