Every Star Wars fan owes it to himself to see Jambe Davdar's Building Empire. It's superbly done, impeccably well researched and scholarly, and will teach even the most die hard fan of the film things about Empire that they would never have known otherwise.
Davdar has called this an "Audio/Visual Commentary" for the film, which describes it quite well. It's an edit in the vein of Deleted Magic (and a fine successor to it), in that you're watching the actual film as commentary, making of footage, and reams of information are thrown at you in a highly entertaining and enlightening manner. Davdar does not cut out any scenes from the film - he manages to have something to say about each and every single scene, which is fairly remarkable in and of itself.
The quality of the video is very good. It's mostly taken from the 2004 PAL DVDs and hasn't lost its quality as Davdar superimposes information over it. The film is indeed sped up, as many PAL DVDs are, but this is not that distracting in this edit and many won't even notice it. The film is presented in anamorphic widescreen, which results in many pan & scan "making of" shots being shrunk and cropped at the top and bottom, and cropped further as subtitles are placed over the bottom of the screen, but this is done tastefully and you never feel like you're missing much important information in the image.
What sets this film apart, and above and beyond any fan production I've seen including my own, is the quality of the research. Davdar just happens to know a lot about the film The Empire Strikes Back, and shares it all in this edit. Of particular interest are the crackly, poor quality sound excerpts from the rarely-seen Super 8mm version of the film, which contain alternate takes of many lines.
I saw Davdar's first edit, which was just as scholarly but a little bit sloppier, and felt that it was an excellent piece that needed a little bit of work. It's gotten that little bit of work - quite a few scenes have been improved, and the film has become the great documentary it was meant to me all along.
This is the ultimate supplemental disc for the Empire Strikes Back. Fire up your PAL-compatible DVD player and show it to all your friends. The film, as a side bonus, stands well alongside the Star Wars disc Deleted Magic, and I'm embarrassed and glad to say that on a technical level it's far superior to my own effort. It deserves to be a part of every fan's collection, displayed just as proudly as your preferred classic edition of the film itself.
Looking forward to Returning to Jedi ...
Oh, points too to Mark "Sluggo" Johnson, for his very eccentric-looking alternate crawl. Guy seems to have a hand in everything ...
And Jambe ... this won't surprise you, but I've still got a few notes for you. =)