The Characters of 'Star Wars' (2004) (V)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Writer:

Gary Leva (writer)

Genre:

Documentary | Short

Cast

John Matthew	...	Narrator
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kenny Baker	...	Himself (archive footage)
Anthony Daniels	...	Himself - 'C-3PO'
Harrison Ford	...	Himself - 'Han Solo'
Alec Guinness	...	Himself (archive footage)
Mark Hamill	...	Himself - 'Luke Skywalker'
Peter Jackson	...	Himself - Director, 'The Lord of the Rings' Trilogy
George Lucas	...	Himself - Writer / Director
Peter Mayhew	...	Himself - 'Chewbacca'
Ralph McQuarrie	...	Himself - Production Illustrator

Runtime:

19 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Company:

Leva FilmWorks

Trivia:

This featurette is in the Star Wars Trilogy DVD box set, released in 2004.

Movie Connections:

References 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

They skipped over half of them

Here is some more stuff they could not fit into the 'Empire of Dreams' documentary on the DVD, concerning the origin of (some of) the main characters in the Star Wars trilogy. All the old anecdotes are here: Indiana the malamute, the midget scenario, the Ralph McQuarrie influence and the Hidden fortress analogy.

George tells us it was always about these twins who were related to the father character (can you guess how?). Actually, the only twins in the original draft were Leia's younger brothers (who got carried around in suspended animation for most of the time). We examine the following Campbell influenced architypes: the hero, the selfish sidekick, the sidekicks sidekick (or alien sidekick). The comic relief (a part usually reserved for the sidekick) and the villain. No mention of the Princess. Just like those title cards at the end of 'American Graffiti' that only tell us the future of the four boys, not the girls.

All of this is nicely illustrated by McQuarries paintings, lots of sketches, a couple of outtakes and of course, comments by Peter Jackson. Some early storyboards involving Darth Vader are revealed to have been especially grotesque. George tells us the Dark Lord is losing his humanness (sic?) but of course the only reason Darth wore a mask was because McQuarrie worried about him crossing the vacuum of space from the Star Destroyer to the Blockade Runner. When talking about the Wookiee, Lucas lets slip that it would have been nice to use digital technology instead of a guy in suit. Then we move on to some early Threepio tests .

When the romantic 'Han Solo and the Princess' theme blares up, it's time once again to suck up to 'The Maker'. Harrison Ford (in an interview conducted for the 1997 special editions) mentions Lucas is a genius while Peter Jackson goes as far as to compare him to Tolkien. Jackson talks about these characters with the same kind of affection as the ones on his own DVD sets. This is obviously a veiled attempt to show all those feuding fans on the IMDb message boards Lucas and Jackson are not the bitter enemies they like to think they are. Didn't they ever notice Peter still models his hair after the seventies young director look?

5 out of 10