Shadow Puppet Storyteller

How I Poured Over Star Wars

The L.A. County Public Library branch near me just acquired a 360 plus page coffetable hardback on The Making of Star Wars, a topic I would've sworn to you, "I am over." But I really was engrossed. The real essence of the struggle to birth this movie is written, both in exposition and through following the creative process, bit by bit in seeing portions of the first through fourth drafts of the screenplay.

I feel like every authoritative magazine article I've read on Star Wars or George Lucas, only allowed half-truths. Maybe insight into the "making" (besides the post-production effects) was never considered high on the general public's interest list. After reading this book, almost in its entirety, however, I find that was very, very important to me. The struggle to write a marketable story is very close to my reality, now, as it was to young George Lucas thirty-four years ago.

I think the journalists covering the beginning, re-release, and subsequent sequels and prequels just never had the insight to dig or research. In this volume, every influence during George Lucas' writing process is pieced together or at least speculated on. The photos and drawings are more "insider" or archival than any previous volume related to the Star Wars franchise. That, plus the depth of insight into the rewriting progress that had Lucas define his universe in a one to two year window, actually made this seventy-five dollar book attractive to me. And I counted myself as someone who'd given up my childhood love of Star Wars.