All language subtitles for Icons.Unearthed.S01E02.A.New.Hope.Part.II.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

[FILM CLICKING]

[EXHILARATING INSTRUMENTAL
MUSIC PLAYING]

[BEEPING]

NARRATOR: As George Lucas
lay in a hospital bed...

George actually became
so stressed out that he ended up
in the hospital.

NARRATOR: With the weight
of the world
and the galaxy bearing down...

MAN: Rebel base in range.

NARRATOR: and with the studio
sharpening it's axe...

They say to him,
"You better get this done
or we're gonna pull the film."

NARRATOR: With all these
debilitating concerns

anyone else might,
well, have quit.

But for George Lucas
and his audacious space opera

there was one thing
he could pin his hopes on.

The Force?

-NARRATOR: Actually, something
even more mysterious than that.
- [LIGHTSABER ZAPPING]

He said, "Oh, don't worry
about it. We'll fix it later
in post."

-NARRATOR: That's right.
-[WHIRRING]

It's in the enigmatic world
of post-production and editing

where George Lucas
puts his faith.

You know, editing has
always been Lucas' favorite part
of the process.

I mean, it's the thing
he does really well.

NARRATOR: But someone
who did it even better

was George's award-winning
wife, Marcia Lucas.

Marcia was his partner.
I mean, yes, it's George's world

it's George's vision,
George's idea.

He's the director, but she was
an inspiration to him.

She pushed him.
She gave him new ideas.

She was with him
every step of the way.

MARCIA LUCAS: And all of
a sudden, we,
these young mavericks,

were making
all these hit movies.

NARRATOR: This is the story
of just how far
Marcia pushed George.

Further than anyone might know.

We didn't just make it work,
we made something

really, really, really special.

NARRATOR: In fact,
you might even say

there was quite a bit
of "Force" involved.

[CAPTIVATING INSTRUMENTAL
MUSIC PLAYING]

This is our most desperate hour.

NARRATOR: Star Wars: A New Hope

was looking
increasing "Hope-less"

to a depleted George Lucas.

Fox was on his back all the time

and George was not
happy about it.

NARRATOR: And the man
who was meant to have his back

seemed to have
gone to the back of the line.

LUKE SKYWALKER: How could
I be so stupid?

He's nowhere in sight.

George felt that Gary
had let him down.

NARRATOR: With a
spiraling schedule,

an overblown budget and
a borderline mutinous crew,

it wasn't looking good
for Gary.

RAY MORTON: Gary Kurtz
line producedStar Wars.

George felt he didn't handle

the British crew as well
as George would've liked.

George wanted Gary Kurtz to be

the go-between
between him and the crew.

NARRATOR: The behemoth
production that had promised

so much looked like
it could go the way
of the Death Star.

I always had a feeling like
we were always

on the verges of blowing up.

The whole thing just collapsing
going nowhere.

NARRATOR: But as George,
the artist, lamented

the potential collapse
of his vision,

George the businessman
had to think about
the bigger picture...

or in the words
of his father...

[ECHOES] "Control your
own fate."

NARRATOR: And in this case,
the bigger picture was
more pictures.

He was hoping to do
more Star Warsfilms

if Star Warswas a hit.
That was his hope for it.

NARRATOR: But with hope
dwindling behind the scenes,
George would have to start

hedging his bets.

George has started to think,
"I don't know if I'm gonna get

a sequel out of this
if Star Warsflops
or under-performs.

VICTORIA: My sequel can only
be made

if it's really, really,
really cheap."

NARRATOR: So, withStar Wars
still in production,

George put a backup plan
into motion.

MORTON: They contracted
science fiction writer

Alan Dean Foster
to do an original novel

that could be used
as the basis for a sequel

if a sequel was gonna be made

and that was
Splinter of the Mind's Eye.

MORTON: It was designed as,
this was gonna be

the quick sequel,
the cheap sequel, to Star Wars.

NARRATOR: And just how cheap?

It all takes place
basically on this one

fog-enshrouded planet
and the whole idea there

was one location full of fog.

You didn't have to spend
a lot of money on sets.

NARRATOR: Wouldn't have
to spend much on those

pricey visual effects, either.

There was even, apparently,
a space battle in it

and George asked
Alan Dean Foster to cut it out.

But this was still
only George's Plan B.

His Plan A, the film
he's desperately trying
to finish

is still in need of dire help.

NARRATOR: Someone needed
to pull a rabbit out of a hat

-and thankfully, for
George Lucas,
-[ZANY MUSIC PLAYING]

he had a magician on his side

and he was married to her.

But before Marcia
waves her magic wand,

-we need to go to
the start of the fairytale.
-[ENCHANTING MUSIC PLAYING]

Because once upon a time
in the 1950s...

-MARCIA: I was raised
a latch-key kid
-[TYPING]

with a single, working mom.
I don't think she had any
expectations for herself

and I don't think she had any
great expectations
for her children.

NARRATOR: Unlike her daughter,
who saw a way out

-and a way up working in film.
-[WHIRRING]

MARCIA: And, I worked my way
up the ladder.
I went from a film librarian

to an apprentice film editor,

to an assistant film editor.

MARCIA: I was making
$55 a week,

and then I found out that
the editors were making

-about $400 a week.
-[CASH REGISTER DINGING]

And I was blown away!

If I could do it,
I could be an editor

and I would
have financial security.

MARCIA: But then, the more
I did, the more I loved it,

and the more I wanted to do it,
the more I didn't care

if anybody paid me or not.
I just was passionate about it.

