"Star Wars": how the film was made without computer special effects.

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"Star Wars" ( Star Wars) - a cult epic fantasy saga, including 6 films, as well as animated series, cartoons, television films, books, comics, video games - all imbued with a single storyline and created in a single fantastic Star Wars Universe, conceived and realized by American director George Lucas in the early 1970s and later expanded.

Today, May 25th, marks the 38th anniversary of the release of the very first film in this truly iconic science fiction film series. Let's remember together how it all began.

The first film was released on May 25, 1977, called Star Wars. The film was a huge box office success, which actually saved 20th Century Fox from the then-threatening bankruptcy. When doubts about the profitability of the project disappeared, the first film received the subtitle “A New Hope”, and soon two sequels appeared - in 1980 and 1983.

Genre: action, science fiction, adventure, family, fantasy

Nobody expected this film to be a success. The studio's management was so convinced of the film's failure that they gave Lucas the commercial rights to all subsequent Star Wars series for free. The bosses clearly underestimated the potential of the film, and did not expect that it would be followed by two sequels, three prequel stories and many spin-offs - cartoons, computer games, toys, books and even clothes and food products. The film's budget of 11 million dollars seemed very small, but it has already brought the director half a billion, and continues to do so.

The plot of the film boils down to how strong-willed young man Luke Skywalker, after the death of his uncle and aunt, teams up with old Jedi knight Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi, two creaky robots, ship commander Han Solo (Ford) and a furry alien to save the princess from the villain.

Starring in the film: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Cushing, Alec Guinness, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Peter Mayhew, David Prowse, Phil Brown, Sheelagh Fraser, Jack Purvis, Alex McCrindle, Eddie Byrne, Drew Henley

Director: George Lucas

Screenwriter: George Lucas

Operator: Gilbert Taylor

Composer: John Williams

Artists: John Barry, Leslie Dilley, Norman Reynolds, Leon Eriksen

Producers: Gary Kurtz, George Lucas

Awards, nominations, festivals

1978 - Academy Award

Best Art Direction

Best Costume Design

Best Visual Effects

Best Editing

The best music

Best Sound

BAFTA Award (1978):

Best Music (John Williams)

Best Sound (Sam Shaw)

As a standard for the battle scenes, Lucas took military chronicles from the 2nd World War...

George Lucas wanted to make a kind of modern myth, as opposed to the dark, pessimistic fantasy that characterized the cinema of the early 70s.

Some interesting facts:

1. There were people sitting in the funny comedian robots C3PO and R2D2, and in the big robot there was a specially found very thin comedian, and in the small robot there was a dwarf who controlled the robot. When filming ended, they often forgot to remove the dwarf from the robot. He couldn't get out on his own.

2. Since there was little time for filming, different episodes were filmed simultaneously in 3 pavilions at once, while Lucas himself moved between pavilions on a bicycle.

3. Benchmarking in cinema: as a standard for battle scenes, Lucas took a military chronicle from the time of the 2nd World War, and in some scenes he simply copied scenes of air battles: the movement of aircraft, the change of large and general plans and so on. reproduced very accurately.

4. The breath of a man in scuba gear was used to voice the sinister Darth Vader. To voice the speech of the alien Chubaku, samples of lion, bear and tiger roars were used, which alternated, lining up in certain “phrases”.

5. Wooden sticks coated with a reflective compound were used as “light sabers.” “Swords” constantly broke during fights.

6. Space station The Death Star was the size of a desk, and a miniature camera was carried along it on a cable. The camera was controlled by a homemade computer (there were no personal computers then).

7. In one scene, Luke is attacked by a “sandman.” After knocking Luke to the ground, he raises the stick high above his head. During editing, for greater expressiveness, this frame was “looped” and repeated several times: it looked like the sandman was belligerently shaking a stick.

8. The producers repeatedly tried to close the film. Because:

Who will watch a stupid fairy tale?

There are no famous actors in the film

The soundtrack is symphonic, but now everyone listens to disco

9. No one believed in the success of the film, and only one small company decided to release toys in the form of the film characters for the premiere of Star Wars.

After the premiere, there was a rush of demand for toys, and the capacities used for the production of toys were not enough. That's why the company ran out of stock by Christmas! Then the company began selling “certificates” for toys. As a Christmas present, the child received an empty box and a certificate on which it was written: “With this certificate you will receive toys in March.”

