I'm at work (in the UK) so will post more later (by then I'm sure someone may have scanned in).... but this month's Empire (which I get a couple of days early by subscription) had a 'equivalent of a commentary' Q&A with Lucas.

Most other things he said were kind of obvious repeated (maybe):

• A lot of the first 20 minutes is to establish that Obi Wan and Anakin are 'friends' rather than 'master and padawan'.
• Grievous needed as Dooku died early on, and to isolate the Jedi.

• Plagueis creating Anakin deliberately ambiguous.

• Padme "she's lost the will to live" was to make sure that the (presumably dumbfuck) audience had no doubt that the Emperor was lying about Darth Vader killing her.
• Vader stumbles because he's not worn the suit before and is upset (surprise) because he's just lost his missus (no shit)

• Lucas says that the writing is deliberately consistent with other Star Wars and 1940s style...
•in other words he knows that it might sound corny, but that's the idea behind Star Wars (is my interpretation)

• Expects the later films to play differently
e.g. the 'shock' of 'No, I'm your father' becomes a emotional peak of Vader finally finding his son/son meeting father.


Watched Star Wars again last - such a different film now.
The exchanges with Obi-wan/R2/C3PO and Luke mean so much more now.