Right at the beginning of the commentary track of the just-released DVD “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace” writer/director George Lucas comments that “It’s all meant to be part of one 12-hour story.”
That comment is something that Star Wars fans have probably been telling themselves ever since they patiently waited in line after 20 years of waiting and were quickly disappointed by “Episode I.” Why were they disappointed? A bad story and weak characters, exactly the antithesis of what the original trilogy was. And ever since, fans have been telling themselves that it will get better - as long as there’s no “Jar Jar Binks.”
While the movie is really not any better on the DVD format - it still looks and sounds great, despite being childish and half-baked. What it seems to offer is almost an explanation to fans and hope for the future. The enormous amount of special features in the package offer something new and exciting for even casual fans of the films.
The highlight is the hour-plus documentary “making-of” sequence, which follows the production from months before shooting to post-production sound editing and the moment it finally opens to the public.
Most telling is Lucas himself. At the beginning, discussing the roles of the different characters, he says that “Jar Jar is the key to all of this.” Of course, anyone who has seen the movie knows that if anything, Jar Jar is a giant piece of deadweight.
Then, as Lucas watches an early rough cut of the film just months before release, he says afterwards that “maybe I went a little too far.” The look on his face as he realizes that he may not have made the movie he, and a bazillion other fans, were hoping he would.
Also included are casting moments when the boy cast as Anakin Skywalker, Jake Lloyd, flubs the lines he obviously did not prepare for and a boy that just might have been better is passed over. We then get to watch the difficulty that casting Lloyd proves to be as he repeatedly seems spaced out on the set, unprepared for what has been rested on his shoulders.
Of course, there’s also plenty of shots of Ewan McGregor, who played Obi-Wan Kenobi, playing with his lightsaber and grinning ear to ear as he loves every second of being in “Star Wars.”
Most of all, the extras highlight all the hard work that literally thousands of people put into the movie. The stunning honesty that went into all these behind the scenes looks is startling, especially from a man who goes out of his way to make sure no one but him knows what’s going to happen in his movies.
But once again, when the lights go up and Lucas looks almost disappointed after that rough cut, we see his realization that it’s not as easy as it looks, despite a huge budget and a very capable staff. But when we see him sit at his desk and begin writing “Episode II,” all fans can have hope. After what he went through from the first one, who knows what he’ll cook up for the next.