10. In the 2nd part of the film, the alien Yoda was played by a special doll, which was controlled by several people. All the scenery in Yoda's scenes (including trees, etc.) was raised above the ground to human height, and the puppeteers were hiding under the floor.

This created difficulties: Mark Hamill, who played Luke Stywalker, did not hear him in his dialogue with Yoda. Finally they decided to put an earphone in Mark’s ear. Now he heard Yoda, but periodically, when he turned his head, the earpiece began to pick up the radio (they sounded " Rolling Stones"), and it was very distracting.

11. Scenes on the snowy planet were filmed in Iceland. We were very unlucky with the weather; it was 20 degrees below zero all the time. The moments when Luke wanders through the snowy desert were filmed through open door from the hotel lobby. At the same time, Mark Hammil was freezing outside, and the entire film crew was warming up in the hall.

12. During filming of a flight through an asteroid swarm, .... ordinary potatoes were used as asteroids. The passage of each “asteroid” was filmed separately, against a blue screen, and then all this was edited together with the flying starships. No computer graphics there wasn't then...

13. To make the acting more believable and to create an atmosphere of “mystery,” George Lucas last moment hid from the entire film crew that the sinister Darth Vader is actually the father of Luke Starwalker. Lucas told Mark Hammil about this a minute before filming the decisive duel with Vader. And the actor who played Vader, even during the filming of the episode where he tells Luke: “I am your father!”, did not know about his “paternity” - in this scene he utters completely different words: “Your father was killed by Obiwan Kenobi.” Then this scene was dubbed “as it should”: after all, Vader’s face is hidden under an iron mask.

14. In order to keep the audience in suspense from the very first frames of the film, Lucas moved all the credits to the end of the film, thereby breaking Hollywood traditions. For the first time he was forgiven for this. But when he repeated this number in the 2nd part of the film, the Directors Guild ordered him to pay a fine of 250 thousand dollars.

15. When preparations began for the shooting of the 3rd part of the film, then for all equipment suppliers, in all papers the film was called “Blue Harvest”. We specially came up with the most non-brand name possible - because when suppliers saw the name “ star Wars“- they immediately doubled the price.

16. The monstrous gangster Jabba was controlled by many people - some with his hands, some with his mouth, some with his tongue, some with his eyes (which were radio-controlled). And Jabba's tail was driven by 2 dwarfs. When Princess Leia, about to strangle Jabba, walked behind him, she accidentally stepped on the dwarf. To prevent this from happening again, a special platform was made.

17. One of the most exciting episodes of the 3rd part is racing on flying motorcycles at breakneck speed through the forest. In fact, the flight through the forest was filmed with a hand-held movie camera, which the operator slowly carried along the route. Filming was carried out at a speed of 1 frame per second. Then when normal speed playback at 24 frames per second and the effect of a dizzying race appeared.

In 1997, 20 years after the release of the first film, the original trilogy was remastered with computer-generated special effects and re-released. In re-releases, the films grossed $256.5 million, $124.2 million, and $88.7 million, respectively.

In 1999, the film “Star Wars” was released. Episode I: Hidden threat”, which marked the beginning of a new trilogy - the prehistory of the original. Next in 2002 - Star Wars. Episode II: Attack of the Clones and in 2005 - Star Wars. Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

According to George Lucas, the idea for the film was influenced by Joseph Campbell's research on comparative mythology (The Hero with a Thousand Faces, etc.).

The beginning of the history of “Star Wars” is considered to be 1976. It was then that the novelization book of the same name by A.D. Foster and George Lucas appeared, telling about the events of Episode IV: A New Hope. Producers at 20th Century Fox, fearing the film would fail at the box office, decided to release the book early to gauge its success. In 1977, at the Congress of the World Community science fiction George Lucas got special award"Hugo" for this novel.

At the end of 2012, a seventh film was announced. The release date is set for December 18, 2015. In March 2015, the eighth film was announced and the premiere date: May 26, 2017.

May 25, 2017 marks the 40th anniversary of the release of the first Star Wars - one of the most commercially successful films in history and, concurrently, a film that changed cinema once and for all.

Now “Star Wars” is studied in film schools, millions of people buy “themed” toys, and the most devoted fans even line up in kilometer-long queues in front of the cinema to be the first to see the premiere of the new part of the saga. However, at one time, young George Lucas spent a lot of time and effort in order, despite the resistance of the film industry, the people around him and fate in general, to make the movie of his dreams.

