Nowadays we take Star Wars for granted, but SW: Empire of Dreams reminds us just what a revolutionary achievement the movie was back in '77. It's fashionable for many SW fans today to dump on Lucas, but it's good to stand back for a moment and appreciate what a huge struggle and career gamble it was for him to make SW.
We think Peter Jackson's LOTR films were a logistical nightmare to make (and they undoubtedly were), but at least Jackson, his crew and New Line Cinema were all operating on the same page, not to mention Jackson had a large budget to work with.
Lucas had to deal with a hostile British crew that had no faith in his vision, and a studio (20th Century Fox) that had no faith in the commercial viability of SW. Oh, and he had just $8 million to work with. There was no aspect of SW that was not a gamble, so the story of its making always inspires me.
The doc showed plenty of interesting footage: especially revealing to me was an awful early effects shot of Luke and Threepio riding the Landspeeder that looked horribly fake, because it was done by those who had no clue of the look Lucas was trying to achieve. No wonder he personally took over the special effects dept. and re-did everything from scratch. If Lucas had allowed things to stand, Star Wars would have ended up looking as amateurish as other half-baked sci-fi/fantasy B-movies of the 70's (think Logan's Run or Sinbad).
Very hilarious were scenes of Darth Vader on the set in which you only hear David Prowse's voice coming from behind the mask, before James Earl Jones's voice had been dubbed in. Let's just say Prowse's voice didn't exactly inspire awe.
Also funny was the scene on the Death Star with Tarkin and Leia where he orders Alderaan blown up. The destruction of the planet is represented by some guy shouting "Bang!" from offstage, while Carrie Fisher and Peter Cushing stare at nothing.
Anyway, lots of fun and memories in this program. It's a treasure of information for SW fans.