NARRATOR: A passion that would
soon lead

to romance with an
up-and-coming USC student,

who was showing
a great deal of potential.

And that's how I met George,

because he was
one of the film students.

MARCIA: I thought
he was really cute.
but he was so quiet.

A matter of fact,
I told him he was a cold fish

and he eventually told me
that I was full of beans.

[CHUCKLES] So, we--Opposites
kind of attracted there.

NARRATOR: The secret ingredient
in this unlikely

"fish and beans" recipe was
to be a shared love of film.

I do love editing.
I love making it work.

NARRATOR: But when George Lucas
couldn't make his
first studio film,

American Graffiti, work...

VICTORIA: So, the studio sees
American Graffiti

-and they hate it,
and they're like,
-[FILM WHIRRING]

"We're not gonna release
this film."

NARRATOR: Marcia's love
for editing more than made
the cut, so to speak

When I cut, it has to work.

MARCIA: So, I said to George,

"It worked while reading
the script,

it's not working
in the structure of the movie.

You need to combine some scenes
so that a scene

has a beginning, a middle,
and an end."

He said, "No, I wrote it this
way. I want to cut it this way."

NARRATOR: But Marcia
had a plan.

I said, "Let me
re-structure the movie.

I can do it in one day.
Sit down and look at it."

And so he said, "All right,
all right, all right already."

And I did it and we sat down
and we ran the film...

[FILM WHIRRING]

-I just saw a vision.
I saw a goddess.
-[POP MUSIC PLAYING]

And the film worked.
I think that's why

-Martin Scorsese asked me
if I would edit his movie.
-[FILM SCORE PLAYING]

NARRATOR: But this wasn't
Martin Scorsese

as we know him today.
This was his first studio film.

Called
Alice Doesn't Live
Here Anymore.

[BANGING]

[MAN READING ONSCREEN]

NARRATOR: As far as Marcia
was concerned,

household names
like Francis Ford Coppola

and Steven Spielberg
were all just part of the gang.

MARCIA: That was our friends.
That was our social group.

Well, we were just all
mavericks in a way.

Talent is talent
and talent just has a way
of coming through.

NARRATOR: With an Oscar
nomination for
American Graffiti

and Martin Scorsese's film
winning an Oscar...

-Thank you.
-NARRATOR: Marcia Lucas

was emerging as perhaps
the most talented editor

-of them all.
-MORTON: She was known as the
person you wanted to bring in.

Her eye was considered terrific.

Like, she could look at
a movie and tell you
how to make it better.

I just always innately
kind of understood

or felt--felt
when something worked.

-[BEEPING]
-NARRATOR: Which brings us
back to George.

BecauseStar Wars as a movie
wasn't working,

and from the perspective
of 20th Century Fox,

the visual effect team
needed to finish the film,

well, they weren't working,
either.

But to be fair, it might
just have been bad optics.

Was plenty of bad optics.

JOHN DYKSTRA: You gotta
remember we were building
a prototype,

and the people who were there
lived there.

JOHN: The studio always came
during the day,

but the majority of people
worked at night.

It was not what you'd consider
a conventional
working environment.

And from their point of view,
that was bad.

JOHN: And, as a result,
George was anxious.

MORTON: When he
came out of the hospital,

he was like,
"This has to get under control."

-NARRATOR: Emerging from
the hospital,
-[THRILLING MUSIC PLAYING]

George and the team
made the final push

to finish the movie.
And, with Marcia by his side,

in a strictly
unprofessional capacity...

I was not going
to edit Star Wars.

We're gonna be on location
and George liked me

to come out to the studio
and drive him home every night.

NARRATOR: It was becoming
more and more obvious

that when it came
to George's problems, well...

they'd have to fix them
in post.

MARCIA: George was working
with an English editor

who was doing rough cuts
of, uh, scenes

that were completely shot.

The approach he was taking
was as if this was

a slapstick comedy.

Aren't you a little short
for a Stormtrooper?

-Huh?
-MARCIA: He wasn't treating it
like it was real.

Like...the characters were real
and the feelings were real

and the emotions were real.

And it was always kind of
using the broadest performance

instead of the softest
most real performance.

And I was...not very happy.

NARRATOR: And, so,
when principal photography

wrapped in London
on July the 16th, 1976,

20 days over schedule,

the British editor stayed
in Britain, and Marcia's time

hanging around on set
abruptly ended.

I started re-cutting
from scratch.

[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING]

-SKYWALKER: We're in big
trouble.
-Not if I can help it.

NARRATOR:
With the daunting task

of completing re-cutting
her husband's movie...

This could really save my neck.

-NARRATOR: In every sense,
-[CLICKS]

Marcia had her work cut out
and so, of course,

did George Lucas,

-who was carrying the burden
-[CRASHING]

-of a gargantuan amount
of special effects work
-[EXPLODING]

NARRATOR: that still needed to
be done.

George was leaving
every Monday and going down and
working

-at ILM all week.
-From George's point of view,

at that point, the challenge
wasn't being met.

He was supposed
to...whip us into shape.

NARRATOR: After months
grappling with

the groundbreaking
technology required to make

groundbreaking
special effects,

the ILM team
was coming from behind.

It really wasn't our fault.
This is a unique thing.

JOHN: We're building
a prototype.

NARRATOR: Which meant literally
reinventing the camera.

-And he has to do so
on only a $2 million budget.
-[INQUISITIVE MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: Having come up
with the name
Industrial Light and Magic,

John Dykstra also had
a name for his
new camera contraption.

Dykstraflex.

NARRATOR: Which was...

VICTORIA: A computer-controlled
camera system

that can move past the model.

