Review Detail
9.8 26 10
Overall rating
10.0
Audio/Video Quality
10.0
Audio Editing
10.0
Visual Editing
10.0
Narrative
10.0
Enjoyment
10.0
Released in 2011, Jambe Davdar came back after 4 years off to release this "filmumentary" on A New Hope, his magnum opus on the Star Wars trilogy. He had already done one for ESB (review here: https://ifdb.fanedit.org/building-empire/reviews/?user=34747) and one for RotJ (review here: https://ifdb.fanedit.org/returning-to-jedi/reviews/?user=34747) Basically everything I said in those films is also true here, only this one shows the benefit of 4 more years experience, and is really the best of the bunch by far.
There are a couple of inescapable truths here. Firstly, that the A/V sources differ in quality greatly. But it seems a greater effort has been made to clean these up. Also, that some parts of the film are just going to have less to say about them. But really this whole thing is pretty packed, sometimes with interview comments coming in rapid fire, too many great points about a scene to fit in the time alloted for it. The issue with long stretches of silence in the other filmumentaries is not present here. You get the idea that sometimes the editor is choosing to give a breather and just let great moments play out, but it never lasts overlong.
The material here seems pulled from an even greater number of sources, and is truly informative even for a diehard Star Wars fan. There is footage I had never seen, or had seen but didn't note. That's the only real criticism I have, that sometimes the alternate scenes are almost identical, and I don't know that I need to watch an exchange two or three times in a row just because a word or two is different.
But generally, this is just a very tight, very smart commentary viewing on a really great film. With the other two SW filmumentaries, I'm not sure how often I'll choose to rewatch the film that way. But this is one that I'm eager to return to often. Can't wait to check out his work on Raiders and Jaws!
There are a couple of inescapable truths here. Firstly, that the A/V sources differ in quality greatly. But it seems a greater effort has been made to clean these up. Also, that some parts of the film are just going to have less to say about them. But really this whole thing is pretty packed, sometimes with interview comments coming in rapid fire, too many great points about a scene to fit in the time alloted for it. The issue with long stretches of silence in the other filmumentaries is not present here. You get the idea that sometimes the editor is choosing to give a breather and just let great moments play out, but it never lasts overlong.
The material here seems pulled from an even greater number of sources, and is truly informative even for a diehard Star Wars fan. There is footage I had never seen, or had seen but didn't note. That's the only real criticism I have, that sometimes the alternate scenes are almost identical, and I don't know that I need to watch an exchange two or three times in a row just because a word or two is different.
But generally, this is just a very tight, very smart commentary viewing on a really great film. With the other two SW filmumentaries, I'm not sure how often I'll choose to rewatch the film that way. But this is one that I'm eager to return to often. Can't wait to check out his work on Raiders and Jaws!
User Review
Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
M