“I remember George was writing Star Wars at the time,” Martin Scorsese says. “He had all these books with him, like Isaac Asimov’s Guide to the Bible, and he was envisioning this fantasy epic. He did explain that he wanted to tap into the collective unconscious of fairy tales. And he screened certain movies, like Howard Hawks’s Air Force [1943] and Michael Curtiz’s Robin Hood [1938].”
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Lucas on his feelings post–American Graffiti. (Interview by Arnold, 1979)
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In enlarging the treatment to what became a nearly two-hundred-page rough draft, Lucas was continually aided by the transference of his Apocalypse Now ideas to the fantasy realm. Some of his notes scribbled on yellow legal pads are: “Theme: Aquilae is a small independent country like North Vietnam threatened by a neighbor or provincial rebellion, instigated by gangsters aided by empire. Fight to get rightful planet back. Half of system has been lost to gangsters … The empire is like America ten years from now, after gangsters assassinated the Emperor and were elevated to power in a rigged election … We are at a turning point: fascism or revolution.”
While these ideas helped Lucas begin to form a plot that would go through several iterations, part of the tension inherent in his writing process stemmed from divided loyalties. On the one hand, he needed a solid structure on which to build his images: “The biggest thing was just finding a story that was interesting but not a gimmick,” he says. “I had to find a story that would do all the things that I wanted it to do.” On the other hand, Lucas’s personal tastes tended toward more abstract storytelling, in the style of Jean-Luc Godard and other directors of the French nouvelle vague. Their filmmaking style, a big influence on Lucas’s student shorts, was known as cinema verité, and it forsook much of what Hollywood had created in favor of a more emotional cinematic language. “I like Godard films. They excite me,” Lucas explains. “In film school I tended away from storytelling; I just didn’t like it—and it grew from a point of dislike to a point of real hatred. Then I forced my way back into storytelling. I thought that maybe I hated it so much because I couldn’t do it. This is one of the reasons why with Star Wars I want to attempt a storytelling film.”
Lucas’s written records from that period bear witness to just how intent he was on plot and character development as he struggled to create a strong tale: “Notes on new beginning … for three main characters—the general, the princess, the boy (Starkiller)—make development chart … Put time-limit in children’s packs … every scene must be set up and linked to next … make scene where Starkiller visits with old friend on Alderaan … Han very old (150 years)…Establish impossibility of attacking Death Star … Should threat be bigger, more sinister?…A conflict between freedom and conformity … Tell at least two stories: Starkiller becomes a man (not good enough); Valorum wakes up (morally speaking)…Valorum like a Green Beret who realizes wrong of Empire … Second thoughts about Plot … Make Owen Lars a geologist or something … The general addresses men … Skywalker leaps across (ramp being pulled away)…thundersaber …”
Lucas’s notes, scribbled before writing the rough draft, make clear the transference of his thoughts from Apocalypse Now to The Star Wars.
When Lucas changed the two bureaucrats into robots, he was tapping into a long tradition of mechanical characters, including the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Silent Running, Forbidden Planet, and even Woody Allen’s Sleeper.
He also made more lists of names and roles—“Kane Highsinger/Jedi friend; Leia Aquilae/princess; General Vader/Imperial Commander; Han Solo/friend …”—and for the first time two others are noted: “Seethreepio” and “Artwo Deetwo.” They are both listed as “workmen.” A later note contains a key transition from treatment to rough draft: “two workmen as robots? One dwarf/one Metropolis type.” The latter reference is to the mechanical woman in Fritz Lang’s silent film Metropolis (1926). The change of the treatment’s bureaucrats into robots may have been a result of Lucas’s sci-fi reading habits. “The law of robotics is obviously where the robots came from,” Lucas says. “Isaac Asimov invented those robots. They may not have evolved very far at all from what Asimov’s position was, or they may have evolved a great deal.”
The idea must have been pleasing to Lucas, because soon the question mark of the first note was replaced by the enthusiasm of a still-later note: “Make film more point-of-view of robots”—a thought that would have ramifications throughout the filmmaking process.
