Star Wars V The Empire Strikes Back (1980) George Lucas

For my continuity analysis I have chosen to analyse possibly the most famous and surprising scene in the Star Wars saga. The scene is from the end of The Empire Strikes Back, when Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) goes to fight Darth Vader (David Prowse). The scene comes to a stunning climax when Darth Vader chops off Luke's hand and reveals that he is his father, to which Luke replies "No, it can't be, that's impossible".

0:00 : We begin by seeing Luke walking along a dark corrider towards the camera. We can hear nothing but the low buzz of machinery and his breathing and footsteps. Around 0:09 we hear the sound of a lightsaber being swung and Luke looks shocked.

0:10 : There is a match on action here as Vader swings his lightsaber and Luke ducks. This also uses Use of Shot Order as it continues immediately after the previous shot.

0:18 : Luke is pushed out of the door and the new shot is used to reveal more of the location. It is a good match on action.

0:20 : We see the sparks from where Vader hit the wall in the new shot showing that it has continued smoothly. He is also raising his arm as he was in the previous shot.

0:21 : As Vader swings down we switch to this very long shot which shows Vader and Luke continuing fighting but reveals even more of the location. There is a good match on action there.

0:24 : Vader and Luke continue to fight (match on action) but the shot is zoomed in.

0:26 : We change to a high angle here to show a different perspective of the location to see the deep chasm beneath them. We are still matching the action from before and so far all cuts have showed a continuing motion. There has been no dialogue either.

0:36 : As Luke falls the shot changes and we see a reaction shot from him. We now get into a sequence of shot - reverse shot throughout the dialogue. This continues to show reactions to the action and responses from each character. As Vader moves his lightsaber towards Luke we see him edging backwards. Then he slashes back.

0:44 : We see a reaction shot from Vader as he stumbles backwards. The following shots all follow smovely matching the action and paths of the lighstabers. This continues until finally Vader chops off Luke's hand. At this point the music comes back in after around a minute of just natural noise. This gives dramatic emphasis and shows we have reached an important part in the scene (0:54).

1:00 : From this point on we follow a sequence of shot- reverse shot throughout the dialogue in terms of reactions and responses from each character. These continue until 2:27 where we get point of view shots from Luke as he looks down into the chasm which is his only escape, then back up to Vader.

In general this clip has very good use of continuity. It is all straight cuts, no transitions, and follows the action directly to give a sense of realism and real time, unlike films like Pulp Fiction and Sin City which jump about the timeline constantly to create an unnatural feeling.

The sound also follows in continuity as we can always hear what is going on at that specific time in the clip.