DYKSTRA: It had to be
able to make repeatable moves.

It had to move during exposure.

[WHOOSHING]

[DISTANT EXPLOSION]

JOHN: It had to be done
with miniatures that were small

because the space we were able
to afford was small,

but it was all,
in my mind, feasible.

NARRATOR: But in the mind of
the studio, 20th Century Fox,

-not nearly feasible enough.
-[STUDIO THEME MUSIC PLAYING]

Well, they were very hard
on George in terms of budget
and so forth.

NARRATOR: Not just hard,
the studio wanted

to make a hard cut.

One that threatened to take
the very "war"
out ofStar Wars.

MAN: Stand by alert.
Death Star approaching.

They wanted to cut
the end battle.

NARRATOR: So, no trench run.
No dogfight.

-Yee-haw!
-[SCREEN FREEZES]

NARRATOR: And certainly
no "Whoo-hoo!"

They go
and they rescue the princess...

-Good luck.
-NARRATOR Instead...
save the girl, save the day,

and save Fox a lot of money.

-PAUL HIRSCH: That's it.
Movie's over.
-[MUSIC ABRUPTLY DIES]

JOHN TENUTO: Can you imagine
ifStar Wars ended with
the rescue of the princess...

-and there's no attack
on the Death Star?
-[ZANY MUSIC PLAYING]

It's very unlikely then
that audiences

would've left the theater,
got right back in line

to see it again
or told their friends
that they have to see this film.

NARRATOR: Luckily,
for filmgoers everywhere...

George was determined to have
this end battle in the film.

NARRATOR: So, in
this crucial battle

over the battle,
George planned a bold move
to save his story.

HIRSCH: He wanted to get it
in the pipeline early

so that they
couldn't eliminate it.

NARRATOR: Very clever
you might say.

But that put Marcia,
who was frantically untangling

the edit, on the front line.

Man your ships
and may the Force be with you.

MARCIA: George came to me
and said, "By the way,

ILM needs the final cut
of the trench run.

MARCIA: So, would you please
edit the end battle for me?"

I said, "If we're gonna make
this deadline, you know,

I'm swamped in the end battle,
we need another editor.

Can we bring in another editor,
please?"

NARRATOR: Oh, how about
Paul Hirsch?

He's another editor.

-MARCIA: So, Paul came in.
-[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING]

MARCIA: There was also,
local editor Richard Chew
who had come in.

At that point Marcia
was assembling the end battle.

-I have you now.
-[WHIRRING]

It was a monumental task
so I was brought in to help

with what Richard was doing
which was to recut

the original editor's cut

-and Richard was cutting
from dailies on reel one.
-[WHIRRING AND CLIPPING]

So, he started
at the beginning.

I said, "I'd like to see
the cut." He said,
"We don't have time.

Just--Just grab
the next reel and get going."

-[R2D2 BEEPING]
-[GUN FIRES]

Marcia thinks you should start
on this scene."
Which is the robot auction.

This R2 unit
has a bad motivator. Look!

Hey, what are you
trying to push on us?

NARRATOR: Sitting down with
none other than George Lucas,

-they watched the disastrous
cut of the scene.
-[TENSE MUSIC PLAYING]

And I was a little uneasy
and I said,

"I don't know, George,
it looks pretty good to me."

[CHUCKLES] And he said,
"Eh, I thought so, too,

but Marcia thinks
it can be better."

I got into it
and I started working on it

and sure enough she was right.

-What about that one?
-MAN: What about that blue one?
We'll take that one.

NARRATOR: But not every
scene...well, sucked.

The bit where R2D2
gets sucked up.

[INHALES SHARPLY]

-They dropped it down
and reversed the film.
-[WHOOSHING]

I just loved that.

NARRATOR: However,
moving forward,

Marcia faced an entire
top to bottom recut.

Which was daunting enough,
but it was the powerful pull

of the immovable deadline
that really had them
scrambling.

We have no time
for sorrows, Commander.

So, the movie is scheduled
for Memorial Day weekend

and that date is set in stone.

So the film
has to be finished before then.

NARRATOR: Well, with less
than six months to go

back at ILM,
the pressure was intense.

Unable to work on
the final scene

until Marcia
had finished the cut,

there was a vast multitude
of other special effects

that needed to be done, too.

Now, be careful, R2.

NARRATOR: It was time
for ILM to make its move

which is exactly
what stop-motion animator

Phil Tippett did
for this iconic scene.

[SQUEAKING] [GROWLING]

-[ROARS]
-He made a fair move.

Screaming about it
can't help you.

TIPPETT: I had brought in
a stop-motion puppet

that I'd made when I was younger

and George saw that
and that gave him the idea

TIPPETT: to do the
chess sequence
as stop motion.

Previously what he was gonna do
is just use people

in masks shot against black,

-and then composite them
into the chessboard.
-[GROWLING]

But we went in and over
three days lit it and shot it.

TIPPETT: It exceeded all of our
expectations, you know?

-It was totally the right move.
-[FAINT SQUEAKING]

Let the Wookiee win.

[ROARING MOURNFULLY]

-You know, I was working for
a filmmaker we all respected.
-[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING]

TIPPETT: He was making
a science fiction
movie with monsters in it

and that's what
we'd always wanted to do

since we were five years old.

And now we were, you know,
living the dream.

NARRATOR: A dream that was
far from over for Phil Tippett

because as Paul and Richard
were hard at work

-recutting the movie,
-[CUT AND WHIR]

-George began to have...
-[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING]

shall we say, monstrous ideas?

