He’s known today primarily because of two strong, dramatic action films. The first was a 1976 fact-based TV movie, “Raid on Entebbe.” The second was, uh-hmm, “The Empire Strikes Back.” For one film in the series, a “Star Wars” film had a genuinely well-written screenplay with good dialogue and a director who knew how to elicit strong work from actors and structure a dramatic moment. For some reason, everyone agrees it was the best of the series. Watch this scene again, though you’ve certainly seen it before. There’s emotion going on.

Kershner was, I gather, a gracious and intelligent man. Here is a brief tribute/outtake from the documentary “The Nature of Existence” in which Kershner endorses “the Force” in a way, while also speaking out for a spiritual, but entirely non-supernatural view of life, death, and creativity.

Much more, as usual, at MUBI.

UPDATE: The fine blogger Greg Ferrara argues that “The Luck of Ginger Coffey” was a lot better than “pretty good.”

The quality isn’t nearly as good, but I like this trailer a lot better. You don’t need annoying narration — or any narration — when you have strong images. You also don’t need to give much of the story away. Someone at Fox knew it in 1980.

Now here’s a news clip from the day before yesterday. Only mildly depressing.

h/t to the very cool site Lando is the Man for this. There’ll be more Lando-ish stuff to come.

When FOX decided to give “Blue Harvest” – the first of the “Family Guy”-themed “Star Wars” specials – its own DVD release separate from the season sets, fans were a little annoyed. The studio must have made a killing in sales, though, because it’s gone one step further in screwing over its loyal audience by releasing the follow-up, “Something Something Something Dark Side,” direct to DVD. The betrayal wouldn’t burn so much if the 54-minute special lived up to the quality of its predecessor, but despite the reputation of the film it’s spoofing, this is one sequel that falls well short of that. There are a few good jokes about AT-ATs, the shitty accuracy of Stormtroopers, and the looming fate of Luke’s right hand, but a majority of the jokes fall flat. It feels more like a straight retelling of “The Empire Strikes Back” with “Family Guy” characters than a parody, and though guys like Mort Goldstein (as Lando Calrissian), Carter Pewterschmidt (as Emperor Palpatine) and the Giant Chicken (as Boba Fett) finally have a role to play in the story, it’s more out of necessity than because it’s funny. The addition of a snarky pop-up trivia track helps increase the special’s replay value, but it doesn’t change the fact that “Something Something Something Dark Side” is a bit of an unexpected disappointed for fans of “Star Wars” and “Family Guy” alike.

Click to buy “Family Guy: Something Something Something Dark Side”

Along with Faraday, Miles has been one of my favorite characters since his arrival in Season Four, so it was nice to finally get some backstory other than the brief bits we saw in the episode featuring his first appearance. I believe Cuse and Lindelof intended to address Miles’ past at some point last year, but had to cut the story when the season was shortened by the strike. Whatever the reason, it actually worked for the better now that the Losties have travelled back in time. We always knew that his sixth sense was the reason he was recruited by Widmore, and some of us have even had the hunch that Marvin Candle (or Pierre Chang) was his father when it was suggested that he had previously visited the island, but I don’t think anyone realized that Miles knew as well.

As it turns out, he’s known ever since his third day as a member of the Dharma Initiative when he spotted his mother in the lunch line at the cafeteria. (At least he didn’t hit on her à la “Back to the Future.”). Heck, he even saw himself as a baby later on, which begs to ask the question: is Miles’ special ability a product of his time on the island or is it just sheer coincidence? I don’t think we’re going to find out the answer to that just yet, but one thing we do know is that Miles is adamant about not wanting to meet his father. He’s more or less forced to, though, when Horace gives him a special assignment to deliver a package (read: dead body) to Candle at the Swan station.

It’s there that we learn that Candle really is Miles’ father (“Dude, that guy’s a total douche.” “That douche is my dad.”), so leave it Hurley to try and help Candle make the connection while pretending to ask questions about his family nonchalantly. Candle didn’t bite, but he does seem to trust Miles more after their day together (which included a stop off at a mysterious location that happens to be the future site of the hatch, numbers and all), and he even requested his company on the way to pick up some scientists from the submarine. Of course, when Faraday walks off that very submarine seconds later, it’s hard to care about anything that happened in the 59 minutes prior to that. What has everyone’s favorite physicist been up to this whole time? Or perhaps more importantly, where? My money is on his being at Oxford doing his time travel thing, but if that’s the case, why wouldn’t he remember his past with Dharma before?

On an unrelated note, there were a couple of other interesting bits in tonight’s episode that are certainly worth mentioning. For starters, the Egyptian lesson on the blackboard that Jack was cleaning is probably worth mining for info. Bonus points to anyone who can post answers in the comment section below. The other item had to do with Miles’ drive-by kidnapping during the final flashback sequence, where he was warned by a group of guys to stay away from Widmore’s freighter. The interesting part of this exchange is that the leader of the group, Bram, is the same guy who has just taken control of the present day island with Ilana, the one person who didn’t appear phased during the second plane crash. Could Ben be planning a takeover? And if so, is it Locke he’s after, or Richard?