INTERREGNUM
Lucas completed the rough draft in May 1974. It is a sprawling story, though once again many elements that would make it into successive drafts are present—the Jedi versus the Sith, two bickering robots, Princess Leia, Han Solo—but as before, nothing is in its final form yet. Structurally, the story contains two motivating factors that push the characters from one scene to the next: “The princess and the general were going to a neutral planet,” Lucas says, “which made it more of an escape movie, with them trapped in enemy territory and trying to get to safety. But I decided that didn’t work and that it would be much better to have it be a rescue movie instead of an escape movie.” This decision seems to have been made about halfway through the writing of the rough draft: In the first half Leia is part of the escape; once she is captured, her rescue, first on Yavin and then on the space fortress, becomes the plot’s prime mover.
Although Lucas finished the first draft two months after the rough draft, in July 1974, their stories and dialogue are identical. Only the names have been changed for many of the characters and places; Lucas had originally intended those of the rough draft to be only placeholders. One element common to both drafts is “the force of others,” which can be seen as an extension of the idea of “will” in the earlier Journal of the Whills. Lucas actually first wrote of this concept in a deleted scene from THX 1138, in which THX speaks with his friend SRT:
THX
…there must be something independent; a force, reality.
SRT
You mean like OMM. [the state-sanctioned deity]
THX
Not like OMM as we know him, but the reality behind the illusion of OMM.
From an early age, Lucas had been interested in the fact that all over the world religions and peoples had created different ideas of God and the spirit. “The ‘Force of others’ is what all basic religions are based on, especially the Eastern religions,” he says, “which is, essentially, that there is a force, God, whatever you want to call it.” It is the common denominator, a source of strength, and at this point in his writing process only the good guys seem to be aware of it. (In Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays, Laurent Bouzereau points out that the expression is a variation on the Christian phrase May the Lord be with you and your spirit—in Latin, Dominus vobiscum et cum spiritu tuo, which was often written by Saint Paul at the end of his letters.)
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Lucas on the importance of myths for children and how Star Wars was designed to fill that gap. (Interview by Arnold, 1979)
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The Star Wars Rough-Draft Summary, May 1974
Lucas’s bound copy of this draft has a mock-up cover with Flash Gordon–like characters blasting each other; one is on a jet hover-pad, while the other protects a girl. Interspersed in the pages are occasional illustrations pulled from comic books: Han Solo resembles a swamp creature, while “Captain Starkiller” (Annikin) is clearly a Buck Rogers type. In the rough draft, the first planet seen is Utapau, and, after five moons drift into view, a roll-up appears:
Until the recent GREAT REBELLION, the JEDI BENDU were the most feared warriors in the universe. For one hundred thousand years, generations of JEDI perfected their art as the personal bodyguards of the EMPEROR. They were the chief architects of the invincible IMPERIAL SPACE FORCE, which expanded the EMPIRE across the galaxy, from the celestial equator to the farthest reaches of the GREAT RIFT.
Now these legendary war
riors are all but extinct. One by one they have been hunted down and destroyed as enemies of the NEW EMPIRE by a ferocious and sinister rival warrior sect, THE KNIGHTS OF SITH.
As a spaceship orbits the fourth moon of Utapau in the Kessil system, “Annikin Starkiller, a tall, heavy-set boy of eighteen … slowly makes his way across the canyon floor.” On the surface, Annikin tells his father, Kane, who is a Jedi, and his ten-year-old brother, Deak, that they’ve been found. The two brothers watch with binoculars as their father explores the Sith ship after it’s landed.
Suddenly, something huge moves in front of his field of view. Before either of the two young boys can react, a large, sinister SITH warrior in black robes and a face mask looms over them. He carries a long lazersword which cuts young Deak down before he or his brother are able to raise their weapons.
Annikin manages to fend off the seven-foot-tall Sith Knight till his father arrives—and cuts in half the face-masked warrior. After burying Deak, father and son set out for their home planet, Aquilae.
Meanwhile, on Alderaan, capital of the new Empire, the Emperor and his henchmen plot the final elimination of Aquilae and the last of the Jedi. “Governor Hoedaack has been appointed the First Lord of the Aquilaean System and Surrounding Territories.” Clieg Whitsun watches the Emperor’s speech and then goes to a nightclub where he meets Bail Antilles. During a surprise security check, Antilles is arrested.
