The Making of 'Star Wars' (TV 1977)

Ever wonder how they ever managed to make a movie like Star Wars? Well, bickering droid duo C-3PO and R2-D2 host this tour of the mind of creator George Lucas and what inspired him to make ... See full summary »

Director:

Robert Guenette

Writer:

Richard Schickel

Stars:

Anthony Daniels, George Lucas, Carrie Fisher

Cast

Credited cast:
Anthony Daniels	...	C-3PO
George Lucas	...	Himself
Carrie Fisher	...	Herself
Mark Hamill	...	Himself
Harrison Ford	...	Himself
Peter Mayhew	...	Himself
David Prowse	...	Darth Vader
James Earl Jones	...	Darth Vader (voice)
Alec Guinness	...	Himself
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
William Conrad	...	Narrator (original narration from 1977)
Peter Diamond	...	Stunt coordinator
Gary Kurtz	...	Himself
Don LaFontaine	...	Narrator (voice)

Storyline

Ever wonder how they ever managed to make a movie like Star Wars? Well, bickering droid duo C-3PO and R2-D2 host this tour of the mind of creator George Lucas and what inspired him to make the movie. Even interviewed are the cast and crew, even features scenes of when C-3PO, R2-D2, and Darth Vader planted their footprints (or in R2's case, tread-prints) into cement. Also discussed is Star Wars mania, how fans loved the movie, collected the merchandise and danced the disco music. Also shown are behind-the-scenes looks at the movie, as well as how difficult each effect was in doing since they didn't have the convenience of computer animation back then.

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Plot Keywords:

merchandise | fan | droid | host | behind the scenes | 

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Genres:

Documentary

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

16 September 1977 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

20th Century Fox Television, Star Wars Corporation, The

Technical Specs

Runtime:

50 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

William Conrad was the original narrator. On later VHS releases Don LaFontaine dubbed over Conrad's original narration.

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Goofs

At about 22:23 minutes, Chewbacca can be seen on the TV monitor, and R2-D2 beeping. C-3PO asks "what did he say?", even when he is fluent in over six million forms of communication.

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Crazy Credits

R2-D2 was credited as himself rather than being listed as being portrayed by Kenny Baker who really did portray him in this documentary.

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Connections

Features Captain Blood (1935)

User Reviews

Worth it for the interviews and behind the scenes footage.

C-3P0 and R2-D2 host this 50 minute long documentary about the making of A New Hope. I got it for Christmas in 1995, right around the last time the original trilogy was released on VHS. It is very informative; I particularly like watching how the spaceships were filmed. If you want the ultimate documentary about the making of Star Wars though, I would recommend the Empire of Dreams documentary. I have to admit I fast forward the short host segments with R2 and 3PO now. The main reason to get this is for the old interviews with Lucas, Ford, Hammill, Fisher, Guinness, and even Gary Kurtz. It's cool to see them when they were so young, and Lucas actually has a normal neck. There is also some rare behind the scenes footage. Did you know Guinness was only six feet off the ground when he shut down the tractor beam?

Die hard Star Wars fans will appreciate the footage of Luke Skywalker and Biggs Darklighter talking on Tattooine. It is very brief though, only about five seconds, and you can't hear what they're saying. But this footage is very rare and can only be found in a few documentaries. I've found stills on some websites, but that's not the same.

On a side note, it's funny to hear Mark Hammill say "Princess Leia is a chump if she goes for Han Solo." We can forgive him, he didn't know. Most interesting is when George Lucas says "I will say Luke is more devoted to Princess Leia." It makes me wonder if he really had the whole story planned from the beginning.