The Making of Star Wars - 1977 Documentary 

I worked on this film in 1976, I can be seen measuring lukes land speeder, in the behind the scenes of star wars the original trilogy, special effects makers, I was 19, still a boy lol.

My son just recently became a Star Wars fan. He loves the movies so much, especially the special effects and storytelling, that he decided to make his own little movies and tell stories. This is the timeless power of Star Wars: After all these years, young creative Jedi's continue to be inspired.

Oh fuck I clicked this. Well now I'm trapped for 49 minutes.

"Perhaps it will never end". What a prophecy given the future of this franchise

I was 13 years old when Star Wars came out, and remember this special airing on TV. In fact I recorded the audio into a cassette tape player and played it over and over. It's impossible to explain to someone not around at the time how 'Star Wars' changed the world, but it really did. I consider myself very lucky to have been there from the beginning. It was awesome! (PS I had a huge crush on Luke!)

Who else feels like watching A New Hope after this?

4:15-4:20. Harrison Ford at his most "enthusiastic ". Bang. Bang, bang.

"Perhaps, Artoo, it will never end." C3PO's words sound so prophetic now, after three prequels, two animated series, countless books, comics, games and with six more movies planned and a schedule of one new movie per year laid out by Disney. The generation that saw the original release of Star Wars in 1977 may not live to see the very last movie hit theaters. Perhaps the Force will indeed be with us, always.

Aw, practical effects have so much more charm and intrigue than CGI. I know CGI can be a great tool, but I love the the look and creativity behind practical effects so much more.

I love seeing actors having fun on set.

It's amazing how extremely good the design of everything is compared to other scifi stuff.

i get the feeling at the scene at 34:39 that mark hamill is basically just ford's younger brother. harrison pesters them with "and?" mark does the same. harrison groans, mark groans. harrison regurgitates "the mic was in picture" mark does the same. but hey having two older brothers myself, we've all been there

4:16 Bang..Bang..Bang Harrison during a rehearsal xD

wow I can only imagine the cultural impact this must've had in 70's ! So cool

It's absolutely amazing how much effort they put into making this film and how revolutionary it was. They truly changed cinema forever, and while we might find that normal today, you just have to look at other stuff that was made in the 70s, especially scifi. This movie is just insane.

I truly love these documentary films they an elegant glimpse of a more civilized age, before the dark times...before the Empire.

Anybody catch the part when George Lucas said he had a dog named Indiana? If you remember from Indiana Jones 3, Indiana's dog is named Indiana and that's where the nickname came from.

C-3PO was right about Star Wars never ending

I was a wee kid when Star Wars first came out, and I saw it in a drive-in theater. I think 47:20 says it all about why it succeeded, but another big factor was the culture at the time. We wanted and needed something that could take us out of this world we live in and give us a vision of hope and heroism. It was the right movie at the right time, and it's amazing that almost 40 years later we're still wanting to expand on this story. Probably because we still need this story that takes us out of this world and present moment, and give us a vision of hope and heroism once again.

If anyone wonders how Star Wars was such a big deal when it came out, watch any other movie from the late 70s and then watch Star Wars. There is no comparison

A real challenge to produce episode IV back in 1977. There was no CG as we know it today.

still holds up 40 years later

2015 and I didn't know this existed

Good old days of practical effects... And Carrie Fisher was SO beautiful...

The sound effects for this film are absolutely amazing and without parallel. The wheezing breath of Vader, the whizzing and whirring of the space craft, the humming of light sabres, to the whinnying roar of Chewbacca. Lucas chose an absolutely brilliant sound production team. The Force Awakens third trailer is using the same sound effects.

