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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 791.4375
EAN: 9780345409812
ISBN: 0345409817
Label: Del Rey
Manufacturer: Del Rey
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 336
Publication Date: 1997-09-08
Publisher: Del Rey
Product Release Date: 1997-09-08
Studio: Del Rey

n all three full-length screenplays, presented with the secrets that led to their creation. Through hours of exclusive interviews with George Lucas and others involved in crafting the original trilogy, Laurent Bouzereau has uncovered the complex process through which life was breathed into the legendary Star Wars saga.

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: The Evolution of Three Great Films
Review: The details of the Star Wars trilogy are so familiar as to seem somehow immutable today, but the first treatments and early drafts George Lucas wrote for the films were wildly different from the final products. These are the drafts in which the main character was Annikin Starkiller, he was aided by a famous general named Luke Skywalker, Yoda was called Mitch, and Han Solo had gills.

In "Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays," Laurent Bouzereau presents the complete scripts of all three "classic trilogy" films (A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi) along with a hefty helping of notes, including material from interviews conducted for the book with Lucas and other crucial staff members.

The main focus of these notes is the progression of the story and characters in each film, from Lucas' earliest treatments to the final drafts. Fans will be intrigued to see when different characters and situations entered the picture, and amused by the way Lucas re-used names from earlier drafts, sometimes in completely different contexts (see "Luke Skywalker" above). Readers interested in the technical aspect of the films' creation--how models were invented and used, etc.--will find less to sate them here, though Irvin Kershner in particular has some interesting things to say about how he directed The Empire Strikes Back. Unfortunately lacking is any retrospective commentary from the actors themselves on the experience of making the films.

The complete screenplays contained here give fans a chance to meditate on favorite lines; the book also indicates where scenes were added or changed for the Special Editions (both versions are present in the text). From his thorough review of the material, Bouzereau has cherry-picked the most significant changes from earlier drafts; his judgment on what deserves attention seems sound, but it's hard not to wonder sometimes what other surprising differences might have gone unremarked. The generous selection of notes, though, should satisfy most, and fans can glean an enlightening new perspective on a beloved film series.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A necessary book for any Star Wars fan
Review: For those like myself who love the Star Wars Saga, this book is a must have! This is the closest that fans will ever get to having George Lucas' rough drafts for his original trilogy. The format is styled like a series of interviews and is combined with snippets of synopsis from the various drafts of each film. The scenes are typed up as a screenplay and then diverted with the interviews and the correlating draft material. It reads much like a transcript of DVD commentary track. My only gripe with this book, and it is very minor, is that it is missing some lines of dialog. This book is an interesting read and is a really cool way of examining how the Star Wars universe may have ended up. It's also a very intriguing way of examining the creative process. Star Wars fans, students of storytelling, this is a must own!

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Well worth it
Review: If you're a SW fan and the DVD commentary tracks leave you wanting more, you'll like this. I only wish it contained more annotations (which would have earned it 5 stars).

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Feel the Force
Review: If there was one flaw to the book is that it doesn't really contain the "screenplays" of the classic trilogy, per se. It's really a word-by-word, scene-by-scene *transcript* of the movies as we know them, including the material added for the Special Edition.

It would have been nice if the book contained, for example, the final written draft of the screenplay, and then annotated with the changes in the dialogue and settings made during filming. All three films had a lot of extra stuff that was filmed but not seen in the final cut, although some of it is referred to in this book. The novelizations of the film do contain many of these "cut scenes" (i.e., Luke hanging out with his friends in Star Wars, more training with Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back, etc.). This book should have included all those cut scenes from the actual screenplay and explained why they were cut (i.e., for running time, because the f/x wasn't working, they felt certain scenes weren't needed etc.) Perhaps we will get to see all of that when the classic trilogy makes its way to DVD later in 2004...

Too bad that some of the comments that Lucas said (when he made these comments in 1997) made the prequels sound more promising than what's been delivered so far.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Ahhhh... Dagobah!
Review: With all three screenplays from the original Star Wars trilogy, this book pays for itself.

But more than just screenplays, this edition takes you behind the scenes of the movies, giving you lots of information about how the series came to be.

In the beginning of each script, you get a rundown of the drafts and revisions the screenplay moved through. Intercut between the scenes, you get lots of commentary from the creators (George Lucas, Lawrence Kasdan, Irvin Kershner, Phil Tippet, and more), plus notes about how the story evolved from earlier drafts.

What really adds value to this edition is the exclusive commentary from the creators. Hearing George Lucas talk about mythology and how he came to invent the Star Wars universe; hearing Irvin Kershner talk about the directorial innovations he brought to Empire Strike Back; or hearing about how the story of Return of the Jedi came together--this stuff is priceless.

And the stories--they're as fresh and exciting as ever in screenplay form. A definitive resource for film students, fantasy fanatics, and Jedis-in-training.

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