The Art of Star Wars, Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back

This book is filled with color photos, but the text that goes with the pictures hasn't improved much. A good thing about this book, is the artwork is divided up into sections: HOTH, STAR DESTROYER, ASTEROID FIELD, DAGOBAH, BESPIN, REBEL CRUISER, and at the beginning of each section is about one and a half pages of text that describes how the "section" was done for the movie.

The "features" of the book such as the technique for the Imperial Walkers and Tauntauns to make them move, was included in the paragraphs at the beginning of each section, but really was poorly written. And the evolution of Yoda wasn't even written in text at all. All it consisted of was pages of drawings that looked different.

The pictures are, as always, magnificent, and included photographs, drawings, sketches, paintings, matte paintings, and blueprints, although the blueprints are on two pages, and a portion of them disappear where the two pages meet. But the rest is great, and it is so amazing to see how real the matte paintings look!

All four and a half stars are for the great pictures, organization, and text, but the missing half star is due to the lack of text. The lack of text is the real downfall, but since the pictures are great, I don't regret getting it. Especially since this is the only ART OF THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK book there is.


the best of the original trilogy   October 28, 1999
 7 out of 7 found this review helpful

This book is FAR superior to the other two "Art of" books in the original trilogy because it is actually an "Art of" book and NOT an illustrated screenplay. By publishing the script elsewhere (in numerous publications - the best being "The Empire Strikes Back Notebook" which had the script, commentary from Kasdan and Kershner, and tons of storyboard panels - try to get a copy), Lucasfilm wisely left room for the artwork and its accompanying explanatory text. The other two books, while providing plenty of fantastic eye candy, unfortunately tell you nothing about the artwork. It is a good sign that for Episode I, Lucasfilm has chosen to go with and improve upon the editorial model set by the "Art of Empire" book.