In 1977, George Lucas - a film director famed for a badly-cut beard and the use of too many special effects in his movies - created a sci-fi saga. This cinematic canon we now know as Star Wars. It's believed Lucas started work on the first draft of the first film back in 1972, where he considered it might have worked on television as a Saturday afternoon serial. It's this very early stage that leads many fans to argue Lucas had written nine parts to the saga, instead of the six that he now claims. Lucas is the only one who knows the truth and continues to release conflicting statements about the matter. A Time magazine article dated 6 March, 1978, even reported that Lucas was planning 12 episodes in total.

Warning - the rest of this Entry contains information that some might consider to be spoilers.

Star Wars - Episode IV - 'A New Hope', 1977

Star Wars was the surprise success of 1977, not least to some of the actors in the film, who subsequently profited from its success having accepted a percentage of the gross return, rather than taking (what would have turned out to be) a smaller fee up front. This was part of the deal struck with the actors when production began in 1975, as the studio only gave Lucas a fraction of the budget that the later films were made on. While Lucas slaved away on what was, for him, a personal project, many of his contemporaries in the film industry, including Brian De Palma and Lucas's own wife, film editor Marcia Lucas, felt he was wasting his time on what might turn out to be a major flop. One lone voice of support came from Steven Spielberg, who recognised what Lucas was attempting and encouraged him to carry on.

Although the opening scrolling narration identifies the film as 'Episode IV' (although the original first cinema release didn't have this subtitle), this was a reference to the old Flash Gordon films that inspired it. With all of the negativity that had surrounded the project, right up to the time that the film was released, it was thought of solely in terms of being a one-off. The audiences that queued round the block in its first week of release changed all of that. Only after the film had broken box-office records was Lucas able to confirm that further episodes were on the way, and once the first sequel was confirmed re-release prints of Star Wars were slightly re-edited to carry the subtitles 'Episode IV - A New Hope'. The film was eventually renamed Star Wars - Episode IV - 'A New Hope' in 1997 after the release of the re-edited special edition.

Principal Characters

• Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill)
• Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher)
• Han Solo (Harrison Ford)
• Obi-wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness)
• C-3PO (Anthony Daniels)
• R2-D2 (Kenny Baker)
• Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew)
• Darth Vader (body played by Dave Prowse, voice by an uncredited James Earl Jones)
• Grand Moff Tarkin (Peter Cushing¹)

Plot Outline

A New Hope took audiences to 'A long time ago... in a galaxy, far, far away' where the Rebellion, confronted with a deadly battle station called the 'Death Star', made contact with Obi-wan Kenobi, a long-retired Jedi Master who had acquired a young apprentice, a farm boy called Luke Skywalker. The Jedi were an order from long ago that kept peace in the galaxy before they themselves were destroyed by the Empire. They harnessed the Light Side of the Force, a mysterious energy that surrounds us all. The Jedi Master taught the ways of the Force to young Luke, who was the son of another Jedi, now long dead. Obi-wan tells Luke of the Dark Side and of Darth Vader, who, he informs Luke, killed his father. Vader is one of the commanders of the Empire, a tyrannical regime that rules the galaxy, a regime that the Rebellion wants to bring to an end. Obi-wan and Luke team up with a smuggler called Han Solo and his co-pilot, a wookiee² named Chewbacca, in an attempt to destroy the Death Star using plans hidden in the memory of a small droid...

Production

Despite budgetary constraints³ Star Wars nonetheless pushed back the boundaries of filmmaking. George Lucas even set up Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) to create some of the special effects techniques simply because the resources to realise his vision didn't exist at the time. Before Star Wars came along, all blue/black screen shots of a vehicle moving required the object to move around a stationary camera. This, for various reasons (such as the setting up of the equipment that makes the object move and the longer editing process) was very expensive. ILM found that if you moved the camera around a stationary object in a certain way, then super-imposed the right background, the object appeared to move, but not at such a great cost. This is how most of the TIE Fighter and dogfight scenes in Star Wars were filmed.