When this first came out, there was so much pressure on George and he was worried that the movie wouldn’t work as no one in the business really thought that it would (he was literally rushed to hospital because of how much stress was on him) .But when the movie was released, he was still worried it wouldn’t work until he went to a restaurant with his wife that was right next to a cinema which was airing Star Wars and he saw that people who had already watched the movie were lining up again to re watch it and he said that both him and his wife fell to the floor crying cause of how happy they were. They even requested a seat near a window so that they could see the theatre. God bless him

Disney, please release the "unaltered" original Star Wars Trilogy on DVD or Blu-ray

in 1995 they re-released this on video but for some reason they re-recorded all the narration with Don LaFontaine, even the documentaries aren't safe from re-edits

How have I never seen this before?! I've watched "The making of Episode I", "From Puppets to Pixels", and "Empire of Dreams" at least 3 times each! But this is amazing!

I can remember watching this when I was a kid. I waited for a week for it to come on so we could see some of Star Wars at home... Remember in 1977 there were no VCR's, CD's, Computers, etc. If you couldn't get it over the airwaves, forget it. Great to see it again..... And without the static.

I love the fact that the droid that speaks 6000 000 different language had to ask the other droid what did Chewbacca say...:)

I still love the scene When Vader treads on the Kenobi robe. You know he's just thinking "WTF just happened?" This doc is all kinds of wonderful though! Seeing as we'll sadly never see the old gang together again.

I LOVE STAR WARS!!!!!!!! ....just wanted to say that. lol

Narration by William Conrad. One of the great voices in Hollywood.

I remember watching this on television in the Summer of 1977. Brought back memories.

I saw this documentary as a child. I was 6 years old. I actually saw this documentary before I saw the movie. Such great childhood memories. Thank you George Lucas! :-)

I remember watching this when I was little, Not only did I watch it, I recorded the audio on my brand new, fancy hi-tech tape deck. I played that tape over and over again. I can still remember whole sections of it word for word, including sound effects. Oh god, I'm so old.

