Back when special effects were "real"

In my brief five years of blogging, I've grown up a little bit. Things such as Star Wars don't seem quite as important to me as they used to. So, not that it really matters anymore, but one of the huge problems I had with the Star Wars prequels was how fake everything in them looked. For me, this was due to the fact most of the scenes with human actors were filmed in a movie studio, in front of green screens. The one generally considered to be the very worst of the three, The Phantom Menace, seems to have the most actual, real location or real set shots featuring live actors. Ironically, it may turn out to be considered the best of the prequels in years to come(!). Wouldn't that be wild?

To commemorate the release of The Making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Vanity Fair has a few, really cool behind the scene pics from the making of what is not only my favorite Star Wars film, but perhaps my favorite film of all time. I still get a little bit excited just thinking about The Empire Strikes Back, so maybe I haven't grown up that much.