"Mythmaking: Behind the Scenes of AOTC" Discussion Thread

I debated whether to post this to Literature or to AOTC, since it involves both. I finally decided Literature takes precedence.

I picked up the aforementioned book last night at Books-A-Million. For $20.00, it's a rather good bargain. This "Making Of" book is MUCH more in-depth than the previous "Making of TPM", is filled with TONS of pictures, and takes care to capture all sides of the filmmaking process ala "The Beginning" documentary.

A nice treat: Unlike the DVD's mostly technical commentary, this book DOES go some bit into Lucas's thought process in writing/shooting/editing the film. You get a better idea of why he does the things he does.

Has anyone else picked this up yet? If so, I'd love to hear your opinions.

 

Here's an excerpt, on the Anakin/Padme love story:

George Lucas: "It wasn't that the writing of it was so difficult. I'd done a bit of writing a love story in American Graffiti, so writing wasn't the challenge. The challenge was that I wanted to tell the love story in a style that was extremely old-fashioned, and frankly, I didn't know if I was going to be able to pull it off. In many ways, this was much more like a movie from the 1930's than any of the others had been, with a slightly over-the-top, poetic style -- and they just don't do that in movies anymore. I was very happy with the way it turned out in the script and in the performances, but I knew people might not buy it. A lot of guys were going to see this movie, and most guys think that kind of flowery, poetic talk is stupid -- 'Come on, give me a break.' More sophisticated, cynical types also don't buy that stuff. So I didn't know if people would laugh at it and throw things at the screen, or if they would accept it."

 

Thanks for the excerpt Nightowl!

What other interesting tidbits does the book have?

 

Any more quotes / tidbits Chris / Nightowl?!?

 

Yeah- I would like to at least look through it, but I havnt seen it anywhere......

 

theres a real cool part about how the seismic charges in the asteroid scene were originally going to be filmed in a slow stalking "hunt for red october" scenario

theres tons of cool stuff

 

What other stuff is there?!

 

So I didn't know if people would laugh at it and throw things at the screen, or if they would accept it."

I have to admit that I did laugh quite a bit during the AotC... The 30's explaination does help me to understand why I found the love story a bit cringe worthy, but that wasn't the funny bit. That came later in the film. Maybe the cinama was in a jovial mood that night coz there was a massive burts of laughter that time, but when i saw the film for the second time nobody really laughed at all. Anyway it was the bit where padme falls from the gunship.

She rolls down the sand dune going: Oh, ow ah eek ah ow oh uh eh oh ow!

She colapses in a heap at the bottom with groan. Clonetrooper comes up and ask: are you alright?

She bounds to her feet, and says: yes, lets go!


Somehow this miraculous recovery took on montypythonesque proportions at the time!

I'll have to see it again on DVD to find out whether it was just that crowd on that particular night, or if it was a true comic moment.

 

I just got it yesterday, right before watching the IMAX version for the 3rd time!

It's a wonderful book, I love all the photos, some of which I don't recall seeing before.

I'm going to be reading it this weekend.