Star Wars Holiday Special

The Star Wars Holiday Special, shown in the US during Christmas 1978, was filmed hot-on-the-heels of the surprise success of the first film. Revolving around Chewbacca returning home for Wookiee Life Day celebrations, it brought together most of the cast from the first film and was also the first sighting of Boba Fett, who would go on to be an integral part of the next two films. It proved very unpopular with fans, and they had very little positive to say about it. Lucas has even said that he would happily hunt down every copy of the film and destroy it. Never repeated in the US, or anywhere else, its memory has only stayed alive through bootleg copies.

Star Wars - Episode V - 'The Empire Strikes Back', 1980

Principal Characters

• Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill)
• Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher)
• Han Solo (Harrison Ford)
• Obi-wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness)
• C-3PO (Anthony Daniels)
• R2-D2 (Kenny Baker)
• Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew)
• Darth Vader (body by Dave Prowse, voice by James Earl Jones, uncredited)
• Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams)
• The Emperor (image uncredited, voice Clive Revill)
• Yoda (Frank Oz, voice and puppet-master)
• Boba Fett (Jeremy Bullock)

Plot Outline

The Empire quickly pursues the Rebel Alliance to its new base on the ice planet Hoth, and routs them in a massive assault. The alliance flees and its new heroes Luke, Leia and Han separate. Luke seeks out Yoda, an old Jedi Master (he's 900 years old apparently), who then helps Luke complete his Jedi training. Meanwhile, Vader quickly takes advantage of a chance to capture Leia and Han a place called Cloud City. Luke's growing powers reveal the threat and he reacts, as every good hero should, but too late to save all of his friends.

Yoda's Speech Pattern

Described as 'frankly weird', Yoda has the strangest speech pattern in the universe. From his mouth have sprung such immortal, and totally baffling, lines as 'guide you to him I will'; 'around the survivors a perimeter create' and 'size matters not'. Generally, Yoda takes the first two words of a sentence and puts them at the end. Why? It might have something to do with Frank Oz⁴ being the man behind the green-skinned bat-eared creature. The context of the previous film is also changed quite a bit by a plot twist, the infamous 'Luke, I am your father' scene, where Darth Vader reveals the truth of Luke's heritage to him. Most have found that this scene significantly changes the audience's perception of the previous film where Obi-wan tells Luke his father was 'killed' by Darth Vader.

Production

This film opened up new challenges to film-makers. For the first time the blue-screen technique was used in a snow scene. This created significant problems for ILM, which they weren't able to rectify until the Special Edition 17 years later. The principal problem was that when transferring the blue-screen shots of the models (and of views from the cockpits of the fighters) onto the white background of the snow, a black line would appear around the models. Back then, this was always the case when shooting against blue screen, however, usually the models were put into space, which is already black, so the outline doesn't show up quite so badly. ILM found a trick to get around this problem back in 1980. They made the cockpits and the models slightly transparent, so the black line was toned down. Unfortunately by doing this, audiences could see through the cockpits in some scenes.

Star Wars - Episode VI - 'Return of the Jedi', 1983

Principal Characters

• Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill)
• Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher)
• Han Solo (Harrison Ford)
• Obi-wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness)
• C-3PO (Anthony Daniels)
• R2-D2 (Kenny Baker)
• Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew)
• Darth Vader (body by Dave Prowse, voice by James Earl Jones, finally credited)
• Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams)
• The Emperor (Ian McDiarmid)
• Yoda (Frank Oz, voice and puppet-master)
• Jabba the Hutt (Larry Ward, voice only)
• Boba Fett (Jeremy Bullock)
• Anakin Skywalker (Sebastian Shaw, both as the face under Vader's mask and as the ghost of Skywalker, reunited with the spirits of the Jedi at the end of the film⁵.)