A long time ago in the summer of 1977, I was a 10 year old kid who was just about to graduate from Elementary School, and who, one day, walked into a movie theatre to see "some far-out space movie" that had rapidly become "the talk of the town" on the schoolyard playground... I walked in an innocent, naive little child, only interested in Mad Libs, Marshall Brodien's TV Magic Cards, Bigfoot, Duncan Yo-yos, and Evel Knievel and his Action Stunt Cycle... I walked out ABSOLUTELY CHANGED FOREVER. On that glorious day, I would see the GREATEST movie that would EVER be made. That groundbreaking film was STAR WARS, from writer/director George Lucas, and it would TOTALLY change my life (as well as simultaneously changing the lives of COUNTLESS others around the entire world). SW absolutely blew me away, filling my heart with joy, stimulating my imagination, and kick-starting my love for cinema. That day was so momentous for me. I would never be the same again... I will never forget it. From the moment the 20th Century Fox fanfare and John Williams' theme blasted through the theatre speaker system, and the text "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" and that "1930's Flash Gordon Serial" inspired opening crawl came on the screen... And as that gigantic Star Destroyer appeared, flying over my head, towering above me as I sat in my theatre seat... and kept going... and going... and going... And as the entire audience gasped with amazement... At that VERY moment, I was instantaneously mesmerized, transfixed, and transformed... And I was barely 5 minutes into the film... I still had 2 MORE HOURS to go! As I sat in total wonderment, I was terrified by a helmeted figure in black, Darth Vader... In fact, the whole audience "booed" him as he made his entrance.. .We knew NOTHING about the story yet, but just KNEW that this guy deserved a collective "booing"!... It was like we were watching a SILENT MOVIE!... And as the movie continued, I was thrilled by the heroic exploits of the dashing smuggler Han Solo and the feisty Princess Leia, and emboldened by the brave, heroic, idealistic actions of the farm boy turned hero of the galaxy, Luke Skywalker! And by the film's spectacular climax of the rebel assault on the Death Star (the greatest ending EVER committed to celluloid, BTW), my heart was pounding, and my spirit was soaring... And I will NEVER forget the standing ovation of applause that erupted as the end credits rolled... Everyone in that audience didn't know it yet, but we had all just been first-hand witnesses to cinematic HISTORY! Now, I had ALWAYS loved Sci-fi/Fantasy films, television, and comics BEFORE Star Wars existed, watching reruns of Star Trek and Batman on TV, watching the Planet of the Apes and James Bond 007 movies on TV, and reading Amazing Spider-Man comics... but SW took things to a whole new level... This was a monumental spectacle on such a grand scale that I (or ANYONE) had NEVER seen before, even eclipsing the magnificent achievement that was 2001: A Space Odyssey from 9 years earlier ("Man, I wish I could have seen THAT ONE in the theatre!"). Plus, unlike most Sci-fi around this time (which were very dystopian), this was actually FUN! Moreover, this was NOT The Apple Dumpling Gang, Herbie Rides Again, Benji, The Bad News Bears, or any of the other 70's kiddie "dreck" that I was being subjected to in the theatre at that time... No, this was something VERY DIFFERENT... Now, thankfully, it wasn't ALL awful "dreck"... Even at that young age, I had managed to see a very small handful of very good and (for their time) very impressive big-screen spectacles in the theatre, such as The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974), The Return of the Pink Panther (1975), At the Earth's Core (1976), Logan's Run (1976), and King Kong (1976)... but NOTHING could have prepared me (or the rest of the world) for the earth-shattering phenomenon that was STAR WARS and the change it would bring... the film that would propel a 1970's audience (both young AND old alike) FAR beyond their wildest film-going expectations, and revolutionize the motion picture industry FOREVER in the process. Words can never fully describe what it was like to be alive in the summer of 1977 during the peak height of "Star Wars Mania"... except to say that it was pure MAGIC. I will never forget the day that I went to see Star Wars for the first time... May 25th, 1977... My father took my younger brother and me... I remember we went in my father's company truck (my brother and I rode in the bed of the truck), I remember that we stopped at Burger Chef first to have dinner, and I got one of the four SW promotional posters that they were selling there (I got the one with C-3PO and R2-D2... the first time that I ever laid eyes on ANY characters from SW!)... I remember that the theatre ticket line went on for what seemed to me like forever... I remember my father bought us both a Hershey bar, and he got a bucket of popcorn with extra butter for us all to share...