Accountant's Dream

To understand why George Lucas got the nickname The Accountant, you need to go back in time - long before he started making his films. At film school, Lucas was different from his fellow students - as a teenager, thanks to his love for films and TV, he realized that he wanted to become a director. Unlike his future colleagues, he spent a lot of time writing scripts, developing ideas and practically did not participate in youth life, full of parties and alcohol. Teachers liked perseverance and perseverance in work. Lucas, one might say, was not only an excellent student, but also “in good standing” with his teachers. Together with everyone else, he went to practice - filming documentary

As in any field, for the most part, everything that is taught in institutions will turn out to be completely different in practice. So Lucas, having found himself in the thick of film production, said goodbye to illusions, seeing the inflated budget and the horribly “creaky” filming process. From the catering on set to the cameraman, lighting and sound engineer, everything irritated young George Lucas, who was on the real set for the first time. Of course, this was old Hollywood.

The resulting documentary film from Lucas, if desired, could have been thrown into the trash, and then the careless student could have been expelled from the academy - after all, the film was not even about the filming of McKenna's Gold, but about the quarries and deserts that were in those places. However, due to his successful studies and the hopes that his teachers placed on him, he still completed his studies. At that time, like many graduates of film schools, Lucas wanted to make smart films, filled with meaning, reflecting life.

The 1960s were a difficult time for America. US citizens lived in fear, expecting that any day now the notorious “red button” would be pressed and Soviet nuclear missiles would destroy their free country. People built bunkers to save themselves and their families. The situation was aggravated by the Vietnam War, which claimed many lives, which, according to the Americans, was not needed by the country. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 also affected the worldview of the growing Lucas.

The darkness that shrouds America and George Lucas's self-awareness will result in the disastrous debut film THX-1138. Lucas's anger towards cinema then intensified: without his knowledge, the studio Warner Bros. together with producer Francis Ford Coppola, director of the cult " Godfather", took and re-edited in her own way "THX-1138", into which Lucas put his own original idea and the pain of that time. Fortunately, this did not affect the friendship between Lucas and Coppola, who was like a father to him. According to rumors, Coppola attributed everything to the fact that the studio single-handedly made the decision to change the original direction, and he “was just a tool.” Although it is difficult to imagine one of the most respected directors in Hollywood at the time at the beck and call of studio bosses.

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Yet George Lucas owes a lot to Francis Ford Coppola. He believed in his “son” and even allocated a million dollars for the filming of his next film, the film “American Graffiti.” The film, when released, became a success: with a million spent, it managed to collect over $50 million. The success with which American Graffiti was shown in theaters revealed to the young director a formula that he would later apply to Star Wars: maintaining a balance of quality and arrived.

Hollywood then was not yet as large-scale as it is now - some of the newcomers followed the beaten path, taking the best from the past and presenting it in in a new way, others experimented, creating something new. I recall Ayn Rand’s book “The Fountainhead,” in which, in a similar manner, architects copied the architects of the past, interspersing their ideas into their monumental buildings, while forgetting about new details or at least rethinking what was borrowed. Steven Spielberg took the first step towards new Hollywood cinema when his film about the killer shark Jaws grossed half a billion dollars on a budget of $7 million.

Venerable Jedi Bendu of Opucci

Like Howard Roark, the hero of the philosophical book “The Fountainhead,” no one took George Lucas seriously either. His wife, Marsha Lucas, generally considered her husband’s “nonsense” to be kindergarten and, instead of helping him in the last stages of filming Star Wars, she went to edit Scorsese’s film New York, New York, where, in her opinion, there was real cinematic art. Lucas’ “father” Francis Ford Coppola insisted that he continue to make “usual” films, and was once again ready to financially support him in the filming of “Apocalypse Now.” But we will return to it later.

At that time, the so-called “teen revolution” was just emerging in the United States, and many looked at it as a penguin trying to fly. The older audience was considered solvent - working adults could provide for themselves so that on a quiet free evening they could go to the cinema in order to enjoy another film that reflected reality. Lucas, on the other hand, resisted tradition and insisted on a completely different approach: he wanted to make a film for a young audience that, if desired, could be watched by the whole family. Naturally, he was often overtaken by thoughts about whether such a movie was needed at all, given that before him all attempts to film something like this did not really take root.

