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Once Upon a Galaxy: A Journal of the Making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
A diary of the production of the Star Wars sequel includes interviews with the principal actors, the producer, director, special effects experts, and the series creator, George Lucas
268 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
April 24, 2018
I'm a huge Star Wars fan. Know that going in. Not only do I have an entire bookcase (not shelf, case) of Star Wars novels which is overflowing, when I got the Star Wars Trivial Pursuit, it took about a week until no one in my circle of friends would play with me. You get the idea.
This is a journal from a publicist connected to The Empire Strikes Back, and it details parts of the making of that movie, which many consider to be the best of the original three. I found it a fascinating read. The number of times Star Wars almost didn't get made, and even the huge success of that not guaranteeing Empire, is just amazing to learn about. The writer managed interviews with all the key players, plus a few, including but not limited to: Mark Hamil, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford (who almost didn't come back as Han for Empire or Return of the Jedi), George Lucas, David Prowse, Frank Oz, John Williams, Billy Dee Williams, Peter Mayhew, Kenny Baker, Anthony Daniels, and Sir Alec Guinness, as well as many others.
So many fascinating things in here, like how they almost didn't get several of the actors they wanted, fine tuning of the famous "I love you" "I know you" scene, that Lucas had a dog named Indiana (sound familiar?), and, at this was being written, Lucas had just bought a ranch in California he hoped to make into a place to work on movies, as well as the founding of Industrial Light and Magic.
I know it's cool to pick on Lucas, especially after the three prequels (yeah, I'm a Star Wars nuts and even I'll say they had problems). But reading this gave me a new respect for Lucas as genius and visionary. He sunk everything he earned off American Graffiti, and then some, into these movies, and took a huge risk. His love of story telling comes through really clearly.
I really enjoyed this. I recommend it for any fan of Star Wars who wants a back stage pass to seeing Empire get made.
This is a journal from a publicist connected to The Empire Strikes Back, and it details parts of the making of that movie, which many consider to be the best of the original three. I found it a fascinating read. The number of times Star Wars almost didn't get made, and even the huge success of that not guaranteeing Empire, is just amazing to learn about. The writer managed interviews with all the key players, plus a few, including but not limited to: Mark Hamil, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford (who almost didn't come back as Han for Empire or Return of the Jedi), George Lucas, David Prowse, Frank Oz, John Williams, Billy Dee Williams, Peter Mayhew, Kenny Baker, Anthony Daniels, and Sir Alec Guinness, as well as many others.
So many fascinating things in here, like how they almost didn't get several of the actors they wanted, fine tuning of the famous "I love you" "I know you" scene, that Lucas had a dog named Indiana (sound familiar?), and, at this was being written, Lucas had just bought a ranch in California he hoped to make into a place to work on movies, as well as the founding of Industrial Light and Magic.
I know it's cool to pick on Lucas, especially after the three prequels (yeah, I'm a Star Wars nuts and even I'll say they had problems). But reading this gave me a new respect for Lucas as genius and visionary. He sunk everything he earned off American Graffiti, and then some, into these movies, and took a huge risk. His love of story telling comes through really clearly.
I really enjoyed this. I recommend it for any fan of Star Wars who wants a back stage pass to seeing Empire get made.
February 20, 2017
Alan Arnold was a veteran film publicist (he mentions working with Tallulhan Bankhead, amongst other Hollywood Greats) who, when assigned to ESB, kept a journal (published as copyright Lucasfilm). Picking up from the start of production and following it through to the scoring, Arnold’s complete access allows valuable insight into the behind-the-scenes processes (though, peculiarly, he appears to spend only one day at ILM). Arnold is careful to describe most people in glowing terms, though he’s also blunt in his assessment of things happening and the way people occasionally speak to one another, which is a nice change from the often anodyne J W Rinzler. As a bonus, Arnold often mentions what’s happening in the real world, detailing a Britain in the late 70s in a clear, understated way - a history lesson by accident, if you like and his dismay, at deaths in Northern Ireland, is quite sobering. In addition, there are some fascinating insights in interviews with Brian Johnson (SFX) and George Lucas, where they clearly forecast flat screen TVs (Johnson, at least 2 decades before their time) and CGI (Lucas, at least 4 years before any appeared in the cinema). Well worth a read, as both a thorough behind-the-scenes journal and as a mini-historical document.