Governor Hoedaack talks with “Darth Vader, a tall, grim-looking general,” about the conquest of Aquilae; Vader thinks it will be a difficult fight because General Skywalker is leading the defenses. However, on Aquilae, Count Sandage, a corrupt noble, counsels King Kayos to give in to the Emperor. General Luke Skywalker, a large man in his sixties, interrupts the Senate meeting. They argue about the course of action, with Skywalker pushing for active resistance, and the Senators for capitulation or the status quo, including the Grande Mouff Tarkin, who “wears the long, black robes of the Aquilaean religion.” The meeting is adjourned with the King saying, “May the force of others be with you all.”
The King’s sons, Biggs and Windy, run into the room, and the King invites Skywalker to say good-bye to his daughter, who idolizes Skywalker. They go outside to meet her just as “Princess Leia, about fourteen years old, possessing a soft beauty and iron will, is embracing her mother, Queen Breha.” She bids her family farewell and goes off to Yuell to complete her studies.
The title page for the rough draft with the government stamp humorously added.
Comicbook inspiration came from such series as Weird Fantasy, Weird Science, Shadow Comics, and Amazing Stories.
In the war room, Skywalker tells his aide Montross to put everyone on alert, when Kane Starkiller and his son Annikin arrive. Kane asks Skywalker to take his son as his “Padawan Learner.” When Skywalker asks why, Kane reveals that his arm and chest are mechanical. “There is nothing left but my head and right arm. I’ve lost too much, Luke. I’m dying.” Suddenly Montross reports a giant asteroid or moon detaching itself from the Anchorhead system and heading their way. “It’s as big as our third moon.”
In the Palace of Lite the King and Queen watch two giant twin suns set in the green sky. Skywalker and Annikin arrive and report that Kane has gone to the spaceport of Gordon to meet an old friend, Han Solo, the Ureallian. Skywalker again pushes for war, but the king wants to get the approval of his allies first, and departs on a mission to Amsel to meet with the “full assembly.”
General Skywalker receives word that Whitsun, who had disappeared, has just been admitted to Med Vac. They rush to the emergency room, where Whitsun says that the bad guys are just behind him—“A giant space fortress” is on its way, he explains. The general sends Annikin to pick up Princess Leia. At the Academy, Annikin retrieves Leia but not the handmaidens, one of whom remains as a decoy.
The space fortress attacks Aquilae, and Skywalker has the starships scrambled. “Look at the size of that thing!” Devil Six remarks. A fierce firefight occurs in which the fortress is damaged; inside the space station, people scurry for cover…
Constant explosions rock the interior of the fortress. Civilians, including women and children, scurry for safety in the panic-ridden hallways. Two construction robots, ARTWO DETWO (R2D2) and See Threepio (C3PO), are blown, slipping and sliding across the hallway floor into some freight canisters.
The former is “a short (three-foot) claw-armed tri-ped … Threepio is a tall, gleaming android of human proportions.” The latter says, “This is madness … I’m still not accustomed to space travel.” Artwo can talk, too, and tries to calm the other, but adds, “You’re a mindless, useless philosopher.” C3PO climbs into an emergency lifepod. R2D2 is persuaded to join him by increasingly violent explosions. The lifepod is ejected.
Only two starships are left in the attack. On the planet below, Skywalker is told that the King and his convoy have been destroyed and that the Senate has traitorously called an end to the war. He orders the two remaining starships to break off the attack. They do so—but are destroyed as they retreat. The last to die is Mace, the pilot leader. Vader orders the invasion of the planet.
Meanwhile, the two robots trek across Jundland, or “ ‘No-Man’s Land,’ where the rugged desert mesas meet the foreboding dune sea.” They argue and go opposite ways. R2D2 stumbles upon Annikin and the princess in their landspeeder. They take off and eventually find C3PO, too. The group travels back through the “hidden fortress canyon” entrance. Leia learns her father is dead, but her mother and two brothers are alive.
