AaronCapenBanner Interesting and informative documentary on the original trilogy, has interviews with all the surviving creators and stars of the films, and much behind the scenes footage, anecdotes, and trivia that fans love.Pretty exhaustive and extensive look at how the films were conceived and directed, the casting process, evolution of the groundbreaking visual effects that so captured the imagination of children, the memorable music that kids hummed in schoolyards as they re-enacted their favorite characters and battles, and the costume making process for the familiar alien characters like the droids C3PO, R2D2, and Chewbacca, not to mention Darth Vader! On the original Special Edition DVD set, this is well worth watching.

clarke-21 All, Like many of you, I'm a fan of Star Wars. Since I was born in 1977, I'm what you might call a Star Wars baby. At least that is what my mother told me. Star Wars has been a part of my life for years.Times have changed, but I remember feeling like the characters in Star Wars were friends who I was on a journey with. Do you know the feeling? Like, if I'm watching Empire Strikes Back, or if I happen to stumble onto it on some random channel, I have to immediately watch Return of the Jedi.A few years ago, while at dinner with friends. A cinematographer asked me what my greatest movie experience was. Without a doubt, Return of the Jedi's opening scene, where Darth Vader walks down the plank... I remember the audience's ovation.The movies were fun then. When Return of the Jedi was released, I remember Vader's opening scene and the long lines. The lines for Jedi where ridiculous.Like many of you, I was expecting to feel the same magic, when the last three movies were released. It didn't happen. I could be wrong, but I think the most exciting thing to happen in the Star Wars universe, within the last 15 years, has to be the Phantom Menace TRAILER. I remember downloading this trailer from Kazaa and hearing the audience going crazy. For a split second, when I watched the trailer back in 99, it was 1983 all over again.As the years have passed, I've grown attached to films with similar themes. The hero, who takes off on a journey and has a similar quest to Luke. A few years ago, I sought out the writer of another favorite film, The Last Dragon.The writer, Louis Venosta revealed to me, that Joseph Campbell's book, A Hero With a Thousand Faces, was an intricate part of his writing. I had never heard of Campbell until this time. I would learn that Campbell was the author who influenced Lucas. In fact, Campbell has said that Lucas was his greatest student.After reading several of Campbell's books and meeting with Venosta, I thought about writing the sequel to the Last Dragon, but then realized that I needed to write my own story.As a native New Yorker, and someone who could have lost his life during 9/11, I felt that a story needed to be made. A new myth. I finished writing my first book in 2008. Over the last few years, I couldn't figure out how to get the story out to the people who needed and wanted to read it.Like many of you, I hate all of the remakes. I was watching EMPIRE OF DREAMS, the documentary of the Star Wars films and I see a comparison between the time when Star Wars was made and the current state of affairs in the United States today. When I was selling my book on the streets of New York, a passerby told me that there weren't any new stories since the Matrix.The name of my book is MASTERNEVER AND THE FLOW OF DEATH. You can download the entire book by visiting www.masternever.com I've included an entire soundtrack that accompanies the book. I hope you will download and enjoy the book.I hope you don't mind me posting here. After writing a book and several screenplays, I want to connect with people who have similar interest. The rest of the Star Wars babies. Those waiting for a new myth.I'm also posting here, because IMDb played a vital role in starting this journey four years ago. So, I've come full circle.You can see me talking about this book, mythology and stories, but visiting this video.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBwDNDWirSs

TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews This special starts before the original Star Wars, and after introducing Lucas and setting the scene for the time period, it takes us through the entire trilogy, with clips, interviews and behind the scenes footage en masse(I won't throw on the ever-ambiguous "and more" that is a common favorite to throw on DVD covers and the likes... believe me, if they've got something good to sell you, they know it, and they won't hesitate to tell you, "more" is like "interactive menus"... it makes nothing out of the ordinary sound like a real treat). Each main member of the cast, including Kenny Baker(R2D2), and Anthony Daniels(C3PO) - who sounds a lot like his character even when he's just speaking normally - and Peter Mayhew(Chewbacca). It has a good pace throughout, the version I watched was 90 minutes, and it never grew stale. It is edited expertly throughout. There is a solid flow to the documentary. It holds a lot of information, and the right amount of time is spent on it. The fun factor of this is achieved nicely, and without overshadowing what it is presenting. About the only person not brought in for an interview is David Prowse, who I suppose may still hold a grudge over not being told that they weren't going to use his voice(and if he knew that they were going to add in footage of Vader where his voice was still the one heard, in this special(which... let's just say, doesn't exactly sound as powerful and terrifying as that of James Earl Jones, who is also interviewed in this)... well, he might have stayed away for that reason, I know I would). There is perhaps a bit of patting on the back going on, as the special mentions just *how many* nominations and wins the films got, and how important it was, and so on and so forth, but this doesn't keep it from being worth watching. I recommend this to any fan of the original trilogy. Heck, the anecdotes alone almost make the hour and a half worth it. 8/10

