Customer Reviews

Star Wars (Star Wars (Penguin Audio))

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At first, the idea seems bizarre, even ridiculous. Star Wars, a movie best known for its vistas of alien worlds and epic battles, as a 13 part radio drama? No way would it work, right?

Well, unless you have the cold heart of a Sith, Star Wars did indeed translate well from the silver screen to radio, thank you very much. Yes, Star Wars' visual effects are a big part of the magic of the saga, but the heart and soul of George Lucas' galaxy far, far away are the characters and the storyline. And while the movie is satisfying on its own, the radio dramatization written by the late Brian Daley takes us beyond the movie....beyond the screenplay...and even beyond the novelization.

By expanding the movie's story beyond its two hour running time, the Radio Drama allows us to catch glimpses of Luke Skywalker's life BEFORE the movie. It tells us how Princess Leia acquired the Death Star plans....and what, exactly, happened to her during her interrogation aboard the Empire's battle station...(it is an interesting scene, but not for the squeamish, by the way). In short, by expanding the story to nearly seven hours, characters we loved on screen acquire depth only equaled by novelizations.

The Radio Drama makes extensive use of material written (and in some cases filmed) for A New Hope's silver screen version but cut for editorial or technical reasons. Also, Ben Burtt's sound effects, John Williams' score, and the acting of Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) and Anthony Daniels (See Threepio) give the whole project its "true" Star Wars cachet.

I have several copies of the NPR StarWars trilogy on CD-ROM. I listen to them on the road and love the continual discovery of the depth of the characters, the use of sound effects, the skill of the actors in portraying everything from stealth to hard work to pain to love. I do have a warning to early collectors of these CDs. The original limited edition of the trilogy had wonderful interviews of the cast and the alternate scenes that were recorded. But HighBridge did not use good CDs. The CD label graphics merged with the color laser technology that created the disk content, wiping out any audio on the CDs. My now useless set is numbered in the 9000s. HighBridge has the masters but declines to reissue to those whose numbered copies were produced on low quality CDs. So if you want to purchase a numbered copy with interviews, rather than the current copies, be warned.

This Radio Dramatization is excellant. It keeps the original spirit of Star Wars (A New Hope) while telling the story in a different way. The scenes and diologue that were not in the movie give a different perspective to the story that does nothing short of enrich it.

If anything, the original Radio Drama is proof that one of the most visually-stunning movies of all time can be just as good, perhaps better, in an audio-only medium. The sounds and voices are more than enough to tell you what is going on. The story is expanded, lots of questions are answered, and the whole thing works perfectly. The different voices have different tones to them (For example, Solo's voice always has a more self-conscious, selfish tone), but that doesn't ruin it. They just add to the characterization. The original sounds and music score are used, and perfectly. This is a must for any Star Wars fan, whether on cassette, CD, or the printed screenplay.

I recently wrote a review for the Return of the Jedi adaption on NPR which I gave a mere three stars. I cited poor directing, acting and lack of added material.

These complaints cannot be levelled against this, the first of the NPR dramatisations.
The acting is spot on, with Perry King providing a rougher verion of Solo that goes over well, as opposed to the next two adaptions where it begins to grate. Mark Hamil and Anthony Daniels are naturally perfect at the characters that defined them for a decade and more after the original trilogy finished. Bernard Behrens does a surprisingly good Ben Kenobi, and Brock Peters likewise with Vader. They are not Alec Guinness and James Earl Jones, but they're good enough not to cause problems.

The direction is great, and I never found myself noticing the obvious radio 'cues' which tell the listener what is happening. THe music and sound effects are good and the pacing is not rushed, unlike ROTJ.

And as for added material? Deducting front and end credits gives us roughly five and a half hours, nearly triple the length of the film. The vast wealth of extra material is great and never seems out of place.

In all I would recommend this to anyone with an interest in the Star Wars original trilogy.

I have fond memories of myself eagerly awaiting each installment of this fantastic radio drama adaptation of the original "Star Wars" film back when it aired originally in 1981. Brian Daley did an excellent job via his superb scripts giving us more details of the relationships between Luke Skywalker and his Tatooine friend Biggs Darklighter and between Princess Leia and her father on Alderaan. We also learn here how Princess Leia obtained the technical plans for the Death Star. Both Mark Hamill and Anthony Daniels give superb performances of their screen characters, Luke Skywalker and C3PO respectively. However, the rest of the cast is just as fine with a fine - if somewhat restrained - Darth Vader voiced by Brock Peters and Ann Sachs as Princess Leia. Both the sound effects by Ben Burtt and of course the original film score by John Williams are absolutely splendid. This is a spellbinding radio drama that should appeal to diehard fans of "Star Wars".

The fun of the SW Radio drama is not so much the rehash of Star Wars ANH itself, but all the background which is revealed! The Radio Drama goes beyond the films and answers questions like: Where did Leia get the Death Star plans? How did she join the Rebellion? Why was Tarkin really put in charge of the Death Star? An absolute must-hear for anyone who loves Star Wars!

The new material (and there's lots of it) is masterfully intertwined with the original dialogue. The translation to a radio format is done marvelously well. We couldn't stop listening!

This is a first-rate production, in many ways superior to the movie. A must-have!

As well as filling in gaps that the movie doesn't, it explains things like the relationship between Leia and her father, Luke and Biggs, and introduces new characters such as Lord Tijon.

All in all, this is definately worth a purchase!

This expands and explains so much of the underlying story. I only wish there was more! This was the only CD in the player of my truck for 4 weeks! I listened to it a bit at a time at least 5 times before even turning on the radio again! Well made and executed drama.