-[UPBEAT CANTINA MUSIC
PLAYING]
-[SQUEAKING]

George wanted to embellish
the cantina scene.

Hey!
We don't serve their kind here.

-What?
-The droids.

MAN: They'll have
to wait outside.

NARRATOR: This footage from
Elstree Studios

was all George had seen
of the famous cantina scene.

George just didn't feel it had
enough "oomph" at that point.

Didn't look like the
weird aliens that they wanted.

NARRATOR: Out of time
and out of money,

George would
need to use his head...

...or somebody else's.

TENUTO: The special effects
aren't working,

the film is over budget,
it's behind schedule,

he's being told to cut
the third act of the film,

and he still goes before
the same people that...

are threatening
to pull the funding

and says, "I need more money
to finish the film."

NARRATOR: George needed
aliens fast,

and he knew
just the humans for the job.

My name's Rick Baker
and I call myself

a make-up artist.
I do special make-up effects.

NARRATOR: Rick and legendary
creature creator Phil Tippett

were primed for a challenge.

Make as many aliens as we could
in six weeks.

[THEME MUSIC PLAYING]

Star Warswas finished.
They shot the film in England

so they called me in,
we found a little workshop

we could work in and we started
making these aliens.

[JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING]

We had very little money.
I said, "You know, George,

we can't make that much stuff
in the timeframe that we have,

but I have a line of masks
that I'll just let you use.

-One was this devil guy.
-[LAUGHING EVILLY]

-A werewolf guy.
-[GROWLS]

This bat-demon thing.

[SQUEAKS]

NARRATOR: It was starting
to look like a Halloween party.

And, of course, every good
party needs the right band.

-[BAND MUSIC PLAYING]
-BAKER: George said, "You know,
I think we should have a band."

And we decided this guy would be
a good member for the band.

So we then duplicated.

NARRATOR: The cheap way
to get a band full of aliens?

And that sounded good
to Gary Kurtz

who was now quite concerned
with any kind of overage.

BAKER: 'Cause he was
the money guy.[CHUCKLES]

[CHUCKLING] Or the lack
of money guy.

NARRATOR: And why stop there?

Who needs to pay
for actors anyway?

So a lot of Rick's crew
wound up pulled in

to wear the different masks.

And, so, Phil is wearing
the mask in the scene.

They didn't realize
that people in this

-had to see and breathe.
-[ZANY INSTRUMENTAL
MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: And so Gary Kurtz,
used to slashing budgets...

TOM SPINA: Gary Kurtz
came in with a razor blade

and started poking holes
in the masks

while they're wearing them,
you know?

-And--And his story is that
he's watching that razor go by
-[SOUNDS OF SNIPPING]

as he's cutting the holes.

You look at that scene
and you'd never know

SPINA: that they shot this
on two different continents

months apart.
Different sets. Different crew.

The first guy you see,
the sort of anvil...

...kinda headed guy
that has the glowing eyes...

-[DINGS]
-in the film, when he turns,

SPINA: there's a little
mechanical thing on the side
of his head.

And for years
we didn't know what it was,

but we dug through
the Lucasfilm archives

SPINA: and it turns out
in order to get the eyes
to glow,

-they jammed a '70s flashlight
into the back of his head.
-[FLASHING]

[MAN] [SHOUTING] No blasters!
No blasters!!

[OBJECTS CLATTERING]

One guy gets his arm cut off
and we ended up using

one of the hands that I'd made,
again, way before Star Wars

for my devil character,
that falls on the ground
there in that shot.

-[SCREAMING]
-[GROWLING]

It was more about
just giving more cool things

to look at in that scene.

NARRATOR: Given that it is
one of the most iconic scenes
in Star Wars: A New Hope,

the guy who dusted off
the masks
has a little secret.

[CHUCKLES] Maybe I shouldn't say
this, but...

I don't like George's choices
of aliens, you know?

[OVERLAPPING ALIEN NOISES]

I think he's got great taste
with the spaceships

and all that stuff,
but not so much with aliens.

You know, I think we made some
that were cooler

that don't even show up
and then he used my...

...werewolf mask, you know?

-[SLURPING]
-BAKER: It was like, "Why
didn't you use this one

that we specifically made?
I think is cool." You know?

But, you know, everybody has
different--different opinions

on what's good and what's bad.

NARRATOR: Good or bad,
these random Halloween masks,

many of which were sitting
around Rick Baker's studio,

have grown iconic enough
over the decades

to make the leap from
lurid latex

to plastic play things
countless times over.

Which they weren't
supposed to do.

BAKER: I was supposed
to maintain the copyrights

of those characters, but...

what am I gonna do? [CHUCKLES]

George has more money than me.

NARRATOR: And safe to say,
more toys,

but playtime
was definitely over.

MAN: Star Wars.
Coming to your galaxy...

-this summer.
-NARRATOR: Racing towards

an immovable release date,
Marcia Lucas was editing

-as fast as her
little moviola could handle.
-[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING]

We were always
under a lot of pressure.

Pressure. Pressure.
Pressure to get the product out.

Enemy fighters coming your way.

NARRATOR: Putting together
the end battle...

which needed to be locked
so ILM could get to work
on the effects...

she was starting from scratch.

Almost...

because Marcia was
cobbling together a sequence

from another battle
from another time

in another film.

Using footage from the classic
World War II film,

and George Lucas' favorite,
The Dam Busters,

as a visual reference...

-[ZAPPING]
-How many guys do you think,
Gold, five?

I would say it's about ten guns.

PILOT: Some on the surface.
Some on the towers.

