Seven Minutes of Super 8mm Behind the Scenes Footage From ‘Return of the Jedi’

From slashfilm, By the time Lucasfilm went into production on Return of the Jedi, Star Wars was more than a popular film series, it was a global obsession. Fans were rabid for information on what they thought would be the final film in the trilogy, especially following the huge cliffhanger in The Empire Strikes Back. Would Han survive? How did Luke and Lando plan on saving him? Could the Empire be defeated? These were questions that you’d have little to no chance of answering until opening day unless you were part of the crew, because information moved at a glacial pace.

One Return of the Jedi set, though, was somewhat accessible to fans. The internet has now allowed those people to showcase the lengths they went to see it. Jabba’s Sail Barge on Tattooine was filmed in the California/Arizona desert known as Buttercup Valley and several fans crashed the set to see what was going down.

A filmmaker named Jeff Broz has now released seven minutes of behind the scenes footage from the Return of the Jedi set. Luke fighting Gamorrean Guards; R2-D2 shooting out the lightsaber; Boba Fett and Slave Leia: they’re all here.

ell me you didn’t squeal just a little bit when you saw Luke fighting with his lightsaber or Boba Fett floating on a string.

The odd thing about this footage is not how close it gets, is that A) It’s just coming out now and B) acknowledges its own grainy character, saying it was filmed on Sand-O-Vision. I guess the two things go hand in hand but it still gives the footage a distinct cloud of mystery.