Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy

2004
8.2| 2h31m| en
Details

From the earliest versions of the script to the blockbuster debuts, explore the creation of the Star Wars Trilogy.

Trailers & Clips

Reviews

Karry Best movie of this year hands down!
Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic
Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.
InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
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
I_Am_The_Taylrus SPOILERSI am a huge Star Wars fan and I had recently seen this on television. Since I had seen it I decided to comment on it. Remember, though, I had seen the television version, not the longer DVD version of this documentary. There are fun interviews in this documentary, and this includes some interesting details about the making of the first three Star Wars film. They do talk about Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, but not much. This documentary was made before Revenge of the Sith.Here is the basis of this documentary. It is basically the history behind the infamous Star Wars movies. George Lucas and the rest of the cast and crew talk about how the movies came to be. There were difficult hardships, including the intense heat in the desert sequence, from the cold winter in the snow sequence in the Empire Strikes Back. They also talk about the slew of awards that Star Wars won, and the records that it shattered.Overall, this is a fun-filled documentary to watch. Some of the facts about Star Wars are also really interesting to hear about. For example, Frank Oz, who is the puppeteer for Yoda, accidentally breaks and shatters the Yoda head, so they have to make a brand-new one. Also, in the Empire Strikes Back the crew were snowed in a hotel so Mark Hamill, who plays Luke, had to go out in the freezing cold alone. I also like the fact that the director and the producers told nobody that Vader was Luke's father. Anyway, this is an enjoyable documentary to watch if you are a fan of the Star Wars trilogy.9/10 Recommended Titles: Star Wars.
MovieAddict2016 Like most DVD fanatics I picked up the "Star Wars" boxset last Christmas when it came out. I was disappointed, to be honest. Apart from the fact that much more could have been included in terms of extra content (did we need a video game demo taking up space on the fourth disc?) it also didn't include the original versions of the films - which, as far as I know, are those that practically everyone prefers.Nevertheless this insightful and exhaustive documentary - which covers the entire pre-production through post-production phase of each original "Star Wars" film - almost redeems the DVD collection. Although it is fairly "full of itself" as IMDb commentator Bob the Moo notes, it DOES feature a good wealth of information - including some facts I hadn't heard about before (e.g. Jedi was given a fake working title so fans wouldn't sneak onto the set).If you're a fan of "Star Wars," definitely check this out - if you don't want to dish out the cash, it's playing on A&E right now. But in my opinion it's not as great as it could have been because it falls victim to George Lucas' "cleanness" - we're led to believe "Star Wars" is the most important and defining event of the past century and that turned me off a bit.
Buck Aroo I have also seen a 90 minute version of this documentary, which was shown on the brilliant Biography channel. Although I had doubts about buying the soon to be released trilogy on DVD, the documentary has certainly whetted my appetite, and made me eager to see the complete version which will be included on the fourth disc of the set. Even for someone as knowledge about the Star Wars movies and George Lucas as I am, it was still very entertaining, and contained quite a few never before seen out-takes from all the films. The programme features the problems that Lucas had with 20th Century Fox execs (apart from Alan Ladd jnr, who greenlit Star Wars) when the movie ran over budget and missed it's Christmas 1976 opening date, the '...hippies...' at ILM who hadn't completed any decent effects shots Lucas could use, and the destruction of sets in Tunisia which halted filming temporarily. There are also interviews with most of the original cast members - even Harrison Ford who certainly doesn't enjoy doing them, which is no big secret.These edited highlights I've described, have left me hankering for more.