A Disturbance in the Force

A Disturbance in the Force was enthusiastically received at its world premiere at SXSW Film Festival. This is a film for all of us who grew up on Star Wars; I saw the first Star Wars film in the theater when I was 7 years old. It examines the mysterious "Making of" the Star Wars Holiday Special (broadcast once in the U. S. on November 17, 1978 on CBS). The film provides the autopsy of a disaster when sci-fi people were working with variety show people in an failed attempt to produce Christmas special for kids (mainly to promote Star Wars merchandise for Xmas). This entertaining documentary, which doesn't take itself too seriously, explains how this well-intended project produced an epic failure. In so many ways, the making of a failure is much more interesting than the making of a success.

The script and acting of the Holiday Special are horrendous. Lucasfilm has refused to make it available so it is only available in the form of Betamax copies of the original broadcast that originally circulated on VHS and DVD and are now available on YouTube. Lucasfilm is too embarrassed to release so that it has become an underground cult classic. Through interviews with the participants, the film tells the hilarious story of the making of this beloved campy failure that centers on Chewbacca trying to get home to his family to celebrate the Wookie Holiday of "Life Day."

This is a fun documentary that all true fans will appreciate. After seeing it I watched the original special on YouTube. It is unwatchable, but good, because it is so bad.

I knew that the 'Star Wars Holiday Special' existed, but I didn't know too much about how it came to be or how awful it was.

So this documentary filled in some of the blanks for me. It does so in a fun and engaging way though, and isn't dry for the viewer. Always nice to see Seth Green and go "wow, Kevin Smith has lost a lot of weight" too.

The footage of the actual special is a nice and important touch and yes, it does look as bad as people claim it to be.

Some more involvement of Mark Hammil (who of the main three cast members seems more game for this sort of documentary) in particular would have been nice, but actually this was more fun than I thought it'd be.

This idea sounded hilarious. Let's make a documentary about one of the worst ever television shows, based on the just newly released "Star Wars" back in 1977. Things were different back then and what they aired back then has now become a cult thing.

The good: it's always funny to watch things go awfully sideways in showbusiness. And this television special indeed does look AWFUL.

The bad: but can one make a 90 minute long documentary about a television special from the seventies and stay interesting till the end? NO. NO. NO.

This idea was fun for some 30 minutes, but then I began to get bored watching it. Perhaps it is fun for the full 90 minutes for the die hard Star Wars fans, who want to collect and see everything (good or bad) related to their much loved scifi classic.

Stumbling upon the 2023 documentary "A Disturbance in the Force" and of course having already watched the 1978 abysmal "The Star Wars Holiday Special", of course there was no doubt about me having to sit down and watch this documentary.

Directors Jeremy Coon and Steve Kozak definitely deliver a rather enjoyable insight into the making of the eyesore that came to be known as "The Star Wars Holiday Special" and what would become George Lucas's Achilles heel.

There are some very insightful interviews, footage and information shared throughout the course of the 85 minutes that the documentary runs for. And I have to admit that I enjoyed sitting through this. It does give you a better understanding of just what happened in the process of making "The Star Wars Holiday Special" and why it ended up like a farce.

The documentary has some good interviews with members of the "nerd" community and people who are devoted "Star Wars" fans. It is just a shame that they didn't have members of the original cast participate for interviews. Sure, they were there, but it was stock footage of interviews done elsewhere. But it was better than nothing.

If you have seen the 1978 "The Star Wars Holiday Special" then you definitely have to sit down and watch this documentary.

My rating of "A Disturbance in the Force" lands on a six out of ten stars.

"A Disturbance in the Force" is quite the eye-opener, especially if you're into Star Wars. It delves deep into the odd and often overlooked 1978 'Star Wars Holiday Special.' As a life long Star Wars fan, I knew the Holiday Special existed, but had no semblance of why and how it was made (or why George Lucas was so embarrassed by it). The mix of interviews, archival clips, and fan takes makes it a fascinating watch. It's a solid 8/10 for me, offering more than just nostalgia for hardcore fans. Even if you're not a Star Wars buff, it's an intriguing look at a quirky piece of TV history. Definitely worth checking out!