Dunn 1

Jarrett Dunn
Mr.Ratica
Microsoft Apps
18 February 2016
Star Wars: History and Development of the Films
One of the biggest and most successful franchises in movie history is Star Wars. Everyone has at
least heard of Star Wars or even has seen one of the films. The making of Star Wars merchandise, books,
comics, and spinoffs have grown significantly over the years because of the popularity of Star Wars films.
The seven Star Wars films have a lot of history and true meaning behind them. Overall the Star Wars
films have developed greatly over the years due to technology and higher budgets due to the major
popularity. (Brooker 9)
George Lucass Star Wars was released May 25, 1977 and was only in 42 theaters nationwide.
Lucas intended the movie just to target a small audience of science-fiction fans, but by the end of
summer, the film had made over $100 million. Lucas did not plan on Star Wars having the success that it
did. He often referred to it as a combination of happy accident and positive thinking. By 1983 Lucas had
become the biggest movie mogul on the planet. Often Lucas kept trying to abandon Star Wars, so that he
could go back to making his small scale movies. Instead, he came back to the original trilogy and added
new scenes and CGI effects into the movies. In 1998 the revamped versions of the trilogy were put back
into theaters for a while. By 2005 George Lucas had finished directing the second trilogy, which was
actually the prequels. This was the end of the saga. Lucas later sold the rights of Star Wars to Disney. In
2015 when Disney made the seventh film The Force Awakens. ("Star Wars released") (Brooker 15)
("Box Office History for")
There is a lot of unknown history about the making of the Star Wars films. First off, George
Lucas preferred machines over humans in the films. As a result he tried to get away with using the least
amount of people as possible. For example in the Revenge of the Sith, Lucas used CGI to create most of
the clones in that movie, instead of using actors. Princess Leia wore white to represent the part of the

Dunn 2
technological world, its colors being white, gray, and black. Lucas wanted things in his films to look as if
they had been rusted, worn out, and knocked about. He did not like the idea of making everything look as
if it were brand new. He told the design crew to dirty everything up. Only the rebels ships were supposed
to look as if they were old, beat up, and second hand. They added rust and grease to the rebel ships to
show the clear difference between their ships and the Imperial ships. The crew even scuffed and scraped
R2-D2 up, as well as the stormtroopers. Before each take was shot, Lucas made the actors roll in the dust
until their clothes looked as if they had been worn for days. Even the model makers and effect engineers
that were on set were often using junk to make new equipment. They were actually successful and built a
motion control camera from bits in and pieces of older machines. They then used the motion control
camera on the set to film some scenes in the movies. To do the fights in space in the original trilogy, they
would use miniature models of the ships and have each one be filmed moving in separate shots. They
would then be superimposed with other layers and thats how the fight scenes in space were made. Lucas
did not want electronic sizzles of science fiction soundtracks, instead he wanted the spaceships motors to
sound real, rusty, and squeaky. Lucas had two cameras at every shot. One camera was used for a close-up
shot and the other camera used for the master shot of the entire scene. Sometimes he even had a third
camera be used for just another angle. Also the light on the set was always moving. Never staying still,
so that way when the pilots were in the cockpits, it seemed real. So light change was very key when
filming. (Brooker 18, 27, 33, 34, 35, 36, 41, 57)
Many people do not know the truths within Star Wars. Star Wars contains some not so subtle
references to the Bible. First the example of this is good versus evil. We see the good being the Jedi
knights and the evil being the Sith warriors. As where in the Bible the good is God and his angels and the
evil is Satan and his demons. The Force is a supernatural power used by both Jedi and Sith. The Jedi are
on the light side of the force and the Sith are on the dark side of the force. The force is very similar to that
of Gods Holy Spirit in that it is a source of great power and it is a physical thing. (Herzog)
Overall Star Wars had developed greatly over the years due to new and improving technology.
There is so much interesting history behind the making of the films that not many people know about.

Dunn 3
Also Star Wars is related to the Bible in a few ways in that it has some biblical truth behind it. Star Wars
has been very popular since its release in 1977. It has maintained popularity due to its great success and
the great marketing it has had over the years. Star Wars is still developing greatly to this day and
throughout the new films there is even more history behind them.

Dunn 4
Works Cited
"Box Office History for". Web. 16 February 2016. <http://thenumbers.com/movies/franchise/Star-Wars#tab=summary>.
Brooker, Will. Star Wars. England: Palgrave MacMillan, 2009. Print.
Herzog, Charles E. realtruth.org. Web. 16 February 2016. <https://realtruth.org/articles/345swttbtf.html>.
"Star Wars released". Web. 18 February 2016. <http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/starwars-released>.