With the black and white footage
I was creating the battle

and making it believable.

NARRATOR: Marcia could work out
what ILM needed to shoot

to finish the final battle.

-[ZAPPING]
-It's away!

[EXPLOSION]

NARRATOR: While Marcia had
her hands full

crafting dogfights
and just generally wiping away

remnants of the film's
original edit...

In television commercials
we used to do a lot of wipes.

-[WHIRRING]
-So I suggested to George

that I thought it'd be
a great idea to use wipes

for the scene transitions.

NARRATOR: Poor Hirsch was
having an altogether
different experience.

As he pulled out the reels
and looked at recutting

-another section of the film.
-[WHIRRING AND ZAPPING]

At the beginning of the film
while the battle in space

is going on, Vader has captured
the rebel ship.

HIRSCH: Vader's had
his confrontation
with Princess Leia...

You are part of the Rebel
Alliance and a traitor.

-Take her away!
-HIRSCH: And in the middle of

all this going on,
we cut to Luke

HIRSCH: on the surface
of Tatooine...

-[WARBLING]
-and then Luke speeds up
to this place...

SKYWALKER: Come on, shape it up,
you guys.

-MAN: Hey!
-[SHOUTS INDISTINCTLY]

you know, I'm trying
to make cuts
and I'm...

suffering through this thing
and I'm thinking,

"Why do we even need this scene?
What is this scene?"

-Hey!
-It was a terrible scene.

HIRSCH: And I said to George,
I said, "What is this place?"

He said, "This is the teen
hangout."

HIRSCH: You should've
been there. It was fantastic.

"What if we just took it out?
Why--Why do we need this scene?"

-He said, "Well, yeah,
let's try it."
-[CUT]

We cut that scene out
and it never went back in.

-[BEEPING]
-[OVERLAPPING ALIEN CHATTER]

HIRSCH: Once we took it out,
our first clue that
Tatooine is inhabited,

is at the robot auction

WOMAN [SHOUTING]: Luke! Luke!

And that's how we get to Luke
and it's a much more organic

introduction of the character.

NARRATOR: But Paul
was only just getting started

with the good ideas.

We all shared cuts.
I'd say, "Come see this cut."

I look at your cut.
You look at--

we'd all look at
each other's cuts.

NARRATOR: Because Marcia,
still in the depths

-of the trenches...
was struggling to make it work.
- [ZAPPING]

It was a monumental task
and it would absorb her...

-...full attention.
-NARRATOR: But the urgent task
of doing the end battle...

So I cut, of course,
as is scripted.

In the original end battle,
Luke makes the trench run twice.

Watch yourself.
Increase speed full throttle.

He goes in once
uses the computer...

[DIGITAL BEEPING]

...and he misses the shot.
And then he goes back again.

We all sat there and said,
"You know...

this is too much.
Luke needs to make one run."

-NARRATOR: Much better.
-[QUIRKY MUSIC PLAYING]

But something still
wasn't right.

R2, try and increase the power!

And then Paul said,
"We need a time clock."

MAN: Commence primary ignition.

[BEEPING]

And then I think I said,
"Well, the Death Star should
be moving

to shoot up the rebel base."

MAN: The rebel base
will be in firing range
in seven minutes.

MARCIA: I said, "We've got
the footage.

We've got the footage
on the Death Star warming up

when they shoot Princess Leia's
planet of Alderaan.

-[SHOUTING] What?
-[EXPLOSION]

NARRATOR: Using footage
originally shot

-for entirely different scenes,
-[CURIOUS MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: Marcia conjured drama
out of thin air.

There was a lot
of voiceover stuff. There was
a lot of countdown.

MAN: One minute and closing.

MORTON: But if you actually
look at the film,

nobody's doing
the counting down.

MAN: 30 seconds and closing.

And it added a tension
to the scene

that was great. It needed it.

VADER: I'm on the leader.

There was one particular moment
that she was very insistent.

She kept saying,
"If this moment doesn't work,

then the whole picture
doesn't work."

And it was the moment
when Han at the last minute

HIRSCH: rescues Luke.

-[BEEPING]
-I have you now.

-What?!
-[CHEERING]

If that moment doesn't work,
it's all over.

You're all clear, kid.
Now let's blow this thing

-HAN SOLO: and go home!
-[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING]

MAN: Stand by.

NARRATOR: Marcia had,
in effect, saved the universe.

Great shot, kid!
That was one in a million!

NARRATOR: And, hopefully,
the ending ofStar Wars.

[QUIRKY MUSIC PLAYING]

The question now was could
George Lucas

and John Dykstra
get the effects done in time

without destroying each other?

NARRATOR: With the edit
for the end battle

finally together,
the pressure was increasingly

falling upon ILM
to come through

on their end of the bargain,
but George was losing faith.

DYKSTRA: Because we haven't
provided enough product

for him to see,
that translated into...

...stress for George.

NARRATOR: Which in turn
translated into tension

between director
and visual effects supervisor.

George and my managerial style
weren't compatible.

He wanted to be able
to crack the whip

when he needed
to crack it, and he didn't have
the whip

because I ran that shop.
People answered to me.

And that was frustrating
to him

because he didn't understand
how the machine worked.

NARRATOR: But at this point,
George Lucas couldn't
be sure...

-[VADER BREATHING HEAVILY]
-This had better work.

NARRATOR: ... if the film
even worked.

That isn't very reassuring.

NARRATOR: To find out,
in February of 1977,

mere months before
the release ofStar Wars

in late May,
Lucas was ready to audition

NARRATOR: his still
unfinished opus
in front of trusted friends

who just happen to be
the luminaries

-of American cinema.
-[FILM WHIRRING]

MARCIA: We had a screening room
in the back of our house.