October 6, 2020
There are some fabulously interesting tidbits in this document about the making of one of my favorite films. But as an editor, I found the writing style even more interesting. This type of content would today be published as, e.g., a blog on starwars.com. There would be an expectation of, say, an eighth-grade reading level (and I'm talking a 2020 eighth grade reading level, not a 1980 one). Instead, I feel like I'm reading the Times Literary Supplement. Definitely worth a read if you can find a copy without shelling out hundreds of dollars. If buying it is the only way to get it, well, the best parts are already available on the web, for example in this review where I heard about the book in the first place.
August 4, 2012
Long out of print, but worth tracking down. Written by a veteran British publicist, this has more of a personal feel of an outsider looking in on what would be the best of the Star Wars films. Interesting look at a time that people have forgotten about: that period between Star Wars and the release of "Empire", when Star Wars became such a huge hit that no one expected, especially the cast, and the uncertainty of whether they could pull it off again with a sequel. Well, we all know what happened in the end, so this is a nice little time capsule.
February 10, 2013
My favorite quote from the book (as I've memorized it): "While shooting the scenes that take place on Degobah, Mark Hamill was surprised to find a snake crawling up the inside leg of his pants. After the snake handler came to retrieve the wayward snake, he cheerfully told Mark that it was a harmless snake of course and Mark shouldn't worry. Mark responded with 'I don't keep snakes there.'" As a fourteen year old, I found this beyond hilarious.
March 3, 2011
An excellent "You are THERE!" vintage "making of book" that acts as a near perfect time capsule of the production of this incredible film. If you can find a copy, buy it!
With that said, I'm REALLY looking forward to reading the recently published book by J. Rinzler on the same subject.
With that said, I'm REALLY looking forward to reading the recently published book by J. Rinzler on the same subject.
October 12, 2025
I had no idea this journal existed until I happened across it in a yard sale. This is a pretty amazing find. Alan Arnold was on set the whole time during the making of this movie, beginning in Norway and then in London and California. His daily journal captures the activities of the film crew, interviews with the crew and the cast, and general observations about the movie-making art. It's a kind of bonus that Arnold was not swept up in Star Wars fandom. While he appreciated the technical prowess that made the first movie, he wasn't caught up in the fantasy. This makes him a more objective observer of the second's production. To begin with he sounds distant from his subject, but then gradually he warms to it.
Arnold was in his fifties when he was on this 1979 set, and he did not live much longer, dying in 1987 at age 64. He was an old hand in film journalism, and had a great deal of admiration and respect for Old Hollywood. In this journal he shows appreciation for anything reminiscent of Hollywood's yesteryear in the Star Wars production. On the other hand, sometimes his built up cynicism gets in his way. He invites Irvin Kershner to do an interview, and instead of appreciating the busy director's ready response he cites it as "confirmation that no matter where we are, no matter in what conditions, movie people like to talk about themselves." His interview subjects all sound remarkably alike in their tone and language, suggesting that Arnold did a lot of what's called "editing for clarity", so the words of Hamill, Ford, Fisher, Kershner etc. presented here should not be taken verbatim. This does, however, improve in the latter half and, as Arnold writes, it could be a product of his subjects becoming more comfortable with him.
Fascinating details pop up along the way, which long-time fans may or may not know. I didn't know the production team brought several crates of fake snow to the Norway shoot, not knowing the region would be hit with its worst snowstorm in years. A fire at Elstree Studios that damaged a set for The Shining consequently created setbacks for Empire's shooting subsequent schedule, and the largest studio on the lot was built by Lucas to house the sets for the Hoth base and Dagobah. Arnold records shooting details for scenes that didn't made it into the movie, such as the wampa bursting into the Rebellion's hidden base. The original use of the phrase "May the Fourth Be With You" is mentioned when it appears in print by the British press, as recorded on May 4, 1979. The death of second unit director John Barry is a shock to the crew, after he collapses at the beginning of June on set and dies that night of meningitis. Production was halted for a day so that everyone who wished could attend the funeral.
The centrepiece of this journal is Arnold's transcript from the filming of the carbon freezing scene. With microphones he captured Kershner and Ford debating Solo's lines, Fisher's frustrations with script changes, and her actual slapping of Billy Dee Williams because she didn't know what telegraphing was. It's almost unimaginable now that the lines spoken in the carbon chamber scene could have been any different, and I always credited the screenwriters. It's amazing to read how the actual lines were hashed out on the very day of filming among the director and his actors.
