Should I Read This: Yes, if you are a fan of Star Wars or of the writing process; no if you were hoping for a deep dive on the making of the movies or of the Disney era of Star Wars.
BookShop.org Link (non-affiliate): Secret History of Star Wars
Author’s Website: Cannot Find One
The Secret History of Star Wars by Michael Kaminski is not a history of the making of all the Star Wars films, nor is it a history of Star War’s Disney era. The book was produced in 2005, and so the author, absent a time machine, could not deal with those issues. It is, however, probably the most thorough recap of the process of writing the first six movies that I have ever read.
I am not a Star Wars geek. I enjoyed the first three movies as a kid, and did not like, per the Gen-X handbook, the prequels. I have always been much more of a Star Trek nerd, but I am a sucker for the process of creation and will read or watch almost anything about people trying to make things. Which is my primary objection to this book: it is not about the making of the movies, it is about the writing of the movies. Those are not the same thing.
A script, no matter how good, is a blueprint for making a movie. You cannot have a great movie without a great script, but the movie is more than just the words. It is the collaborative process between the script, the actors, the designers, the production people, and the directors that makes a movie. And almost none of that is covered in the book.
Kaminski is only interested in the other people in the movie making process to the extent that they influenced the writing. So actor’s discussion about the poor dialog gets some play while there is very little discussion of how actors crafted their characters. The art department is central to the story of how Luca wrote one of the prequels, but not really given much depth outside that episode. Directors who shaped the writing and story get time, but the ones who don’t do not have their artistic decisions discussed. Editors, like Lucas’s wife Martha, who influence the films get page time; those who do not —not so much. The focus is very much on the process of how Lucas shaped the story with assists from those around him.
But Kaminski does a very good job of walking the reader through how Lucas developed the scripts and how the story changed as he did so. The first script was a standalone adventure, meant to invoke the serials of the golden age of Hollywood. Lucas even envisioned other people writing and directing the subsequent movies. But as people like Spielberg, Marsha Lucas, and other directors became involved, the story shifted and became something closer ot the saga of Anakin Skywalker. What is especially interesting to me, a failed writer, is how Lucas’ own conception of the story changed as time went on. He did not, it seem, despite his protestations, have the entire story planned out. In fact, as part of his changes to the original trilogy he modified them to align closer to the idea that the story was really about the fall and redemption of Anakin Skywalker — something not at all present, and occasionally contradicted, by the original trilogy as it originally existed. Watching Lucas evolve the films’ stories is interesting, even if it is not entirely a complete picture of how those films came to be.
Despite the, in my opinion, narrow focus on the story and the writing, I still recommend the book. If you are a Star Wars obsessive, then this is a great look into the mind of the man who created the world and the story, for better or worse. If you are someone fascinated by the creative process, the book more than scratches that itch with its detailed, almost obsessive, look at how the story changed over the years, drafts, and edits. If, however, you are interested in how the moves were made, this is an incomplete, at best, picture of that process.