Finally got around to watching the first two episodes.
First and foremost, the shocking thing was the use of clips from the original theatrical cut of the film, quite clearly sourced from (apparently) Harmy’s DeSpecialized Edition, or possibly 4K77. How in the heck did that happen? What are the legalities of that?
Anyway, the documentary is solidly made, with a good assortment of interviewees and archival footage culled from other documentaries and sources. Not much new to be seen, here, but there are some good tidbits. And, as is par for the course with modern documentaries like this one, there’s a certain application of snark and corny jokes/puns in the narration, throughout.
The big coup, naturally, is the inclusion of Marcia Lucas. It’s quite fascinating to finally get her on-camera perspective on the whole thing. That being said, the underlying, somewhat unspoken narrative of the documentary is that Marcia and the other editors “saved” the film, and that George was just sort of along for the ride. As I’ve previous said, the reality is more likely somewhere in the middle.
There are also the usual bits of modern-day agenda and pandering thrown in, like calling Leia “the first heroine” and “the first female superhero”, and other such nonsense.
Overall, an enjoyable enough watch. Nice to see mostly interviews with actual participants, like Dykstra and Edlund and so on. But talking heads from garbage-tier, shill websites like Den of Geek’s Victoria Bennett need to take a hike.
All in all, the best documentaries ever made on the production of the original film are probably still THE MAKING OF STAR WARS (1977) and EMPIRE OF DREAMS (2004), with JW Rinzler’s book and THE SECRET HISTORY OF STAR WARS being the best printed works. Yet, every few years, we get another retrospective documentary, some good and some bad. This one pushes more toward “good”, but with qualifiers.
