The Making of Star Wars by J. W. Rinzler (2007, Paperback)

I was five years old when the original "Star Wars" was released, and like so many kids of that generation, that film and its two sequels defined an enormous part of my childhood. Even though I didn't know it at the time, it introduced me to the "best bits" of classical mythology, while being a visual catalyst for my imagination (and years of subsequent role-play, particularly in Upstate New York, where re-enacting ice planet Hoth after "Empire" came out was all too easy...).

As I grew older (I hesitate to use the phrase "grew up," as I'm not sure it's happened yet), I came to appreciate more than just the adventure and dynamic visuals that "Star Wars" represented; it was my "gateway drug" into wanting to learn more about how movies were made. I remember all of the TV specials of that era that pulled back the curtain on the filmmaking process, particularly with regard to the original "Star Wars" trilogy, and I couldn't get enough information. That hunger became the same kind of obsession that's typically associated with "Star Wars" fans, and I absorbed every scrap of detail I could find, from Ralph McQuarrie's concept art, to model photos, to script pages, and even before the Internet made it only a matter of a few clicks to access such information, there was a wealth of it, when it came to "Star Wars."

Fast forward to 2007; "Star Wars" is 30 years old, a whole separate trilogy has come and gone, and my own children are budding "Star Wars" fans for their own reasons. I figured I knew pretty much all there was to know about this film. I darn well should have, for as much time as I had spent (and continue to spend) over the years actively seeking out new details about it. Then came this book; I didn't know anything.

This is dense, dense reading, covering every minute detail about every aspect of production of the original "Star Wars," from drafting the script, to getting it taken seriously by Hollywood, to assembling the team that would revolutionize filmmaking as we came to know it. This is a wonderful thing. I find myself poring over every word, every image, every caption and footnote, just as I did as a child who was learning about film for the first time. It is an amazing tribute, an insanely detailed reference volume, and most incredible of all, a unique representation of a film that has been covered in so many ways by so many authors, that finding anything new to talk about seemed impossible.

The aspect of this book I personally find most exciting is that all of the interviews that comprise it are taken from the period immediately surrounding the production and release of the original film. There is none of the revisionist hindsight pertaining to the film that has come about as a result of the films that came after; every word spoken by the people involved is "of the moment," and as such, is refreshingly candid about what was going on while the film was in the throes of its conception and execution.