Nick Zegarac (movieman-200) Nearly 30 years ago in a galaxy far far away, George Lucas forever altered the cinematic landscape of science fiction with "Star Wars." A memorizing fairytale, and by now legendary intergalactic epic from which all subsequent like-minded endeavors have had to live up to, "Star Wars" was the story of the son of a Jedi Knight, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and his quest to rid the galaxy of an evil empire and Darth Vader. That Han Solo (Harrison Ford) slowly began to emerge as everyone's favorite heartthrob (particularly in "The Empire Strikes Back") didn't seem to hamper Lucas' initial desire to tell a good story – especially since Princess Leila (Carrie Fisher) was actually Luke's sister and therefore definitely 'out' as a love interest for the young and viral Jedi in training. But I digress. With its strident overtones of son eclipsing father in "The Return of the Jedi" Lucas' space saga fully realized the box office potential of trilogies. Buttressed by spellbinding special effects, script scenarios that seemed to improve in leaps and bounds with each new installment, and a near mythological following akin to "Star Trekkies," "Star Wars" became that rarified cinematic sensation; a marketer's wet dream. John William's masterful main title and subsequent scoring forever changed the musical landscape of contemporary movies for the better. One needs only to hear the first few bars of music to find instant connection with a film history steeped in the great composers of Hollywood past. "Star Wars" also made George Lucas a very, very rich (if conflicted) man, and, gave him a cottage industry to fall back on during his less lucrative career in the late 80s and early 90s. That in recent times fans of the first three films in the series have expressed their overwhelming outrage at the director's need to insert new computer generated footage and "update" his film classics is a bone of contention that has been well documented in print and on the web. Press releases from on high at Lucas Films LTD have used the logic that Star Wars in totem belongs to its creator. Hence, if the creator is dissatisfied with his work he has every right to go back and "fix" what he feels is inadequate. However, while no one can dispute that it was Lucas' initial genius that created the legacy, it does seem, at least to this reviewer, that Herr Director relinquished his own personal rights as to what is or isn't a good film after he bestowed that greatness onto the collective memory of movie audiences. After re-releasing the trilogy in theaters in the early 1990s, the films went into moratorium so that Lucas could devote his time and effort to producing the last three (actually the first three). Yet, despite his overwhelming advancements in film technology, none of Lucas' subsequent installments have come anywhere close to recapturing the magic of the first trilogy. And now, at last, audiences get to witness the reason why Star Wars redux pales in comparison to Star Wars proper on DVD. These new hi-def transfers are, in a word, mind-blowing. The images are pristine and exhibit a surreal amount of clarity, depth and fine detail. Film grain is practically non-existent for an image so smooth you'll swear you're in the same galaxy with Luke and Co. Colors are rich, vibrant and bold. Flesh tones are miraculously true to life. Blacks are deep and solid. The enhanced sequences in the film have a much more integrated feel to them than they did in theaters in the 90s. Of the three films, Star Wars exhibits the most improvement in video quality. "Return of the Jedi" in direct comparison seems a tad weak, particularly in the scenes on Endor in which the forest foliage has a decidedly muddy/too grainy feel to it. (Aside: the image is still astounding compared to anything you've likely seen before. Compression artifacts are present but do not distract. There's no hint of edge enhancement or pixelization. The audio for all three films has been cleaned up considerably. Though all three soundtracks are decidedly the product of outdated sound equipment they are remarkably engaging for films of their vintage and will surely NOT disappoint.This collection comes with an extra disc loaded with bonus footage. There are vintage documentaries, new featurettes and a host of deleted scenes and outtakes to choose from. But if you're like this reviewer, ultimately these are mere icing on the cake. The real treat here is to finally have the Lucas legacy back in everyone's video library. May the force continue to live on!