The Further
You’ve Never Seen ‘Star Wars’ This Violent Before
One of the big things that I always found strange about the Star Wars films is that they were, for the most part, pretty tame when it comes to the death of characters. Sure, there’s an arm lopped off, a couple of hands chopped off, and a few other instances where we see the devastating capabilities of that universe’s weaponry. However, the majority of deaths (almost all Stormtroopers) were basically an explosion of sparks and, well…that’s about it.
Along comes The Empire Falls, a short film that comes at the battle on the Forest Moon of Endor, as featured in Return of the Jedi, from the perspective of the Empire, specifically one troop. While the original film was rather cute and cuddly, this one throws all that to the wind and shows just how violent those battles really are. Let’s just say that you’re probably not going to look at Ewoks in the same way ever again.
On a side note, was there ever a good explanation in the original trilogy as to why the Empire was “the bad guy”? I mean, sure they blew up Alderaan but wasn’t that out of their own self defense? Help me out here!
The Further
Makeup Legend Rick Baker Will Receive the Vision Award at This Year’s Locarno Film Festival
In the world of makeup effects, Rick Baker is a true titan, having won the first *ever* Best Makeup Oscar for An American Werewolf in London, one of just seven wins for him in the category. Baker subsequently won Best Makeup for Harry and the Hendersons, Ed Wood, The Nutty Professor, Men in Black, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and The Wolfman.
Rick Baker is one of the artform’s true legends, and we’ve learned this week that the legendary artist is being honored with the Vision Award at this year’s Locarno Film Festival.
The festival announced in a press release, “With the Vision Award presented by Ticinomoda for Rick Baker, the Festival pays tribute to a remarkable figure who has been responsible for shaping some of cinema’s most fantastical creations. Baker will receive the award in Piazza Grande during the evening of Wednesday, August 12, 2026, as well as present, within the Festival programme, two key films from his career: An American Werewolf in London (1981) and The Nutty Professor (1996).”
“From his early make-up work on genre films in the 1970s to his sophisticated creature and character designs for large-scale studio productions, Rick Baker has forged a new visual grammar for cinematic metamorphosis,” Locarno adds, “earning him a record number of Academy Awards for Best Makeup and cementing his status as a reference point for generations of artists.”
The statement continues, “Over his long career, Rick Baker has transformed Michael Jackson into a zombie in Thriller and turned Jim Carrey into the Grinch. He has been responsible for crafting unforgettable werewolves to some of the most realistic gorillas ever created for film, each time redefining the audience’s sense of what is real and what is imagined on the big screen. In receiving the Vision Award, the Festival pays tribute to a remarkable figure who has been responsible for shaping some of cinema’s most fantastical creations.”
Locarno’s Artistic Director Giona A. Nazzaro writes, “Rick Baker was responsible for a Copernican revolution in cinema: visionary and revolutionary, he opened new paths for the imagination of entire generations, showing what it truly means to witness physical transmutation on the big screen. His filmography includes collaborations with George Lucas and David Cronenberg, Brian De Palma and Joe Dante, Tim Burton and Peter Jackson, John Carpenter and Mike Nichols, among many others. Presenting the Vision Award in Locarno to a pioneer and innovator like him, an absolute genius and incomparable craftsman, is an honour through which the Festival celebrates the infinite possibilities of cinema and its bag of tricks.”
The 79th Locarno Film Festival will take place from August 5-15, 2026.
The Vision Award pays tribute to artists whose creative work has contributed to the renewal of the cinematographic imaginary and has been given to masters of special effects, editors, sound designers, composers, musicians, cinematographers, and multidisciplinary artists.
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