("How do I remember all that?!?")... And when the movie was over, I remember the audience erupting into insane thunderous cheers and applause that I had never experienced before! Naturally, my brother loved the movie, too... but the amazing thing was that even my father (who probably just thought he was taking his children to see some "dumb kid's film") was crazy about it as well!... My mother didn't go that night, and she always regretted it... She told me much later in life that if she had known that it was to be such an important moment in my life, she would have loved to experience my VERY FIRST viewing of Star Wars!... Of course, she DID take my brother and I to see it many times after my first viewing ...And she LOVED it, too! I became an instant fanatic... I saw the film eleven times in the movie theatre during its initial run (which wasn't hard to do, as it stayed at our local theatre for an entire year!)... I sneaked my portable tape recorder into the theatre and audio-recorded the entire film so that I could listen to the adventure over and over in the comfort of my own bedroom... I dressed up in a make-shift Darth Vader costume for Halloween... I filled many sketchbooks with countless drawings of the creatures and spaceships... I collected the action figures, trading cards, posters, books, and model kits (and I STILL have all of that "stuff!")... I always drank out of my Star Wars cup... I always wore my Star Wars T-shirt... I listened to John Williams' Star Wars soundtrack album constantly, becoming a fan of symphonic and film score music... I watched "The Making of Star Wars" TV special, becoming fascinated by the way movies were made, even making a few myself with my Super-8 camera... I watched the Academy Awards for the very first time to see my favorite movie sweep the Oscars with 10 nominations and 7 wins... I even watched the "infamous" Holiday Special in 1978 ... Lumpy... Itchy... Harvey Korman... Bea Arthur... Wookiee-ookiees... And I LOVED it... I will NEVER forget when my parents took me to the record store to get the John Williams soundtrack... We were driving home, and I was in the back seat of the car, looking at the LP... "Something is WRONG here", I said to myself... Well, it turned out that my parents had accidentally purchased the MECO DISCO VERSION! ... We had to turn around and go back to the store to exchange it! And my Star Wars "madness" didn't end there, either... Oh, no... I ate up ANYTHING Sci-Fi related... I religiously watched Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers on TV, and went to see Close Encounters, Superman:TM, Alien (my 1st R-rated film!), Moonraker, The Black Hole, and Star Trek:TMP in the theatre (all CLASSICS in their own right) ...Hell, I even went to see some real "oddities" like Message From Space and Starcrash! ...If a movie featured kit-bashed model spaceships dangling in front of studio-bound starfields... I WAS THERE!... ANYTHING to give this Middle School SW "junkie" that Star Wars" high" again... It would take, of course, 3 LONG YEARS until I finally got another OFFICIAL Star Wars "fix"! And after 46 years, I continue to love STAR WARS more and more... It has aged like the finest wine, and it is STLL my #1 favorite movie of all time... Followed by my 2nd favorite movie of all time: The Empire Strikes Back... And my 3rd favorite movie of all time: Return of the Jedi... These three movies are flawless and perfect, collectively making up not only the greatest cinematic trilogy ever made, but the 3 greatest films of ANY kind ever made, and the greatest cinematic story ever told... PERIOD. I love ALL of Star Wars... Prequels... Sequels... But in the end, when you get right down to it, it all comes back to that first film: Its tale is timeless.. Its themes universal... Its craftsmanship impeccable... It is the perfect story... The perfect film... A phenomenon... A bona fide classic.. A MASTERPIECE.. I will always be thankful to George Lucas for taking me to his galaxy far, far away... Words can never express the utter joy and happiness that his SIX STAR WARS FILMS have given me, and continue to give me to this very day... I'd thank him for showing me how to remain "young at heart", no matter HOW old I get... And in particular, I'd thank him for that life-altering day in the summer of 1977 when I walked into that movie theatre to see "that far-out space movie", aka: THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER MADE, for the very 1st time. It's odd to think a that a mere film could have that kind of power to change one's life in such a profoundly positive way. But then again, this is no "MERE" film, is it? And just think, things could have gone VERY DIFFERENTLY and HORRIBLY WRONG that day if I had instead gone to see some "awful piece of dreck" that was ALSO playing in the theatre at the same time... like Tentacles ("Yikes!")... or Viva Knievel ("Ouch!")... or Breaker! Breaker! ("Jeez!")... or Pete's Dragon ("Ugh!").