And we watched it in the house
to see how things

were playing out
and how they were working.

NARRATOR: Hollywood's
most esteemed directors

were ready to pass judgment.

NARRATOR: Spielberg was there.

Spielberg loved it and he--he
thought it was gonna go great.

NARRATOR: As was
Brian De Palma.

I remember Brian De Palma
coming out and saying

in his loud, bulky voice,
"George, you gotta get rid

of that Force thing!
That doesn't work at all.
What is that?"

The Force is what
gives a Jedi his power.

NARRATOR: De Palma's skepticism
seems

straight from the dark side.

I find your lack
of faith disturbing.

Brian De Palma told him
it was an embarrassment.

That it would be
a career killer for him.

"George!
You gotta get rid of that Force!

What were you thinking?"
You know, kind of thing.

VADER: Don't underestimate
the Force.

And I went home and I said,
"George, he does not know

what he's talking about!
[CHUCKLES]

You can't get rid of the Force."

The Force will
be with you always.

NARRATOR: So, that's settled,
then.

With Marcia's work
basically done...

We had locked the work print,
and special effects

-were starting to come in.
-NARRATOR: She went about
finding her next gig.

You expect me to leave
after the way

-you talked to me just now?
-[FILM SCORE PLAYING]

Marty called me and asked me
if I'd come down
and help him out on his film.

-[MAN READS ONSCREEN]
-[CROWD CLAPPING]

NARRATOR: However, while Marcia
was cutting up "The Big Apple",

the nagging voice
of Brian De Palma...

MARCIA [ECHOES]: "You gotta
get rid of that Force."

NARRATOR: ... ate away
at George.

And he took a lightsaber
to the cut.

[LIGHTSABER BUZZING]

George started removing many of
the "May the Force be with you."

Then the next time
I saw another screening,

they cut the Force out
in a couple places.

-Hey, Luke...
-KAZANJIAN: And he removed

one of the most critical ones.

May the Force be with you.

MARCIA: The Han Solo character,

saying that to the kid
meant, you know,

there was more to him
than met the eye.

NARRATOR: This was the moment
Marcia became arguably

the first person in
the universe to use the Force.

And she puts it back in.
"May the Force be with you."

NARRATOR: And before
you question Brian De Palma...

De Palma was really giving
him a hard time about it.

NARRATOR: And
Steven Spielberg's judgment...

I loved the movie.
I was probably one of the only

people in the audience
that liked the movie.

NARRATOR: Oh, all right,
Mr. Spielberg.

NARRATOR: In any case,
this was an early cut

with very little in the way
of completed effects.

-Would it help if you told him
it was my fault?
-[SHIP REVVING]

Sure.

BENNETT: So, these guys were,
like, watching this film

and there's no real
sci-fi special effects.

[GUNSHOTS]

And there's like interwoven
World War II

-black and white footage.
It's a bit of a mess.
-[EXPLOSION]

-NARRATOR: The screening
had backfired
-[HELICOPTER WHIRRING]

and now with that
cheap and foggy Plan B sequel

-looking increasingly
inevitable,
-[STIRRING MUSIC PLAYS]

George Lucas faced a final push
to the finish line

not entirely certain
that the movie he was making

made any sense at all,

but he would finish the movie
nonetheless.

We're in position.
I'm gonna cut across the axis

and try and draw their fire.

I think we were just about
to get into the trench scene...

[LASERS FIRING]

HIRSCH: ...where the ships
are flying in and
chasing each other

and shooting.
[CHUCKLING] And we were
standing near

some of the model work
and the trench was there

-HIRSCH: all made out of
urethane and stuff.
-[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: And there in front
of the urethane trenches

the "mild-mannered cold fish",
as some called him,

came alive.

KEN RALSTON: And he described
that scene to us.

It got us all fired up.
Like, "Wow!

Can't wait to do this.

Our signature thing
about Star Wars,

from my point of view is,
the whole idea

of flying down the trench...

[SHIP REVVING]

the sizzle was...h--how we were
gonna do
this climatic battle sequence.

NARRATOR: The key to the
illusion lay in

-a trick of human perception
John had picked up
-[BIKE REVVING]

from his life
in the fast lane.

JOHN: Which is that
the closer you get to things,

the faster it feels
that you're traveling.

NARRATOR: That gave John
an idea.

Well, let's fly the X-wings
through a canyon

to get that sense of speed.

NARRATOR: And this
is where the Dykstraflex

really "Dykstra-flexed"
its muscles.

[BEEPS]

The trench was about
two feet wide,

about two-feet deep,
and probably 60-feet long.

NARRATOR: Literally in
the trenches,

the ILM team
could now shoot the scenes

needed to replace the black
and white World War II footage.

I took the camera,
which was mounted on an arm...

And the camera could, like,
come down into the trench...

DYKSTRA: The camera
was very small,

which allowed it
to go into our miniature trench.

NARRATOR: But in order
to convincingly make

the descent into the trench
from up high,

the shot would
have to be pulled off

with a clever combination

of matte painting and models.

You're far away from the surface

DYKSTRA: and that's where
you use the painting.

NARRATOR: Which lasts
up until...

...this conveniently placed
laser flash.

JOHN: And it transitions
to a medium-sized model

then transitions
to the full-sized trench model.

[WHIRRING]

Then we just tried
different speeds

to see what worked.

NARRATOR: Speedily inserting
completed ILM shots,

the finish line was near.

