10 Movie Documentaries Better Than The Actual Movie
9. The Beginning: Making Episode I
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace is one of the most controversial and divisive Hollywood blockbusters of the last 25 years, a mystifying, fascinating curiosity of a movie, the production of which continues to baffle many to this very day.
But this 66-minute documentary about the film's creation, released as part of The Phantom Menace's home video package, shines a vital light on quite what went wrong with not only the movie itself, but the entire prequel trilogy.
The extensive footage makes it abundantly clear that Lucas' talented cast and crew were so utterly in awe of a new Star Wars movie being made that few stopped to consider the possibility of it being anything less than great.
The most deliciously cringe-worthy moment arrives at the 55-minute mark, as after screening a rough cut of the film to his inner-circle, Lucas calls it "disjointed" and adds, "I may have gone too far in a couple of places." Right.
For anyone attempting to understand how Lucas got the prequel trilogy so wrong, this documentary is absolutely required reading.
Yet while The Phantom Menace certainly isn't a terrible movie, this window behind the scenes is ultimately more interesting, more coherent, and honestly even more entertaining.