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The Secret History of Star Wars

#1 User is offline   KurganX Icon

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Posted 19 March 2007 - 06:53 AM

Did somebody from this forum write this? I haven't read it yet, but just scanning the headings it sounds really interesting!

http://secrethistory...s.com/book.html

420 pages of dirt!


Anybody read it?
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#2 User is offline   KurganX Icon

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Posted 21 March 2007 - 06:54 AM

Guess people are still reading.. wink.gif
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#3 User is offline   andy_k_250 Icon

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Posted 22 March 2007 - 08:18 PM

http://www.originalt...p;threadid=7679

Zombie84 on originaltrilogy.com wrote it.
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#4 User is offline   diligent_d Icon

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Posted 23 March 2007 - 01:12 PM

I read it pretty much all the way through - very interesting. Thanks for the link Kurgan.

I didn't realize how bad things were in Lucas's life during and after Empire Strikes Back. It's no wonder he wanted to wrap things up with Jedi instead of it going on another 3 episodes after that. Also I did not realize how close to the brink of financial ruin he was if Empire had failed. Very interesting stuff.
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#5 User is offline   KurganX Icon

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Posted 25 March 2007 - 02:12 AM

Yeah I thought that too, as a poster on the OriginalTrilogy.com forum pointed out, the Christianity blurb in his e-book is misleading, because he quotes a fringe scholar (a "Jesus Myther") which is a bad idea, though it was just a side point of illustration.

I haven't read the whole thing yet, just mostly the appendices and a few pages into the beginning.
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#6 User is offline   Prequel dialogue coach Icon

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Posted 28 March 2007 - 12:29 PM

wow i thought the story for the PT was set in stone in 1995 when the prequels started pre-production. i didn't know lucas just made each episode up as he went along.
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#7 User is offline   jerfus17 Icon

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Posted 07 May 2007 - 04:04 PM

I haven't read it yet, but sounds interesting. Remember everyone that Lawrence Kasdan helped Lucas partially write the first screenplay of A New Hope, and pretty much wrote all of Empire and Jedi based loosely on Lucas' outlines. I don't know if the link references that. Of course, the prequel trilogy is all Lucas - as you no doubt can tell since they are some of the worst films ever made.
- helping to bring down the Lucas empire ... one post at a time.
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#8 User is offline   njamilla Icon

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Posted 10 January 2008 - 09:31 PM

I just started perusing Kaminski's The Secret History of Star Wars. While it takes a while to get through, I have to give him credit for challenging the tired quotes GL gave during his junkets about the origins of the SW story.

I haven't gotten through it all yet, but his general critiques of GL's statements are quite accurate from my research for my re-write of Shimmering Sword. It is no surprise that GL is a revisionist in his proclamations about the origins of SW as he is a revisionist of his movies.

I haven't had a chance to go through the several essays in the appendix, but they look interesting.
Author: Sword Fighting in the Star Wars Universe.
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#9 User is offline   KurganX Icon

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Posted 19 January 2008 - 03:45 PM

I'd only read the first chapter or so and many of the appendicies. Now that the new edition is out, I may read it sometime, but sadly I have so much else to read I may not have time for a long while. Too bad it's not in book form (printing it all out is cost prohibitive for me right now, and that'd be one unwieldy stack of papers).
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#10 User is offline   njamilla Icon

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Posted 25 January 2008 - 11:00 AM

I haven't read the whole thing yet either. Printing is quite expensive.
Author: Sword Fighting in the Star Wars Universe.
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#11 User is offline   KurganX Icon

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Posted 02 February 2008 - 04:44 PM

Ah, the second edition is out.... too bad he can't put this into paperback form! I'd buy even a vanity press edition...

Printing out 583 pages at my university library would cost me $23.32 (and that's a big stack of paper, even if I print on both sides).


I see he makes a mistake (the common misunderstanding of the Catholic "Immaculate Conception"... which incidentally has NO PARALLEL with Anakin's virgin birth in Episode I).

This post has been edited by KurganX: 02 February 2008 - 04:47 PM

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#12 User is offline   Gerhard Icon

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Posted 03 February 2008 - 04:49 AM

QUOTE (Prequel dialogue coach @ Mar 28 2007, 06:29 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
wow i thought the story for the PT was set in stone in 1995 when the prequels started pre-production. i didn't know lucas just made each episode up as he went along.


I did not read the e-book on this thread, but since clones I had this notion that he just make it as he goes.

If you have access to the Attack of the Clones Bonus DVD, you'll see that a Yoda CGI was in tests by the ILM team. How come, if the story was already written, would they do Yoda fighting if it was a puppet like in the previous movies? Lucas gave the OK to the Yoda CGI and so the script was, in the very least, changed to accommodate Yoda fighting.

Also if all the prequel story's were all written in advance, would it not be strange that Jar Jar was such an important character in the first movie, and simply written off the script for episode II and III? Same goes to the midichlorians stuff, besides the first movie, they are never stated in Clones , and just brought up in the last movie for the Anakin dark side plot device. (here Lucas most likely read the reviews of phantom in the net rolleyes.gif )

IMO Lucas had a general idea of the prequels story line line, details, and some important ones, like Yoda fighting where added as the production and shooting of the movies went.
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#13 User is offline   Prequel dialogue coach Icon

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Posted 03 February 2008 - 10:55 AM

It's interesting what the books says that Star Wars' script had contributions from many of George's film maker friends. He screened the film regularly and listened to their criticisms and ideas. It would've been great if that happened on the prequels.

This post has been edited by Prequel dialogue coach: 03 February 2008 - 10:58 AM

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#14 User is offline   njamilla Icon

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Posted 08 February 2008 - 08:12 PM

I've gotten through the first 100 pages. He does quite a job systhesizing and picking apart the chronology. It's also a better read that Rinzler's The Making of Star Wars, not only for his writing style, but also in the freedom to contradict GL and the LFL establishment.

It's a lot of paper for sure. I've set my printer on eco-mode. And so far it's been worth the ink.
Author: Sword Fighting in the Star Wars Universe.
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