George Lucas's dream was to make a film about space travel. He even wanted to remake Alex Raymonds' Flash Gordon, but his reshoot idea was rejected. However, bumping into obstacles, Lucas was even more passionate about his dream, and in the early 70s he made the first sketches of his future saga. Lucas wrote a script every day, in the morning, and in the evening he studied fairy tales, mythology and various other books. In particular, he read “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” by Joseph Campbell and “Tales of the Force” by Carlos Castaneda (yes, it was from there that the very Force that the heroes of “Star Wars” came from). In addition, Lucas also "absorbed" a lot of science fiction, ranging from Edgar Burroughs to Isaac Asimov. Writing the script was difficult. The director later admits that he has “problems with transferring ideas to paper.” By 1973, i.e. After almost a year of work, he wrote a 13-page document that reflected his vision for the film. The text began with the phrase:

"This is the story of Mace Windu, a revered Jedi-bendu of Opucci, associated with Usby C.J. Tape, leader of the Padawans of a famous Jedi."

When Lucas' agent Jeff Berg and his lawyer Tom Pollack read it, they said they didn't understand a word of it, but decided to send his idea to United Artists. There, in turn, they refused to take on a project called “Star Wars”, fearing its cost. At the Universal Pictures studio, with whom George Lucas signed a contract for the filming of " American graffiti” also refused, despite the fact that one of the lines of their contract was “the filming of the director’s next film.”

Eventually, Lucas met with Alan Lad of 20th Century Fox and told him about his idea for a "space opera". Lad categorically did not understand the concept of “Star Wars,” but he knew a lot about finding young talent. He agreed to enter into a contract with the convincing and persistent George Lucas, under which he was paid $50 thousand for writing the script and $100 thousand for shooting a film that would gross $250 million. Later, the contract was supplemented with new demands from the director: the film’s budget increased to $12 millions, and Lucas asked for the right to distribute paraphernalia and “related” products. At that time, the industry of goods based on media culture was not yet developed at all, so the studio agreed to the new terms without regret. Years later, everyone will understand that it was this enterprising and far-sighted move that made the young George Lucas one of the richest directors, forever securing the nickname The Accountant.

“I wanted to create a futuristic story, I was fascinated by the idea of ​​spaceships and lasers against those who only have a stick in their hands,” Lucas said.

However, the director still had problems visualizing ideas. He was inspired by everything he could: the Flash Gordon series, sky cities, space swords, blasters, digital screens, medieval costumes and “battles in space” from the 30s. He borrowed the idea of ​​political intrigue on a galactic scale from Isaac Asimov. Frank Herbert's Dune features intergalactic traders, guilds and desert planets. In his film "THX-1138" - a robot policeman (stormtroopers in "Star Wars") and underground inhabitants(Java). Star Wars seemed to be a hodgepodge of ideas from all the great science fiction writers. And at the same time they were unique.

For about two and a half years, George Lucas worked on the script for the film, which was given to him with great difficulty. A total of four versions of the script were written, each of which he himself criticized, as a result of which he reworked them again and again. As a result, he came to the final fourth idea, which, however, seemed too big for one film. He divided it into two parts, and each part into three episodes. The original Star Wars trilogy as we know it today was the one second part huge history.

One of the reasons, besides the incomprehensible plot, why studios were hesitant to take on the project was the director's requirement to use young actors rather than celebrities. This, according to the “accountant,” greatly reduced the budget, giving him more freedom as a director. Many actors auditioned for key roles. Kurt Russell and Sylvester Stallone, for example, wanted to be Han Solo, and Jodie Foster dreamed of playing the role of Princess Leia. However, the director continued to look for “unfamiliar” faces. The few exceptions were, perhaps, Alec Guinness (Obi-Wan Kenobi) and Peter Cushing (Grand Moff Tarkin).

Nonsense and special effects

The workers and actors hired for the film crew suspected before filming that working with George Lucas would not be too easy, but already film set it became clear that “something is going on kindergarten" Harrison Ford would later say that he was not at all afraid of losing the role and even at some point asked Lucas to kill his character, because “You can print such nonsense, George, but how the f@%£* can I say it!?”

The indifference of everyone and everything on the set grew along with the disrespect for Lucas, who was already irritated by everything in the film industry. His stubborn character and sober mind did not allow him to make concessions to anyone. He constantly shouted on set and at one point even lost contact with everyone he hired and approved, including the cast and crew. George Lucas suffered the same fate as Steven Spielberg, who was also considered an idiot during the filming of Jaws and was promised a monumental failure followed by expulsion from the profession and Hollywood. After all, no one had managed to make a high-quality blockbuster before him.