Plot Outline

The final film in the Star Wars saga (although it was the third one made) this told the true story of the Skywalker family. Vader is Luke's father, although as Obi-wan says, 'he is more machine than man now', and Leia is Luke's twin sister⁶. A new Death Star was being built near the moon of Endor and, as the Rebellion sought to destroy it, Luke confronted his father there. He saw the good in him and Vader (or Anakin on his return to the Light Side of the Force) killed the Emperor, otherwise known as Darth Sidious. With the Emperor dead, the Rebellion had won and peace returned to the galaxy.

Production

An interesting piece of information appears when the production of Jedi is examined. When filming the exterior shots for the Jabba the Hutt sequence, Jedi was given the fictional name of Blue Harvest. T-shirts and caps were even made for the crew to wear. This was done so eager fans didn't invade the set. But it didn't stop them. At one point the film was going to be called Revenge of the Jedi, however Lucas decided against the idea because 'revenge isn't something a Jedi would do'.

Some have argued that the title Return of the Jedi works on a number of levels. Simplistically, it's about the return of the Jedi movement in the form of Luke. It's also about Luke's return to his home world to rescue his friend Han. But it can also be argued (especially in the light of the later prequels) that it's about the spiritual return of the Jedi Darth Vader once was, in the form of Anakin Skywalker.

Ewoks

Return of the Jedi introduced the audience to the Ewok race of the planet Endor. Their 'cuteness' factor proved incredibly popular among children and two made-for-TV films (though they were shown theatrically outside the US) were produced, The Ewok Adventure (released in cinemas as Caravan of Courage) and Ewoks - Battle for Endor. Some felt it was poor form, and destroyed the strength of the films, so Return of the Jedi was often mockingly referred to as 'Return of the Tedi' (read teddy).

Special Editions

In 1997, Lucasfilm released the Star Wars Trilogy - Special Editions to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Star Wars. In the Special Editions new scenes were added to the original trilogy and certain special effects were cleaned up to rectify problems. The most notable addition was that of Jabba the Hutt to A New Hope. In the original the audiences hear of him, but don't see him. In the special edition, old footage is combined with a new computer-generated image to bring him into the first film. Other notable additions are:

• The snow scene in Empire Strikes Back has been cleaned up so the vehicles are no longer transparent in some scenes.
• Jabba the Hutt's lair scene in Return of the Jedi has a longer musical sequence (specially filmed for the Special Edition and featuring the original actors).
• The overall quality of the pictures is improved, and the inclusion of a few added CGI extras. Over the years the film negatives had bleached, so this was also rectified.
• Cloud City in Empire Strikes Back is 'opened up'. Windows were added to internal shots so the audience could see the rest of Cloud City.
• The end of Return of the Jedi was re-cut to include shots of Coruscant and Tatooine celebrating the downfall of the Empire. A new score by John Williams was also added.

Star Wars - Episode I - 'The Phantom Menace', 1999

Principal Characters

• Qui-Gon Jin (Liam Neeson)
• Obi-wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor)
• C-3PO (Anthony Daniels)
• R2-D2 (Kenny Baker)
• Jar-Jar Binks (Ahmed Best, voice only)
• Anakin Skywalker (Jake Williams)
• Mace Windu (Samuel L Jackson)
• Darth Sidious/Senator Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid)
• Darth Maul (Ray Park)
• Yoda (Frank Oz, voice and puppet-master)
• Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman)

Plot Outline

The film (starting with an innocuous trade dispute) races around to introduce the key players of the first three films and sets up the course of the entire film sequence, rather than focusing too much on plot detail. The series is revealed to be the life story of Anakin Skywalker⁷, a messianic character, conceived by the Force and destined to restore balance to the Force after a thousand years of stagnation under the Jedi Council.

Production

Released some 16 years after Return of the Jedi, the new film attracted a lot of publicity and hype in the weeks preceding its release. Whether it lived up to this publicity is for the audience to decide. In true Lucas style, Phantom Menace tried to be innovative, with the introduction of the Jar-Jar Binks character - one of the first fully computer-animated main characters in a movie. Unfortunately, he was perhaps also one of the most annoying.

