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[Review] Fans have been waiting for Star Wars to be released on DVD for years, so when it happened this year, obviously people's expectations were high for the special features. Besides commentaries for each movie, there is a fourth disc with over four hours of extra material. On the disc's menu screen it doesn't look like there is much, but that is because the bulk of the material is a documentary called "Empire of Dreams: The story of the Star Wars trilogy" which runs for 2 1/2 hours! Phew. It is a seriously extensive and in-depth doco which is fascinating to watch. It covers the making of the original trilogy and includes footage from the time of filming as well as recent interviews with George Lucas, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford along with many others. It truly gives you an appreciation of Lucas' vision and why Star Wars was such a huge hit when it was released. Someone watching it today doesn't always get why people love the original Star Wars so much, but this doco really puts it in context.
Aside from that, there are other short features, including "The Force is with them: the Legacy of Star Wars" which includes interviews with directors such as Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott, James Cameron and Peter Jackson, commenting on how they were influenced by the films. There are also features on "the Birth of the Lightsaber", "the Characters of Star Wars" and a behind the scenes preview of Epsiode III, which isn't really relevant anymore, but still interesting! There are also the obligatory trailers and stills galleries of course.
All in all a fitting and extensive, not to mention attractive, DVD release of one of the greatest movie sagas of all time.
---Reviewed by Kat, June '05