Once we got to a certain point,
there was no question

of making further
picture changes

except at great cost.

NARRATOR: And, so,
with the movie over schedule
and over budget...

[LASERS BUZZING]

HIRSCH: George came in
one day and he said,

"We have to show
that Vader got away."

[THEME MUSIC PLAYING]

-[WHIRRING]
-Look out!

The last picture change we made

was a suggestion of George's.

He came in one day and he said,

"We have to show
that Vader got away."

[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING]

And we constructed
a little sequence.

They find a piece of footage
that was filmed on a rocker

of Vader in his capsule
spinning around,

so they used that
and then they steady it

and they have a shot
of Vader's ship flying away.

-[WHIRRING]
-Suddenly, Vader's still alive.

[ENCHANTING MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: With Vader escaping,

to presumably continue
his reign of terror

inSplinter of the Mind's Eye.

NARRATOR: It's worth
remembering at this point

that not one person
among them had any idea

what they were creating.

JOHN: It isn't like
that's what

we were setting out to do.

Your...expectations only extend
as far as you can see.

NARRATOR: And with a deadline
looming,

some were exhausted
and some, well...

some just were...looming.

Gary Kurtz, he had
a strangely looming quality.

Just kinda this...
stern, solid, you know,
brick of a guy that--

He lurked about.

RALSTON: I do have one memory.
[CHUCKLING] I was talking
about Gary...

I'm sure something not so nice,

and I walked out there
and he was just standing there.
It's like, "Oops!"

-NARRATOR: But for Gary
and George,
-[MISCHIEVOUS MUSIC PLAYS]

there was more to oversee
than just X-wing fighters

and Millennium Falcons

NARRATOR: because there's much
more to the visual effects

inStar Wars
than just the visuals.

You'd have to wonder
if Star Wars would beStar Wars

if a lightsaber sounded
like this...

[WINDS UP]

or droids sounded like this...

[TELEPHONE DIALING]
[MODEM SCREECHING]

Don't get technical with me.

NARRATOR: WouldStar Wars
beStar Wars

if the epic score
was less this...

[ STAR WARSEPIC SCORE PLAYING]

and more this...

[1980'S SYNTH MUSIC PLAYING]

And when it comes to
the sound ofStar Wars,

there's two people
we need to hear about

and the first one...

Now Ben Burtt is probably

the most brilliant sound man
on the planet Earth.

-NARRATOR: And nowhere
was that brilliance
-[EPIC MUSIC PLAYING]

more evident than when heard
through iconic memorable

-sound effects such
as this one.
-[MUSIC ABRUPTLY STOPS]

[METALLIC THUDDING]

NARRATOR: Well, granted
by the time you heard it,

it sounded like this...

[LASER ZAPPING]

NARRATOR: But there was even
more to this soundscape savant

than just lasers.

R2-D2 wouldn't be R2-D2
without Ben Burtt.

-Did you hear that?
-[BEEPING]

Ben's musicality
of R2-D2 sounds.

It--Utterly un--understandable
phrases that Ben Burtt
had created.

Well, I don't think
he likes you at all.

-[SLOW QUESTIONING SLIDE
WHISTLE UP]
-No. I don't like you, either.

[SAD WHISTLE SOUND DOWN]

Replying, asking questions,
being rude.

-Being...[BLOWS RASPBERRY]
-[CLANGS] Wake up!

-[DISTORTED BEEPS] [CLICKS]
-It was magic.

NARRATOR: And a fair amount
of good,

old-fashioned creativity.

I mean, the random things
that he made sounds from,

it's amazing.

One of my favorites
is the lightsaber sound.

-The hum.
-[HUMS]

I mean, he made a lightsaber
sound by waving a microphone

in front of a speaker
that was playing back a hum.

[HUMMING]

[HUMMING] [CLASHING]

And then
there's the TIE fighters.

[SCREECHING]

-It's elephants layered with...
-[TRUMPETS]

the sounds of cars
driving on wet pavements.

[CAR SCREECHING TO
A STOP] [ELEPHANTS TRUMPETING]

[SHIPS ZOOMING]

But the animal sounds
don't end there.

-[CHEWBACCA ROARS]
-VICTORIA: Chewbacca.

-First he recorded a bear...
-[BEAR ROARS]

and then he sprinkled in
other random animal sounds.

-Like walruses...
-[GROANS]

-[ROARS]
-[IMITATES CHEWBACCA'S ROAR]

Oh, you said it, Chewie.

NARRATOR: There's music, too.

George Lucas wanted
to re-combine the familiar.

Lucas' original idea
was to score the film

using arrangements from Holst's
The Planets.

[ THE PLANETSPLAYING]

NARRATOR: The classical
repertoire

had proven fertile ground
for one

of George Lucas'
favorite films.

-But an introduction
opened another door.
-[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING]

MORTON: Steven Spielberg
introduced Lucas
to John Williams.

They'd worked together
on Sugarland Express

-and then, famously,Jaws.
-[ JAWSTHEME MUSIC PLAYS]

NARRATOR: In which
the composer proved

that the right orchestral score
could elevate

dramatic scenes...

[CHILDREN SCREAMING]

NARRATOR:
In unforgettable ways.

[VIOLINS SCREECHING]

And when Lucas told
John Williams his ideas,

John Williams said,
"You need music that's written

for this film
so that it'll match the film."

And he said,
"I will do a score."

-NARRATOR: Unlike what
Star Wars was doing visually,
-[TRIUMPHANT MUSIC PLAYS]

what Lucas wanted for his score
was anything
but groundbreaking.