In the film, Vader is a young boy Anakin Skywalker and Obi-wan Kenobi a young Jedi trainee, and Yoda - well, he is still about 800 years old. The Jedi, alive and well in this film, sense that Anakin is the one who will restore balance to the Force and so take him on as a Jedi trainee. A character that nobody is familiar with but who is central to the plot of the third film, is also introduced - Queen Amidala⁸. Of interest also is the Sith Lord Darth Maul, a red-faced almost demonic figure who wields a double-ended lightsaber with consummate efficiency, his master being the Emperor (also in this film, although he is just a Senator in the Galactic Senate, who then later becomes Supreme Chancellor).

Star Wars - Episode II - 'Attack of the Clones', 2002

Principal Characters

• Obi-wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor)
• Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen)
• C-3PO (Anthony Daniels)
• R2-D2 (Kenny Baker)
• Jar-Jar Binks (Ahmed Best, voice only)
• Mace Windu (Samuel L Jackson)
• Darth Sidious/Senator Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid)
• Darth Tyranus/Count Dooku (Christopher Lee⁹)
• Yoda (Frank Oz, voice only)
• Senator Amidala (Natalie Portman)
• Qui-Gon Jin (Liam Neeson, voice only)

Plot Outline

This film focused a lot more on plot than Phantom Menace, with Anakin dealing with his mother's death and then falling in love with Senator Amidala; Obi-wan learning of a new Galactic Army made up of clones (and meeting up with Jango Fett, Boba's father); and the political intrigues of the Senate, including the behind the scenes work of Count Dooku and the Confederacy of Independent Systems (CIS) - the Separatists. The sense of impending doom is also high in this film - nothing is lit quite so brightly as in the Phantom Menace.

Production

The Attack of the Clones might not seem that innovative on the technological front, but it was in fact a ground-breaking production. It was the first mainstream movie to be filmed¹⁰, edited and distributed digitally. This meant that Lucas didn't have to wait until the next day for the rushes¹¹ to see if he was happy with a take, he could simply view the recordings immediately. However, as only a few cinemas worldwide have digital projectors, traditional film prints were also made available. The film has subsequently been converted for IMAX cinemas, with slight cuts made to fit onto the shorter IMAX reels.

A major step was also taken with the character of Yoda. Where previously he was always a puppet (except for one long shot in The Phantom Menace where he was computer-generated) the decision was taken to make him a fully computer-generated image, as had already happened with Jabba the Hutt and some of the newer characters in the prequel trilogy. The problem that ILM had in creating the new Yoda was that the audience already knew how he behaved and moved, and so many a lonely night was spent by ILM employees trying to get his ears to move in order to express various emotions such as distress; the final lightsaber duel between Yoda and Darth Tyranus was thus seen by some as the best part of the movie¹². CGI was also employed late on in post-production as ILM generated 'digital stunt-people', where the action was considered too risky for normal actors.

Star Wars - Episode III - 'Revenge of the Sith', 2005

Principal Characters

• Obi-wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor)
• Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen)
• Senator Amidala (Natalie Portman)
• C-3PO (Anthony Daniels)
• R2-D2 (Kenny Baker)
• Darth Sidious/Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid)
• General Grievous (Matthew Wood, voice only)
• Yoda (Frank Oz, voice only)
• Mace Windu (Samuel L Jackson)
• Commander Cody (Temuera Morrison)
• Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew)

Plot Outline

The film begins with the Jedi Council fighting the Separatist forces, under the command of General Grievous. Obi-wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker are sent to rescue Chancellor Palpatine from Grievous, and in doing so their relationship becomes strained. Anakin then discovers his wife Padmé is pregnant, but has visions of her dying giving birth. These visions push him closer to the Chancellor, who in turn invokes Order 66 - the destruction of the Jedi Order. Anakin turns to the Dark Side to try and save his wife, thus becoming Darth Vader.

