Star Wars Begins

Finally watched this again and it is hugely entertaining for sure.

This is an exhaustive mix of sources, some which I do have and are better quality, but the mix of styles can sometimes throw your concentration and rhythmn.

That said, its hard to beat this as a fan made doco so full 10 on the enjoyment scale.
I would love to see an update one day as better visuals come to light.

Excellent work!

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!

In the same vein as Roger Ebert's commentary for Citizen Kane, this is essential viewing for any and all cinephiles, regardless of your view on the film itself. If there was anyone competent on the Star Wars side of Disney, this would be on all official releases of the film.

A ton of fun -- the story of the genesis and development of Star Wars is one of the great stories in cinema history and I can never get enough of hearing about it. This A/V commentary doubles as a fun way to re-experience the film itself. The other reviewer who compared it to Pop-Up Video got it right. 70s and 90s nostalgia rolled into one, can't beat that!

Readers of a certain vintage will remember the "Pop-Up Videos" of the late 1990s. They were regular music videos with various facts about the songs and artists that popped up on screen as the video played. It was horribly cheesy and decidedly 1990s. Now imagine that, but without the cheesiness, and it's Star Wars, with added deleted and alternate takes, behind the scenes shots and an absolutely incredible custom commentary track from everyone involved in making the film. How the editor managed to assemble all these sources and blend them in so seamlessly is beyond me. Highly recommended for anyone looking for insight into how Star Wars was made. Looking forward to the other 2 installments.