The Holy Trilogy

After finally completing my viewage of the "Star Wars" Trilogy on DVD, I dove head first into the supplemental disc last night. Most notably the almost 3 hour long "Empire Of Dreams". All I have to say is 'Allay-fucking-lew'!!! Oh my Christ what an amazing journey! The never before seen making of footage is just incredible and there were a number of stories I'd never heard before. Plus they talk to EVERYONE, just like the "Indiana Jones" box set.



I purchased The Holy Trilogy (tm) in September when I was in LA but knew I'd have to wait until my return to the east coast for the Holidays to sit down and really enjoy the whole thing properly. On occasion I'll buy a DVD when it's released but have to be in the mood before I'll watch it. Sometimes it'll be the very next night and other times it's weeks or even a few months later. "Star Wars" was to be a watch-when-I-get-home, but I became involved in other things surrounding Christmas, etc.



The menu's!! Talk about amazing eye candy! I could just sit and watch those for an hour. Every little facet of supplemental sectioning moves you through a really incredible 3D-like composite utilizing a set piece from each movie. And everything is watchable in 16 X 9...even the trailers!...EVERYTHING. For me, a person with 16 X 9 capability, I don't have to switch back and forth between aspect ratios when something different is presented, which is often the case on a lot of DVD's. Very nice and very welcome. Now after having watched the mother of all documentaries I'm ready to plunge into the more catagorized sections. For God's sake they have every trailer known to Man from each film! Even a boat load of TV spots I haven't seen in YARENS (sorry Bill B...had to get that in there). I still get shivers when I hear "...somewhere in space, all this could be happening right now". There are several spots where they nicely just let the moment play out. Like 'the day they would never forget'. It's opening day of "Star Wars". Everything stops (in the documentary) and the movie begins. Suddenly you're seeing the head of the original opening crawl...THE ORIGINAL. No "A New Hope" at the top! Other clips shown in regard to the first release of the Trilogy also contain their original content; Jason Wingreen as Boba Fett's voice, Sebastian Shaw as the ghost of Anakin, and Tattooine un-CGIed.



The one thing that stuck out most on the information side was the whole fiasco about crediting. I never knew the Director and Writer's Guild fined Irvin Kirschner and Lawrence Kasdan (among others) because "Empire" didn't have name credits at the head of the movie, the complete list left until the end. A point it is said they disgruntally overlooked in the first film and then decided to take action with on the second. Lucas took it upon himself to pay those fines out of his own pocket, but quit both those organizations afterward in disgust. So when it came time to sign on a director for "Jedi" his first choice was Steven Spielberg...who couldn't be attached because of Lucas' disassociation with the Director's Guild. Can you imagine what "Jedi" would have been like with Spielberg on board?!



Picture and sound on all three films are, of course, absolutely phenomenal. Sound-cranked-to-11 moments: "Here they come!", "You're not actually going into an asteroid field?!", and "All craft pull up!!".



The upgrades from the '97 special editions range in approval for me. Jabba The Hut looks much, much better from the hanger scene with Han Solo in "Star Wars". He makes the previous version seem like a cartoon in comparison. Thank God they didn't try to insert an image or reference to Padme which was rumored. I always felt if she was mentioned they'd have James Earl Jones loop a line to be spoken by Vader in a silent moment during the lightsaber duel with Obi Wan. This of course is all moot now. I'm borderline on Ian McDiarmid replacing Clive Revill as the Emperor in "Empire", but understand of course why it was done. Temuera Morrison's (Jango Fett) voice for Boba Fett wasn't bad, but he should have had a little more of the original inflections. The thing that really bothers me is Hayden Christensen's performance as Anakin's ghost at the end of "Jedi". He's like 'oh...am I on? Is this thing on? Hi...oh I'm looking at Luke?' Blah. Have him smile a little for Christ's sake like Sebastian Shaw. I do appreciate more the sweeping view of all the saga planets after the fall of the Empire and was relieved to see the Gungans not featured prominently in the Naboo shot as was also rumored. I'll take Ewoks over Gungans any day.



Yub Yub.