On August 3, 1979, George Lucas told Arnold that his original Star Wars draft had featured the story of Luke's father, and then he wrote another story that was centered on Luke which became his first movie. On August 23, Lucas further told him that the original story had been about Obi-Wan and Darth Vader. Then Lucas said that he originally wrote Obi-Wan as Luke's father, before changing him to be the friend of Luke's father. A perceptive interviewer might then have asked, what can we conclude?
There is a lot of value in finding this description of events as they occurred, versus all the "making of" videos and books produced subsequently that you can find with interviews that only took place long after the fact. Here we have the ugly side mixed in, with the arguments and pettiness that nobody admits to having happened later. There's also a different atmosphere to it: an enormous confidence on set that the movie will be a hit, but with an unknown future laying ahead of them there is still always the shadow of a doubt, like the dark cave beneath the Dagobah tree.
Arnold was in his fifties when he was on this 1979 set, and he did not live much longer, dying in 1987 at age 64. He was an old hand in film journalism, and had a great deal of admiration and respect for Old Hollywood. In this journal he shows appreciation for anything reminiscent of Hollywood's yesteryear in the Star Wars production. On the other hand, sometimes his built up cynicism gets in his way. He invites Irvin Kershner to do an interview, and instead of appreciating the busy director's ready response he cites it as "confirmation that no matter where we are, no matter in what conditions, movie people like to talk about themselves." His interview subjects all sound remarkably alike in their tone and language, suggesting that Arnold did a lot of what's called "editing for clarity", so the words of Hamill, Ford, Fisher, Kershner etc. presented here should not be taken verbatim. This does, however, improve in the latter half and, as Arnold writes, it could be a product of his subjects becoming more comfortable with him.
Fascinating details pop up along the way, which long-time fans may or may not know. I didn't know the production team brought several crates of fake snow to the Norway shoot, not knowing the region would be hit with its worst snowstorm in years. A fire at Elstree Studios that damaged a set for The Shining consequently created setbacks for Empire's shooting subsequent schedule, and the largest studio on the lot was built by Lucas to house the sets for the Hoth base and Dagobah. Arnold records shooting details for scenes that didn't made it into the movie, such as the wampa bursting into the Rebellion's hidden base. The original use of the phrase "May the Fourth Be With You" is mentioned when it appears in print by the British press, as recorded on May 4, 1979. The death of second unit director John Barry is a shock to the crew, after he collapses at the beginning of June on set and dies that night of meningitis. Production was halted for a day so that everyone who wished could attend the funeral.
The centrepiece of this journal is Arnold's transcript from the filming of the carbon freezing scene. With microphones he captured Kershner and Ford debating Solo's lines, Fisher's frustrations with script changes, and her actual slapping of Billy Dee Williams because she didn't know what telegraphing was. It's almost unimaginable now that the lines spoken in the carbon chamber scene could have been any different, and I always credited the screenwriters. It's amazing to read how the actual lines were hashed out on the very day of filming among the director and his actors.
On August 3, 1979, George Lucas told Arnold that his original Star Wars draft had featured the story of Luke's father, and then he wrote another story that was centered on Luke which became his first movie. On August 23, Lucas further told him that the original story had been about Obi-Wan and Darth Vader. Then Lucas said that he originally wrote Obi-Wan as Luke's father, before changing him to be the friend of Luke's father. A perceptive interviewer might then have asked, what can we conclude?
There is a lot of value in finding this description of events as they occurred, versus all the "making of" videos and books produced subsequently that you can find with interviews that only took place long after the fact. Here we have the ugly side mixed in, with the arguments and pettiness that nobody admits to having happened later. There's also a different atmosphere to it: an enormous confidence on set that the movie will be a hit, but with an unknown future laying ahead of them there is still always the shadow of a doubt, like the dark cave beneath the Dagobah tree.
January 22, 2019
I found this in a local comic shop (The Outer Limits, Waltham, MA) that has many hidden treasures to be found on its crowded shelves, such as a used paperback like this.
"Empire" is still thought by many (including me) to be the best out of the now many movies in the series, so it's interesting to read about the process on this, only the second one, and read interviews from the then-young creators and actors about their sudden fame attained from the first movie and where they might go on after finishing the second one, if they actually chose to continue. Harrison Ford being the obvious; it's more than implied that he might've just remained in a block of carbonite in the third movie if he chose to pass. It was pretty obvious to me even back then that his heart really wasn't in the third go round.
That said, I enjoy reading about the process in making this or any film, which is often less glamorous than the final product, and the doubts and progressions of the actors and director. As an artist I could definitely relate to Irvin Kershner's occasional frustrations, but film, like many arts, could be worked on forever. It's almost never perfect, it's usually completed in a "good enough" state.