The negativity of the actors, by the way, can be seen in A New Hope itself. According to critics, actor play far-fetched in the film, and with the same success you can call a “man from the street” for the role. This will also come back to haunt the actors, who, after the “hackwork,” will not be invited to other major projects, pointing out that they don’t know how to play and “moved out” only due to the idea of ​​​​George Lucas. However, if Spielberg was not so stubborn on the set of Jaws, then Lucas could not afford to “babble” with his group. Even Spielberg, seeing what circles of hell his friend was going through, offered his help, promising to leave all the credit to Lucas, but he was adamant and even argued with him, hinting that his “Star Wars” would surpass in every respect a horror film about some there's a killer shark.

Filming was completed and it was time for post-production, but the director's problems continued. The four-person studio (Industrial Light & Magic) that handled the special effects for the film had no idea how they could bring the director's vision to life - no one had ever asked for anything like this before.

Work proceeded very slowly in Lucas' garage, and the guys almost spent the entire budget allocated for special effects on just a few seconds of flashes and flights. Lucas' rage now spilled over to them. ILM was deprived of all bonuses and, according to the director's demands, its employees had to finish the work with the remaining money. Of course, in the future George Lucas will call them again to make Star Wars, and then the studio, taught by past experience, will do everything right (and make a huge profit). However, at the time of creation " New hope“Their relationship was reminiscent of the authorities and the people in the cartoon “Cipollino.” To achieve his goal, Lucas, with his stubborn character, could even impose a tax on the air in the garage, if only they would work more without being distracted by breathing.

As Steven Spielberg recalls, everything was going wrong for Lucas, and he understood it. Spielberg was almost the only one who believed in the success of the film. According to rumors, after he watched an early cut of the film, he told Lucas: “Damn! This will be a bomb! In his opinion, Star Wars was a film at the intersection of Stanley Kubrick's A Space Odyssey, with its magnificent shots, and the story of Buck Rogers.

“This film will appeal to everyone who doesn’t mind a fantasy fairy tale,” said Spielberg.

The revolution has happened

Fortunately, all work was completed on time, and 20th Century Fox announced the release date for Star Wars. And the chosen date became another blow to the director’s nerves. The film was released on the same day as “The Abyss” by Peter Yates and “The Sorcerer” by William Friedkin, and Lucas was afraid that with such competition, many viewers would decide to go to the “familiar” movie rather than to the “phantasmagoria”.

On May 25, 1977, Star Wars was released, and a sad George Lucas and his wife were having lunch at the Hamburger Hamlit restaurant, which was located opposite the famous movie theater. Chinese theater Grauman" in Los Angeles. Outside the window they saw a crowd—what is it, a horde—of people crowded in front of the cinema doors and shouting something incomprehensible. Lucas even then began to understand what he had done. However, success still awaited him.

After working for a long time to realize his dream, George Lucas and his wife went on a well-deserved vacation. According to some sources, it was a two-week vacation, according to others, a three-week vacation, but we will focus on the fact that, upon returning home, they discovered something they had not expected.

Lucas, out of habit, checked the blinking answering machine on his phone and at first couldn’t believe his ears. Dozens of people who called and left messages on his answering machine sang his praises and asked him to turn on the TV, which was showing “crazy news.” George Lucas, turning on the TV, fell into a stupor and remained in this state the entire time the news was broadcast. He was shocked that all the channels were talking about his Star Wars, talking about people who had watched it many times, and about new fans going crazy. Lucas looked at all this silently and slowly realized that we're talking about about his dream.

All of George Lucas's claims that his film would beat Jaws came true. His belief in making films for young audiences, who were ridiculed, was justified. People wanted a simple and bright movie, and not a “continuation of gray everyday life.” With his film, Lucas put an end to “smart” cinema, and even Martin Scorsese, recalling those times, will say that he is far from commercial, unlike George Lucas, who knows how to make a financially successful film, providing it with all the necessary scenes.

Subsequently, George Lucas became a hostage to his dream and was forced to produce films exclusively. However, his name has already entered the annals of cinema history.

Finally, let's go back in time once again, when "father" Francis Ford Coppola asked his "son" for George Lucas to direct Apocalypse Now. Lucas admitted that he felt his real success when Coppola, who decided after his refusal to direct the film himself, sent a telegram from Asia, which contained only one phrase:

“The money came out. Francis."

