Since the blog completely deleted this post, I've tried to recreate bits and pieces of it. I'm not about to watch through all the bonus features again.
Considering what a huge deal Star Wars is today, it's hard to imagine that everyone thought the original movie would be a total flop. It was pretty low budget too. For example, in the hangar they had to move ships around for each shot, so it looked like they had more ships. They also had to use every mask they could find for scenes like the bar. Which is why they ended up with a devil-looking character.
Lucas said that the first Star Wars film was meant to feel like you walked in during the middle of a series. He never knew if he would get the opportunity to make the following two films. And he never dreamed that he could do prequels.
It was funny to hear about all the strange things they used to create sound effects. To make the sound of Vader choking someone, they crushed walnut shells inside of a grapefruit peel. And to make squishy sounds for Jabba, they mashed their hands around in a dish of cheese casserole.
George Lucas borrowed an idea from the samurai movie, Hidden Fortress. That movie is largely told from the perspective of two farmers, who are mostly bystanders. In Star Wars, the story starts off being told by a couple droids (who do a lot of bystanding, but they help a lot too).
They used a lot of very simple solutions to film the effects. For example, when Vader uses the force to steal Han's gun, they simply threw the gun across the table.
And of course, in The Empire Strikes Back, we meet Yoda. Who is a fabulous puppet. They had to build a false floor so the puppeteers could move around beneath Yoda, and create his movements.
At one point in Dagobah, Luke pulls a snake out of his ship's vent. The actor was not happy about having to do that.
Today, everyone knows who Luke's dad is. But when they were making the movie, that was top secret. There was a stand-in line, where Vader says that Obi-Wan killed Luke's father. They only told Luke about it right before shooting. They didn't even tell the actor who did Vader -the voice of Vader is not the same guy that's wearing the suit. In fact, the guy wearing the suit was upset that he didn't know, because he said he would have acted it differently.
Actually, Vader isn't the only one whose voice was done later. Much of Star Wars had to be dubbed, because the original sound was distorted by helmets and clanking droids and such.
I didn't even notice this until Lucas mentioned it, but the Storm Troopers often bang their heads against things. Because, as Luke notes, you can't see much through those helmets. Even Jango Fett bonks his head in Attack of the Clones.
Another recurring theme is that in the first six movies, someone always says, "I have a bad feeling about this." They even made fun of it in Rogue One. I'd never noticed that either, except I recalled Leia saying it at one point.
The Revenge of the Sith starts with an elaborate space battle. Someone mentioned that it was so hard to create that scene because it had everything but the kitchen sink. So in one of the explosions, Lucas added a bit of debris that's actually a kitchen sink. It's too small for me to really see on my screen though.
Lucas's son had a cameo in this movie. He's the young Jedi that Senator Organa encounters, who is then shot down by the clones. That's a hell of a cameo...
Also, Anakin knows he's doing the wrong thing. That's why you see him crying.
They had some unexpected help filming the battle on Mustafar. Because Mt. Etna erupted, giving them plenty of footage of lava.
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