2008 Woodie Awards
New Sith DVD Loaded with Extras
Christopher Erat
Issue date: 11/7/05 Section: Entertainment
- Page 1 of 2 next >
When the first Star Wars movie began production back in the 1970s, director George Lucas gave little thought to the home video industry, which then was barely in its infancy.
Not so with Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2005, $29.98) which zooms onto DVD this week in a two-disc edition loaded with more than six hours of extras.
This is the much-anticipated film that finally shows how Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) was pulled over to the dark side of The Force. It climaxes with a terrific battle between Anakin and Obi-Wan-Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), with the latter coming out triumphant. That paves the way for the mangled Anakin to don the Darth Vader suit.
As to be expected, Sith is packed with dazzling special effects but in this case, they never overshadow the story, which neatly links all six films together.
Rick McCallum, who has served as a producer on the entire epic science-fiction saga, said this time Lucas and company were very much aware of the home-video market and what they wanted to include on the DVD while making Episode III.
"That (DVD) has become such an important part of the filmmaking process," McCallum said during a recent phone conversation. "We wanted to get as much information as possible on this one to satisfy those millions of fans who have a real thirst for knowledge about how these films are put together."
Among the many extras are Within a Minute, a nearly eighty-minute, absorbing behind-the-scenes documentary; The Chosen One, which focuses on Anakin Skywalker's transformation to Darth Vader; It's All for Real, a look at the training and the work that goes into the film's battle sequences; and six never-before-seen deleted scenes.
One of the deleted scenes shows Yoda, after escaping the Sith's wrath, landing on the swampy planet of Dagobah. It was there the gnome-like Jedi Master had his first encounter with Luke Skywalker in Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.
Not so with Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2005, $29.98) which zooms onto DVD this week in a two-disc edition loaded with more than six hours of extras.
This is the much-anticipated film that finally shows how Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) was pulled over to the dark side of The Force. It climaxes with a terrific battle between Anakin and Obi-Wan-Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), with the latter coming out triumphant. That paves the way for the mangled Anakin to don the Darth Vader suit.
As to be expected, Sith is packed with dazzling special effects but in this case, they never overshadow the story, which neatly links all six films together.
Rick McCallum, who has served as a producer on the entire epic science-fiction saga, said this time Lucas and company were very much aware of the home-video market and what they wanted to include on the DVD while making Episode III.
"That (DVD) has become such an important part of the filmmaking process," McCallum said during a recent phone conversation. "We wanted to get as much information as possible on this one to satisfy those millions of fans who have a real thirst for knowledge about how these films are put together."
Among the many extras are Within a Minute, a nearly eighty-minute, absorbing behind-the-scenes documentary; The Chosen One, which focuses on Anakin Skywalker's transformation to Darth Vader; It's All for Real, a look at the training and the work that goes into the film's battle sequences; and six never-before-seen deleted scenes.
One of the deleted scenes shows Yoda, after escaping the Sith's wrath, landing on the swampy planet of Dagobah. It was there the gnome-like Jedi Master had his first encounter with Luke Skywalker in Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.