Man, I'm old! I watched this on tv, when it was first broadcast.

Remember the 70's when we got to see popular movies that were groundbreaking and ORIGINAL like Star Wars, Rocky, Jaws, the Exorcist, the Godfather, the French Connection, etc? The days before Hollywood cashed in on an endless amount of sequels, prequels and remakes. Not enough filmmakers and producers take risks or think of new ideas anymore. It's really sad.

I was 4 years old, and even I remember going to see it in the Theater. These movies are part of our legacy.

I love how Harrison is on a damn boat for the interview

This movie was my entire childhood and still love it. RIP Carrie Fisher. I forgot how attractive she was when she was younger.

Funny how Harrison seemed really enthusiastic about the shoot and talked so highly of it and how much fun it was but as time went on he seemed speak of it so less highly.

lol hearing Harrison ford just saying bang bang bang is hilarious.

In the beginning at the theater, it's kind of weird thinking about how none of us knew Vader's backstory (or who his son is). But now everyone knows it by heart

I remember seeing this in 1977 then going back out to see it at the theater. It got me jazzed to see the film again.

30:20 Carrie Fisher... What a beauty. We'll miss you.

As 3PO says in the final shot, ''perhaps R2, it will never end''. Quite prophetic words, it's now 2015 and Star Wars is still going strong!!!

How I miss the 70's and I will always remember how magical that experience was..

C3PO's comment at the end was more true than anyone could have imagined in 1977: "When will it end? Perhaps it will never end."

What made Star Wars so great was that he never intended them to be "spaceship, pew, pew" but instead an space opera dealing with family and friends.

I’ll never forget watching the first trilogy for the very first time. I was like 7 and my parents were so excited to show me. I was so young I could barely wrap my head around the plot, but I was enthralled. It was a magical experience. I wanted to be a Jedi and learn how to use the force. I had such a crush on Luke it was embarrassing lol. My so thankful my parents were both pretty big nerds and passed it down to me, because these movies really inspired my imagination and creativity.

Holy crap, George Lucas once had a neck!

The part when Harrison and Mark go like "And?" "And?" is hilarious and I love it! It's hilarious!

Star Wars, what a fantastic movie. I had this documentary on VHS when I was a kid, in 1980 and saw it 1000 times. It was nice to see it again. Thanks to the uploader!

i love the parts about how lucas was originally intending to use the droids as the framing for the series, and how he hadn't figured out the connection between luke and leia yet. haha

I noticed that in this documentary they didn't talk about James Earl Jones. Only that Vader's voice was enhanced to make the character sound intimidating. That's it.

You know, the opening comments in the narration are interesting. It took me until the "first" three films were done before I came to realize that the central characters in the series WERE the robots - everything is pretty much told from their perspective.

I remember recording this on audio tape in 1978. I was obsessed with the Tusken Raider attack scene and played it so much the tape actually wore out!! Happy days!

I think this is a great documentary on the first Star Wars movie. I first seen Star Wars the movie in 1977 at age 17 years old at the Price theatre. It was great to watch. I was amazed by all the special effects etc.. I'd never seen anything like it before in the movies I had seen to that time. Nothing compared to it.

I got hooked in "Star Wars" seeing it twice and now today I have already seen it 75 times and I still enjoy it today.

I remember cassette taping this when it aired on WCBS here in the tri-state area. As kids, we were NUTS for any clips of the film that were shown. The sound effects were enough to get a young kid's imagination fired up! I must've replayed this 100s of times while building the commercially available scale models that were available. Memories...

Thanks you Mr Lucas, your vision gave millions of people years of fun and adventures that has gone from generation to generation.

"The magic of Star Wars......the romantic spirit. And everything seems possible." I liked all six....with Empire and Revenge of the Sith my two favorites. So excited for The Force Awakens......I know JJ and the crew will put out a masterpiece. May The Spirit Force be with us all.

this documentary is amazing. Lucas and his team has futuristic view of space technologies.

45:43 Leia ALWAYS ignores Chewie!

They hadn't even planned for Luke and Lei to be siblings back in that movie

How true C-3P0's prediction was. "Perhaps R2, it will never end."

Star Wars have changed the concept of filmmaking and storytelling forever. George Lucas was a visionary and his bold futuristic methods paved the road for many others to follow the same path. The fact that he could achieve this level of practicality (Set Design, CGI, and inovating ideas) for a Sci-Fi movie, not with today's technology, but 40 yrs ago is mind-blowing to me. SW have always been more than a movie for me. It's a masterpiece of this era.

What a lovely look at the hundreds of hours spent by countless technicians creating these groundbreaking special effects. It's such a shame that not a single one of them is available for the audiences to see in the currently released versions of the movies available commercially. Sorry, I am going to be more bitter than Emperor Palpatine by December, I spent 10 years putting Star Wars out of my life, and now this Episode VII hype is going to destroy me. I want the originals so badly. Carry on. 

"Darth Vadar lives" this dog is onto something

So cool to find this again!! I had the VHS of this back from 1996 or 97 with the original edition re-release! It was sick, the VHS cover was a cross section of Vader’s helmet!

