Nightline Has a Serious Discussion About Return of the Jedi in 1983

Siskel and Ebert defend Return of the Jedi against John Simon who claims that RotJ keeps kids dumb. This will remind you why Siskel and Ebert were/are the greatest American film critics that we have produced. They brought accessibility and viewpoint to film critique that has yet to be surpassed.

It’s great at the 4-minute mark, where Simon claims that Jedi was something the Disney company could have come up with. Ebert fires back that Disney wishes they could make movies like Jedi.

Just great.

I have watched this segment three times in a row and there is so much to plumb from it, but I think you should watch it for yourself.

Did Simon say he would take his kid to see Tender Mercies?

Can you imagine a time when the only movies out for kids would be “The Black Stallion”, “Spacehunter” and “Return of the Jedi”?

Did Simon say that Empire was also horrible? Empire!?!