Mark Hamill's acting

I recently rewatched the original SW trilogy, and my impression again was that Mark did a absolutely great job. Here are some points:

- His facial expressions clearly show the different feelings his character experiences throughout the movies: wide-eyed innocence, fear, despair, confusion, pain, confidence, resolution, determination. It is clear what Luke Skywalker feels at any time, and it allows the viewers to feel empathy and identify with him. And he manages to do this without overacting at any point (something that Harrison Ford was accused of in ROTJ). I remember for example his face when he buried his father: although he didn't pull any strong faces, you can feel all the emotion in him.

- He managed to have the viewers identify with the character, and this is not a small feat. Everybody dreams of being Luke Skywalker after watching the movies (especially younger audiences). And he managed this in spite of the not so smart lines he had to deliver (at least Ford had an advantage here because his character was more funny). I think this is all due to his very well balanced use of body language and facial expressions. He managed to look so cool without overdoing it (on the contrary I think Christensen overdid every single expression and it just looks so bad - and nobody really cares about Anakin).

- Considering the fact that George Lucas is notoriously bad in directing people, it is a miracle that both Hamill and Ford managed to give so much depth and life to their characters and make viewers identify so much with them. It is to their credit that they managed this without strong direction and this shows that they are both gifted. I mostly realised this after watching the prequels, where Lucas made even Ewan McGregor look like a bad actor, let alone the kid that plays Anakin Skywalker.

It is a pity that Mark Hamill was not recognised by some for what he is: a very good actor! And a very versatile one too, when listening to his voice acting.