At 22:22 Chewie lets out a growl and C3PO says "What did he say?" Fluent in over six million forms of communication my ass!

Hey look REAL SETS AND LOCATIONS!

Greatest science-fiction documentary ever produced and it brings lots of great memories from the 70s/80s action figures toy market. Many thanks to George Lucas for making it and to Sanchez del Campo for uploading it.

10:45 Now this is the magic behind the original trilogy. All the hardwork that was behind the scenography and makeup is portrayed in the final film, a magic that the prequels lack. Sure we can't have actual X-Wings flying in space and thus CGI is needed in some cases, but not everything has to be CGI with green or blue screens. Thank god this magic still feels on the new Episode VII from what we've seen in the trailers, even the god damn ball droid is NOT CGI.

Omg! THERE IT IS!! One of my childhood favorite documentary’s!!! I LOVED this documentary, must have seen it a thousand times!! 😂 THANK YOU!! 💜

Thank you for posting this, I'd never seen it before. I was eight when Star Wars came out and living in Balikpapan, Indonesia. We were in the states for "home leave" during the summer so we had a chance to see the movie but missed all this "after stuff". It was fun to watch, even after all these years.

I remember watching this on TV as kid. Man, I wish we didn't grow old!

The last line: "Perhaps it will never end...."

I was ten in 77 and crazy about everything Star Wars, 1st album I bought along w/ all the figures and production books on the film. Loved the Sand People. It will be cool to see the old cast together again next month in 3-D. Xtra Large!!!

That last word was so prophetic. IT WILL NEVER END.

Harrison Ford saying “bang bang bang bang” while shooting the blaster will forever be my favorite BTS clip

29:02 Quite ironic as 3PO and R2 became the only two characters to appear in all 9 movies of the main movie saga.

Who else is watching this just to see clips from the original 1977 Star Wars lol. I don’t mind the special editions, the movies needed to be modernized, but still it’s really cool to see what people first saw when it came out in theatres

Thanks for the upload....lots of memories seeing this a child of 8 at the time. Yes, I'm actually someone who saw the beginning May 1977---in a theater ----that makes me old now. But I still love it.

I remember seeing this special on TV and seeing Carrie Fisher at 30:26. I was still at that age where I didn’t fully understand the difference between a character and an actor playing that character, so it was a shock that she wasn’t wearing her Princess Leia costume and her hair was a different color and she wasn’t wearing it in the cinnamon roll hairstyle that Princess Leia had. It was the same reaction I had when reading in Dynamite magazine that Henry Winkler wasn’t the Fonz when he was off the set of Happy Days.

this is when movies were magical.

My folks saw Star Wars the day it hit theaters. They told me it was absolutely one of the greatest movies ever made . When I was about 3 years old in 1998 my cousin bought three vhs movies over and it was Star Wars and I absolutely feel in love with it . George Lucas did a fantastic job directing this movie for all Star Wars fans back in 1977 1980 1983 . Indiana Jones with Harrison Ford is the best movie in Lucasfilm history.

Carrie Fischer was such a cutie.

William Conrad’s narration is perfect.

Carrie Fisher was so damn HOT

I was six when Star Wars came out. People in my age group can divide their childhood before and after Star Wars.

I remember watching this like over 30 years ago. Thanks for the memories!

Probably the most significant movie ever made.

George Lucas is from a small town minutes away from where I live. It's inspiring how much is possible with an idea and the human nature to create.

THIS = my childhood. I was 1 when A New Hope came out and almost 2 when my Dad brought home one of the very first huge ass VCR's along with a (somehow) bootleg copy of Star Wars. A few months later he brought home this same special on a separate tape and between the 2 I must have watched those tapes a billion times. I haven't seen this in 35+ years now. Thanks for posting. OMG the FEELS!

30:25 My God She was so cute RIP :'(

I was 8 years old when a new hope came out and still to this day I remember all every minute of when I went to see it, man, what a show.