On the eve of the release of the next episode of the film saga " star Wars“I want to remember how the film was made back in the 70s. This review provides footage of how they were created cult characters and battles without the use of modern computer special effects.

One of the most famous and large-scale projects of “all times and peoples” - the fantastic saga "Star Wars" - began to be created by American director George Lucas back in the early 1970s. To implement his plans, it took enormous efforts from him, which ensured the triumph of the first film, released in May 1977. Moreover, according to the testimony of those who participated in the creation of this epic, what happened during the work could well become the plot for a separate fascinating film. So, where and how was Star Wars filmed?

A few words about George Lucas

Before we begin the story of how Star Wars was filmed, we should pay a little attention to the personality of the director.

Today, George Lucas is one of the wealthiest representatives of his profession with a capital of 5 million dollars, and at the time when he came up with the idea for the project, he was not even 30 years old, and he had only two full-length films to his credit. In fairness, it must be said that he had already made films in the fantasy genre, but it had no resounding success. The plot of this film, known as "THX 1138", is a story about a future world where humanity, forced to live underground, is ruled by computers. The film is certainly inferior in entertainment to Star Wars, but its heroes are still fighting for their right to remain human and make all decisions on their own.

We all know that one of the most iconic and grandiose films is the Star Wars saga. So why was it so exciting and interesting? First of all, the screens were attracted by the visual effects that were striking for that time and the proximity to open space. Let's reveal the secret behind the classic trilogy and find out how the legendary trilogy was created literally from simple cardboard and drawings.

Like any masterpiece, Star Wars began with an idea.

Great storyteller new era cinema George Lucas conceived the epic when he was not yet 30 years old. In the mid-1970s, a preliminary script was ready, which, however, was almost completely rewritten more than once. What do you think, for example, of one of Lucas' ideas to make Luke Skywalker a 60-year-old general, and Han Solo an alien with green scales and gills?

The written story included the plot of all six episodes known today. There is a version that George Lucas decided to shoot the episodes from the middle because at that time there were supposedly not enough skills of visual effects specialists for the first three episodes. This is not so, the director could well have realized his idea starting from the very first episodes. He initially decided to take on the film adaptation of the fourth episode. Firstly, this was done in order to intrigue the audience. Secondly, George Lucas didn’t even know if he would be able to film more than one episode of Star Wars, so he took on the most “driving” moment of the script.

It only got worse from there. For a long time not a single studio wanted to take on the film adaptation of a fairy tale with, to put it mildly, a strange plot. The influence of the hippie movement was still felt in the yard, venerable directors were making serious films about the Vietnam War, and mediocrities were making trash films about evil aliens from outer space. The work of George Lucas was immediately ranked among the latter, but in this case the budget required was rather large - $8 million. Fortunately, a producer was found who believed in the genius of the young director and allocated the required amount.

And still, only a few believed in the success of Star Wars. Lucas himself sometimes doubted that anything worthwhile would come of his idea. Later, the actors recalled filming as the most ridiculous episode in their lives. A tall guy in a monkey suit, dwarfs, simple pretentious dialogues... The film was perceived as a children's fairy tale or trash, but not an adventure fantasy that aspires to cult status.

“The scene in the bar resembled the delirium of a stoned person: some frogs, pigs, a cricket - a nightmare!” - the performers of the main roles said with a smile. Apparently, the same point of view was shared by Hollywood bosses, who for some reason considered one of the main questions of the film whether a Wookie should wear underpants. At some point, they wanted to cancel Star Wars altogether, then they decided to throw out all the special effects from the film and turn it into a television series. Only George Lucas' persistence and stubbornness saved the film.

The lion's share of filming took place in the Tunisian desert. In the same country, they found a suitable name for the planet on which the first third of the film takes place. The name of the city Tataouine quietly transformed into Tatooine. Here, in North Africa, suitable scenery was found: the house of Luke Skywalker's guardians was not built specifically for the film, it was an ordinary hut in one of the villages of Tunisia. Suitable interiors were found at a local hotel.

But the city of Mos Eisley, from whose spaceport Luke finally went to space trip on the Millennium Falcon, had to be built from scratch. Tons of scenery had to be transported from Hollywood by plane. It took about two months to build a settlement from the received material that would fit perfectly into the desert surroundings.

Han Solo's spaceship was created in life size in one of the largest film pavilions in England. The length of the colossus reached 50 meters, and the weight was several tens of tons. The giant model of the Millennium Falcon sometimes flashes in the frame, but what was most useful to the film crew was its “innards,” because the main characters spend a lot of time in the ship. True, the cabin still had to be made separately.