Production

Revenge of the Sith tells of Anakin Skywalker's fall from grace, and his subsequent change into the Sith Lord - Darth Vader. But it also saw George Lucas on screen for the first time on the making of all the Star Wars films (plus his children), playing a blue-skinned alien politician. His was not the only cameo appearance in the film, for Han Solo's Millenium Falcon can be spotted too. Lucas was hoping that this 'final' film would be his Magnum opus, however, it failed to reach expectations both with critics (receiving numerous 'Razzie' nominations) and audiences. For these reasons Lucas appeared to set himself not only the task of moving away from Star Wars and towards Indiana Jones, but also allowing others to expand the Star Wars universe he had created.

Star Wars - 'The Clone Wars', 2008

Principal Characters

• Anakin Skywalker (Matt Lanter, voice only)
• Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein, voice only)
• Obi-wan Kenobi (James Arnold Taylor, voice only)
• Captain Rex (Dee Bradley Baker, voice only)
• Jabba the Hutt (Kevin Michael Richardson, voice only)
• Mace Windu (Samuel L Jackson, voice only)
• Darth Sidious/Senator Palpatine (Ian Abercrombie, voice only)
• Darth Tyranus/Count Dooku (Christopher Lee, voice only)
• Asajj Ventress (Nika Futterman, voice only)
• Yoda (Tom Kane, voice only)
• Senator Amidala (Catherine Taber, voice only)

Plot Outline

Set between the time dividing Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, the plot revolves around Anakin Skywalker training a padawan¹³, Ahsoka Tano, during the Clone Wars. Count Dooku has kidnapped Jabba the Hutt's son, in order to blackmail Jabba into allowing the Seperatists to use the trade routes under control of the Hutt's. However, the Republic and the Jedi become aware of the plan and Yoda sends Anakin and Ahsoka to find and protect the kidnapped Huttling - so as the Galactic Republic will have the favour of Jabba and his trade routes. There is continual to-ing and fro-ing between the two sides of the Republic and the CIS, with the intervention of Obi-wan Kenobi and Senator Amidala preventing the Sith powerhouses of Asajj Ventress and Darth Sidious from succeeding.

Production

Chronologically, The Clone Wars was created after Revenge of the Sith, and to some isn't part of the movie franchise. This is because the film steps out of the traditional Star Wars canon in that it is actually an animated production, as opposed to live-action. It owes its creation to the success of The Clone Wars animated TV series produced by the Cartoon Network in 2003, which ran for three seasons and told the stories of many of the Star Wars characters during the Clone Wars. The introduction of some of the less main-stream characters to the movie-going public helped to expand the Star Wars universe even further, and give Lucas a new fan-base from those original children who remember seeing A New Hope in 1977.

The Force and Surrounding Mythology

In the movies, the Force is used in two ways, the Light and the Dark. The Jedi follow the Light Side of the Force and the Sith follow the Dark. The Jedi and Sith can control the Force to affect their surroundings, and others about them - although Force control doesn't usually work on other strong-minded people or Toydarians. The Force, which in the films is described as a part of and surrounding every living thing, has started to be taken seriously as a recognised religion. Crazy as it sounds, in Australia over 70,000 people put down Jedi as their belief in the national census.

The Jedi

The Jedi were originally the protectors of the galaxy before the majority of them were killed in the Clone Wars, or by Anakin Skywalker on his path to the Dark Side. When A New Hope begins, there are apparently only two Jedi left in the galaxy, Obi-wan Kenobi and Yoda.

The Jedi's powers, through use of the Force, are:

• The use of a lightsaber.
• The ability to make objects move.
• The ability to manipulate people's thoughts, usually accompanied by a slow waving action on the part of the Jedi (Obi-wan's 'these are not the droids you're looking for' speech at Mos Eisley in A New Hope is the perfect example).
• The ability to sense events around them, and even the future.
• Force Choke - the ability to strangle those around them just by holding their hands out (although this is more a Sith power, but Luke Skywalker uses the Force Choke on Gamorrean Guards at Jabba the Hutt's palace in Return of the Jedi).