The Queen instructs Skywalker to flee to the Ophuchi system; the Chrome Companies will give him whatever he needs to get Leia on the throne. In exchange, Skywalker must bring, in tubes, the distillation of Aquilae’s greatest scientific minds (which is what the evil Empire really wants). Annikin Starkiller, Skywalker, the robots, Captain Whitsun, the two young princes Biggs and Windy, and Leia all get into disguised landspeeders. Count Sandage arrives with troopers to prevent them from leaving, but Skywalker cuts him in two. They leave the canyon, as the fortress behind them self-destructs to make sure no one can betray them after the fact.
After traveling a bit, they espy the invasion army stretched out on the dune sea: “a convoy of giant tanks, troop carriers, giant dunebirds … Hundreds of troops ride one-man jetsticks.” They have to wait until the giant army goes by. Meanwhile, back in the palace, General Vader meets with Prince Valorum, a Black Knight of the Sith whose goal is to track Skywalker.
As the heroes continue their trek, a romance develops between Annikin and Leia. “The speeders stop on a bluff overlooking a small cantina on the outskirts of Gordon. The spaceport can be seen in the distance.” The general and Whitsun take one of the speeders to the cantina. A fight erupts there when the General is attacked by three creatures: He cuts the arm off one, cuts a rodent-creature in two, and slices a multi-eyed creature from chin to groin. An observer leaves the cantina, and Skywalker and Whitsun, in an alley outside, meet Han Solo, “a huge green-skinned monster with no nose and large gills.”
Lucas’s notes mention Count Sandage, a corrupt noble.
The others—princess, Annikin, et al.—join them. In the slum quarter they find Kane Starkiller. Whitsun takes the droids into another room to play “chess.” Skywalker, Han, and Annikin meet with Datos and other rebels; they discuss the space fortress, or the “death star.” They will have to flee on a freighter, with the two young princes put in hibernation; to do so they need an extra energy pack, so Kane rips one from his mechanical chest. “May the force of others be with you,” he says just before dying.
Biggs and Windy are put to sleep, and are hidden in microcases. The next day they all go to the spaceport. But Annikin and Skywalker detect the Sith presence. They board the designated freighter; Han and the general are taken to see the captain, who turns out to be Valorum—it’s a trap. They cut down his guards and the three face one another. However, the princess and the others have been gassed and are now prisoners—so the general has
to surrender. As soon as they are taken to the prison, they overpower and kill their guards, and release the other captives. They escape and hijack a royal starship, which takes off, smashing through the hangar cover, but they are pursued by “hunter-destroyer spaceships.”
As they are chased the princess confesses that she’s in love with Annikin. He rebuffs her. Annikin and Whitsun man the lazercannons. They are being overwhelmed, so Skywalker directs them into an asteroid belt. The ship makes it through and enters one of the Forbidden Systems. Everyone ejects in lifepods—except Cliegg, who is accidentally killed. They land on Yavin, a jungle planet with enormous trees, an “eerie fog-laden purgatory.”
The general and Han pull the two princes out of their micropacks. Annikin and Artwo go to look for Leia, and the former espies a group of Yourellian trappers who have trapped five Wookees—“huge gray and furry beasts.” The trappers are “slimy, deformed hideous-looking creatures.” In the fight that follows, six of the eight trappers are killed; one ventures too close to a Wookee, and is snapped in two; Annikin is left for dead. One of the trappers escapes with the princess aboard a “jungle crawler,” so Chewbacca, the largest of the Wookees, takes Annikin to the Wookee camp.
The other group finds a small dwelling where they meet Owen Lars, “an aged and scruffy-looking anthropologist.” His plump wife is named Beru. Back with the Wookees, Annikin meets Jommillia, a large, ferocious one. They fight, but eventually Annikin makes friends with the tribe. Riding jetsticks, Han and the general locate Annikin and Artwo. Han can speak Wookee, and confers with Chewbacca. They decide to assault the royal outpost, where Princess Leia is being held. Meanwhile, troopers arrive where the princes are holed up.
The Making of Star Wars (Enhanced Edition) Page 6