George Lucas wanted to literally put the viewer in the place of the characters. The Millennium Falcon is flying at the speed of light, the ship is being fired upon, and is being tossed from side to side. All this should be accompanied by shaking inside. It is difficult to make a 40-ton model vibrate, so it was decided to build a small cabin and place it on a spring platform. In scripted scenes, she was shaken manually.

Another giant model had to be made to recreate the crawler described in the script, in which the Jawas drove around Tatooine in search of robots. For some episodes, a huge metal “box” was built with tracks from a mining excavator. To shoot general scenes, a compact crawler model was used.

Like most science fiction films of the pre-computer era, Star Wars had a lot of “toys”. All spaceships, which we see in the film (from the Millennium Falcon to fighter jets), were made in the form of miniature plastic or even cardboard models. The Death Star was actually drawn, and for the filming of the final large-scale attack scene film crew built a model measuring 15x15 meters. Each of the hundreds of turrets and guns that bristled with the Death Star was carefully reproduced on it. The tunnel through which toy rebel fighters flew became the dominant feature of the layout.

Who knows if “Star Wars” would have received cult status if the film had only space shootouts, without all that “zoo” that finally settled in the film. Hundreds of dolls and masks, a huge amount of makeup and, of course, a park of dozens of robots. All this fit organically into the new universe and even now looks good.

A variety of robots have been invented

Today it is difficult to imagine Star Wars without the robots C-3PO and R2-D2. It was too expensive to make real mechanisms, so George Lucas agreed to have actors play the astromech droid and robot secretary. Anthony Daniels fit into C-3PO's plastic "armor". According to him, the plates were so fragile that they broke on the first day, injuring the actor’s leg.

Anthony Daniels was completely blind in his suit

Inside R2-D2 sat dwarf Kenny Baker, who played the nimble robot on wheels in all six films in the franchise. The actor recalls that he could not get out of the metallic depths of R2-D2 on his own and sometimes he had to spend several hours inside because people simply forgot about him. In total, more than 30 robots are present in the film in one form or another, most of which were controlled remotely.

Kenny Baker and Anthony Daniels had a tense relationship on set

Sometimes the assistants had to roll R2-D2

The true face of Chewbacca

But it was Chewbacca who had the hardest time, that is, excuse me, Peter Mayhew, who played the Wookiee. Before coming to cinema, the man worked as an orderly in a hospital, but thanks to his height of 221 centimeters, he made his way to big screen. Every day while filming Star Wars, he had to put on a wool suit, put on the “head” and put on the “feet” of a Kashyyyk native. In Tunisia, the actor was plagued by unbearable heat, and the pavilions were sometimes hampered by openings that were too low for him.

George Lucas said after filming that in many ways he borrowed the image of Chewbacca from his dog Indiana. As for the name, they say that it is a derivative of the Russian word for “dog” - the young director really liked it.

During filming, the Wookiee did not utter a word or growl, he only opened his mouth, as required by the script. Later, sound engineers had to experiment with hundreds of the most different sounds to find suitable Chewbacca speeches. For example, when you hear an angry and indignant Wookiee, these are mainly the sounds that a bear makes, but a satisfied Chewie gets a tiger “purr”. The famous hoarse breathing of Darth Vader was achieved thanks to a scuba mask, R2-D2 “talks” with a mixture of a variety of synthesizer beeps and even infant muttering, and the sound of the fighters had to be combined from the roar of an elephant and the sound of a car rushing along a wet highway.

Layout of the Death Star site

The camera floats over the model, filming the final battle

And yet, first of all, Star Wars is remembered for its amazing special effects. When I first saw the fourth episode in the late 1980s and left the cinema with my jaw dropped in surprise, I could not believe that this could have been filmed more than ten years ago. According to George Lucas, when he saw the first versions of the editing of his film, he gave up. The film turned out to be so weak and miserable that even the director could not believe in the bright future of the film. However, the impression changed dramatically when special effects were added to Star Wars.

And here is the famous tunnel - one of the main features of the film

For all the beauty, the Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) studio, which Lucas created specifically for his space epic, had to take the rap. In total, the film included almost four hundred special effects - an incredible figure for that time. The creation of flying ships, shots from blasters, and glowing swords took a third of the film's budget and most of the man-hours spent on the production of the film.