The Sith

The Sith, who harness the Dark Side of the Force, can only ever be found in pairs. During the course of the films the two Sith are, in chronological order:

• Darth Sidious and Darth Maul¹⁴.
• Darth Sidious and Darth Tyranus.
• Darth Sidious (who, by the time of Return of the Jedi, has become Emperor) and Darth Vader (Darth Vader returns to the Light Side and kills Darth Sidious).

The Sith also have a separate set of powers that they harness through the Dark Side. These are:

• The use of a lightsaber (not just the traditional blue or green straight one, either; in the early-numbered films the Sith use curved, double-bladed or red sabers).
• The ability to make objects move.
• The ability to manipulate people's thoughts (usually accompanied by a slow waving action on the part of the Sith).
• Force Choke - the ability to strangle those around them just by holding their hands out (Darth Vader is able to do this via vid-screen, Admiral Ozzel his victim in The Empire Strikes Back - making Captain Piett the new Admiral of the fleet).
• Force Lightning - the ability to throw balls or streams of lightning (it is unclear whether Jedi have this ability, as during battle they usually only use lightsabers as it's considered a lot more honourable).

Miscellaneous

• The scores for the series, by composer John Williams have become as famous as the films themselves; specifically, the main title music and the 'Imperial March' have become tunes of choice for military and college brass bands.
• In many of George Lucas's films, the number 1138 appears, a reference to his first feature film THX 1138. In A New Hope, it is the number of the Cell Block where Princess Leia is being held prisoner.
• The budget for Episode IV was US$11m - its box office gross US$322.74m. In comparison, the budget for Episode I was US$115m - its box office gross US$431.065m. (Episode IV made 30.25 times budget in the US, Episode I made 3.75 times its budget in the US).
• The Star Wars films were some of the first to rely heavily on merchandise and toys to act as promotional tools - and the originals produced during the late 1970s and 1980s fetch amazing prices at auction (and sci-fi conventions).
• The soundstage where the majority of the movies were filmed - Elstree (Borehamwood) Studios in England - was later named after Lucas in honour of his work there.
• In the 1970s and 1980s, Dave Prowse, the body of Darth Vader in the original three films, was the Green Cross Code Man in a series of adverts that ran on UK TV. Ironically, in the adverts his voice was also dubbed over just as he was in Star Wars. After his success in the films, he was allowed to speak for himself and have a little R2-D2 type droid on screen.
• Many minor characters in the original series (Episodes IV - VI) didn't appear in all the movies, but one did, surviving many battles. Wedge Antilles (Denis Lawson¹⁵) can be seen flying x-wings and snowspeeders, and dancing with Ewoks!
• In 1983, the Reagan Administration had their Strategic Defense Initiative - a planned satellite defence array, complete with laser cannons - nicknamed the Star Wars programme.
• The films, and many of the quotations by the characters, have become clichés to the point that many pastiches and spoofs of the 'space opera' are just as popular with audiences as the originals, some of the most notable being Spaceballs, Family Guy's Blue Harvest¹⁶ and the Robot Chicken Star Wars. Fans have also gone on to make their own films, one such being Troops.
• Lego released a series of themed Lego Star Wars kits, which then lead to Lego Star Wars: The Video Game. This was so successful it was followed up by Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy - both games allowed for two-player platform action gaming where players could relive the excitement of the movies as their favourite characters.
• There have been numerous games released so as the general public can immerse themselves in the Star Wars universe, including versions of Monopoly, chess, trading card games, and countless computer games - including The Force Unleashed, which tells the story of Darth Vader's apprentice.

If you need further explanations of the Star Wars related terms in this Entry, a good place to visit would be The Star Wars Databank. One final thing:

May the Force be with you... Always.