Even though the history of STAR WARS has been told and retold, this independent series from Brian Volk-Weiss ("The Toys That Made Us") -- which looks exclusively at George Lucas' STAR WARS movies -- boasts a fairly candid and breezy overview of their production history and issues. These include interviewees like set decorator Roger Christian, FX greats Richard Edlund, John Dykstra, Ken Ralston and Rick Baker, Lucas biographer Dale Pollock, editor Paul Hirsch, plus Anthony Daniels and (briefly) Billy Dee Williams among others.
The big feather in this show's cap is that they got Marcia Lucas to sit down for a 3-hour plus interview -- and that entire interview is included here uncut as a bonus feature! (So too are their interviews with Anthony Daniels running nearly 3 hours and Williams running considerably less).
Marcia Lucas' involvement in these films, as a veteran and in-demand editor (she had loads of experience even before she met Lucas) and an obvious companion to her future ex-husband, has been discussed in books but seldom in these documentaries. I believe this is the first on-camera interview she's ever given on STAR WARS and it's worthwhile to hear her dish about the suggestions she made (she's the one who wanted to kill off Obi-Wan, who decided to use wipes as scene transitions, who introduced Han Solo coming in to save the day during the trench run, etc.) to ancedotes about how weird Gary Kurtz was and the considerable issues that existed with the British crew on the original film.
A lot of the series is from her perspective but, given how many of these docs there have been, it's a welcome point of view to hear and I'd recommend this six-part series -- which looks at Lucas' series through the prequels -- for her interview alone.
What the series leaves you with is Lucas was filled with amazing ideas and concepts, as well as being a superb visual filmmaker -- but it certainly helped to have as many adept and resourceful collaborators on the original STAR WARS as he did. Whether it was his then-wife (whose editing saved the first film!), or co-editor Paul Hirsch (who worked with Marcia to save a disastrously edited cut that had been assembled in the UK and nearly caused Fox to shut the film down), or Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz who rewrote a good amount of the film's dialogue...Lucas' sensibilities were shaped by the team he was working with and it's a good thing they were. Left to his own devices, STAR WARS may not have ended up the film that it became.
https://www.amazon.com/ICONS-UNEARTHED- ... s_li_ss_tl