"Empire" is still thought by many (including me) to be the best out of the now many movies in the series, so it's interesting to read about the process on this, only the second one, and read interviews from the then-young creators and actors about their sudden fame attained from the first movie and where they might go on after finishing the second one, if they actually chose to continue. Harrison Ford being the obvious; it's more than implied that he might've just remained in a block of carbonite in the third movie if he chose to pass. It was pretty obvious to me even back then that his heart really wasn't in the third go round.
That said, I enjoy reading about the process in making this or any film, which is often less glamorous than the final product, and the doubts and progressions of the actors and director. As an artist I could definitely relate to Irvin Kershner's occasional frustrations, but film, like many arts, could be worked on forever. It's almost never perfect, it's usually completed in a "good enough" state.
December 7, 2019
What a rare, extraordinary book. Imagine being a fly on the wall during the filming of The Empire Strikes Back in Norway and in England, then getting to visit Ben Burtt's studio and have a cocktail with John Williams in California. The fact that Arnold hails from an earlier era just adds to the book's peculiar charm as he offers his asides on the contemporary political situation, chats with Alec Guinness about the films of yesteryear, and refers to the movie's stars as "the young principals." Invaluable and fascinating if you can get your hands on a copy!
May 19, 2020
What a treat - thank you to Mike Ryan at Uproxx for writing about this and letting me know it existed, as it served as a reminder that I do love Star Wars and just hate The Rise of Skywalker. A day-by-day diary of the filming featuring interviews with Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, George Lucas and a lot of the production crew casually dropped in. I would like one of these to exist for every movie.
(This is a five-star rating for Star Wars nerds, but I think that would also apply if you were just into moviemaking?)
(This is a five-star rating for Star Wars nerds, but I think that would also apply if you were just into moviemaking?)
November 30, 2023
Unlike almost all subsequent Star Wars writers, Arnold isn't too precious about the sacred texts. The Empire Strikes Back was merely a movie in production to him; albeit an important movie. I like how he brings a bit of perspective to bear on the proceedings. He seemed to find the whole thing alienating due to it's technical nature, which is ironic given that these films are now the standard of authenticity and "practical" movie magic. I wish more movie books were written with such a sense of time and place.
April 4, 2018
so fascinating to read contemporary accounts of this stuff - it's impossible to truly capture what it must have been like at the time, but this'll do. much of this is purely interview transcripts, and even though it doesn't feel like true PR work, a lot of it just basically PR work. LOVE hearing about Carrie's "illnesses"
December 24, 2022
This was actually very nice by the time I finished. The start was a little slow. The story of making the movie. The publicist diary. All the inside info, interviews, scene arranging, props, set building, etc. Wow. Kind of amazing at the end. I need to watch the movie next.
January 1, 2020
Best film in the series and the best Star Wars book I've read yet.
August 21, 2021
Really awesome book for those interested in behind the scenes of filmmaking. Touches on the big names but also gets into the nitty gritty
March 28, 2015
This book was interesting, especially in how the author viewed his interactions with the primary characters. Also - looking back at events that transpired 35 years ago, and knowing the outcomes, decreased the suspense the author was trying to create.
the book gave some interesting insights about the struggles of making the movie - they didn't cease with the making of EPIV.
Anyone who is a diehard fan should probably read this.
the book gave some interesting insights about the struggles of making the movie - they didn't cease with the making of EPIV.
Anyone who is a diehard fan should probably read this.
April 8, 2013
As others have mentioned, this is a useful time capsule because it was written before George Lucas tried to retrofit his saga to be the story of Darth Vader. So many contradictions between the current company line and what Mr. Arnold presents in this book. For further and more detailed reading, I would recommend the Secret History of Star Wars which expands the rampant Lucas revisionism.
May 15, 2012
Interesting as a time capsule when publicists could write books like this and get away with it.
I read it as a kid when I was majoring in Star Wars, then flipped through it as an adult and had to laugh at all the studio approved tidbits.
I read it as a kid when I was majoring in Star Wars, then flipped through it as an adult and had to laugh at all the studio approved tidbits.
September 21, 2023
Interesting sometimes whimsical read of the making of 'Empire Strikes Back' and insight into the Star Wars story from early on when there might have been less scrutiny on what was released in relation to the saga.
July 2, 2013
Everything you wanted to know about the behind the scenes of a blockbuster. Interesting read!
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August 16, 2016Great behind the scenes look.
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