Title: Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy
Directors: Kevin Burns, Edith Becker
Writer: Ed Singer
Production Company: Prometheus Entertainment
Copyright: 2004
Length: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Reviewed by Lady Aeryn.
"I expected not to ever make a hit movie. That wasn't my agenda. I certainly didn't expect Star Wars to become the juggernaut it did. But it became such a phenomenon."
This quote from George Lucas opens Empire of Dreams (henceforth referred to as Dreams to avoid confusion with The Empire Strikes Back), and sums in one sentence what this feature-length documentary explores in more detail than any before it has done: how Lucas's seemingly simple desire to tell one story on film, his way, grew into the worldwide phenomenon Star Wars is now.
An impressive wealth of behind-the-scenes footage -- much of it never-before-seen -- and commentaries from cast, crew, and others from Lucas's film career composes the documentary, taking us from Lucas's early days as a film student through the production of the first trilogy of Star Wars films, all the way to the release of The Phantom Menace. A recurring theme -- if not the dominant one -- throughout Dreams is Lucas's passion to remain in creative control of his stories, a passion that put him at frequent odds with Hollywood executives during the filming of the original trilogy and ultimately led him to separate from Hollywood, creating his own independent filmmaking firms (Lucasfilm, Industrial Light and Magic, and Skywalker Sound, among others). This is a journey that Dreams lovingly credits with reinventing and revitalizing filmmaking and the world of movies as a whole.
Dreams does as comprehensive a job as a video feature can of chronicling both the highs and lows of the rise of Lucas and Star Wars. Despite not sugar-coating the ugly frustrations that plagued much of the original trilogy's production (particularly A New Hope), a tone of fond nostalgia is retained throughout the documentary, largely thanks to the choice of commentaries. It's easy to see that despite the intense frustrations, nearly everyone interviewed still looks at Star Wars as a worthwhile -- even defining -- part of their lives.
As insightful as the commentary is, perhaps an even bigger treat of Dreams is its wealth of archival footage: original cast auditions, raw effects -- and score-free footage, outtakes, concept artwork, model and set construction, and more. Some of the highlights include a clip of the original opening crawl of the first film as it appeared in 1977 (before re-releases added "Episode IV" and "A New Hope"), hearing what Darth Vader sounded like before James Earl Jones was cast -- the high-pitched, not-at-all-intimidating voice of David Prowse that caused some cast/crew to jokingly refer to him as "Darth Farmer," and an almost intact deleted Han/Leia romance scene from The Empire Strikes Back of which previously only a handful of stills had been seen.
Perhaps the biggest flaw of Dreams, if you could call it one (perhaps more of a personal preference), is that it goes little into the development of the actual story of the films, focusing largely on the technical aspects of the production itself. But the quality of the whole feature is still excellent and very much a clear labor of love by those involved, and certainly a highly informative viewing for anyone interested in the backstory of Star Wars.
Empire of Dreams, which originally aired on television in abbreviated form on the A&E network's "Biography" series, appears in its entirety on the Bonus Materials disc of the 2004 release of the Special Edition original trilogy DVDs, and is well worth the two and a half hours it takes to view it.