-[SWORDS CLASHING]
-MORTON: Lucas wanted
a traditional,

Hollywood swashbuckler
kind of score.

DAVE POLLOCK: He wanted
Star Wars to have the feeling

of the old-fashioned serials.

ANTHONY DANIELS: And, you know,
without John Williams' music--

and I've seen it--seen that
first one without music, okay?

You better be grateful
John was around.

-MARCIA: The score was
so fantastic!
-[ STAR WARSTHEME PLAYING]

What that music did
to lift it from being

a very great film to being
a very, very great film.

NARRATOR: With the edit,
effects, sound design,

and now score complete,
George Lucas must've felt

-pretty good about himself.
-[MUSIC DIES DOWN ABRUPTLY]

Lucas is very unhappy
with what he's seen.

VICTORIA: He feels like Dykstra
let him down on all fronts.

I'm done for.

[SAD BEEPING]

NARRATOR: And to prove
himself right,

George Lucas arranged another
screening 30 days

beforeStar Wars
would premiere nationally.

VICTORIA: And they
very carefully recruited

a bunch of 17 to 25 year olds.

And they started off with a
Chuck Jones' Duck Dodgers
cartoon

[WHOOSH]

The crawl goes up and it starts.

[ STAR WARSTHEME MUSIC PLAYS]

NARRATOR: Finally...

Star Wars came to life

-and this iconic text...
-The crawl wasn't right.

NARRATOR: It made no sense
whatsoever.

It was
a terribly confusing start.

George had written it.
It was too, uh, vague and--

and unhelpful.

NARRATOR: But don't worry...

it didn't take too long
to turn things around.

-[R2-D2 beeping]
-[C-3PO] Oh, my.

I'd forgotten how much
I hate space travel.

-[RUMBLING]
-HIRSCH: When they escape

from Mos Eisley
and went into hyperspace...

[BEEPING] [WHIRRING]

...the whole audience
stood up cheering.

-[CROWD CLAPPING]
-It was like the ninth-inning
of a seventh game

of a World Series
and somebody hit a homerun.

-[SOFT THUD OF BAT]
-[AUDIENCE CLAPPING]

-Cut to Han going, "Whoo-hoo!"
-[WHOOPING TRIUMPHANTLY]

Again, same thing, the whole
audience erupted cheering.

When I saw the special effects,
I was blown away.

MARCIA: From
my black and white footage...

-[LASERS ZAPPING]
-[EXPLOSION]

JOHN: It was really exciting
to go in and see your work,

which we'd been looking at
on a very large screen,

-but not as big as that.
-Look at the size of that thing.

MARCIA: When it all
came together

and it just made this...
beautiful film.

This amazing film.

OBI-WAN: The Force will
be with you...

-always.
-[TRIUMPHANT INSTRUMENTAL
MUSIC PLAYING]

[WHOOSHING]

They gave it
a standing ovation at the end.

NARRATOR: And as for that
studio head

who'd taken a big gamble
on this young film maker...

VICTORIA: Alan Ladd Jr.
walked out of the film

knowing he had a hit movie
on his hands.

NARRATOR: And as for
this team...

I looked over at Marcia
and she went...

[CHUCKLES WONDERINGLY]

You know?
We sort of exchanged looks.

You know? "Guess it worked."
It worked.

NARRATOR: And in a delightful
moment of redemption

for Brian De Palma,
he came back to help

his good friend George by
re-writing the opening crawl.

De Palma helped concoct
the text that we have today.

NARRATOR: With the fate
ofStar Wars

now in the hands
of moviegoers,

following its May
1977 release,

George Lucas vanished.

[THEME MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR:
On May the 25th, 1977,

Star Wars opened on movie
screens across the country.

[EXPLOSION]

The past four years
of hard work

finally coming to fruition,
George Lucas did

what any writer, director,
producer in his position
would do...

-he went on vacation.
-[SWEET GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING]

When the movies opened,
we had a tradition of going

over to Hawaii.
If you read the critics

and they hate your movie,
you feel bad.

So, we left and then people
came over and said,

"You won't believe what's going
on with your movie."

NARRATOR: What was going on
was a lot of...

-well, waiting.
-[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING]

People are lined up around
the block all over the country.

NARRATOR: Star Wars was a hit.

-We did it!
-[SHORT ROAR]

NARRATOR: A hit on its way
to becoming a phenomenon.

And then continued to go wide
through the summer.

NARRATOR: Cinemagoers
couldn't get enough.

VICTORIA: People were seeing it

in the theater three
to four times, and that's
crazy repeat business.

-MARCIA: And then
I thought, "Wow.
-[THEME MUSIC PLAYS]

We didn't just make it work,
we made something

really, really, really special.

NARRATOR: Not only was
it special,

but it was also
just what America needed.

MORTON: Vietnam had just ended
a few years earlier

and the country was kind of
in a malaise about that

and this optimistic,
old-style Hollywood picture

comes along, was a thrill
every few minutes

MORTON: and I think people just
were so thirsty

for something uplifting.

The first time I saw
the original Star Wars,

-when that ship came overhead...
-[TRIUMPHANT INSTRUMENTAL
MUSIC PLAYING]

I ducked.

NARRATOR: This ambitious,
costly, space opera...

New Hope'sbudget ends up
being about $11 million.

NARRATOR: proved that Lucas
was lucrative.

VICTORIA: Star Wars grossed
$700 million.

If you adjust for inflation,

that's $1.6 billion
at the box office.

DANIELS: Nobody on that set
thought it was any good.

Straight to video.
Now you would say that.

Straight to video.
We were all wrong.

NARRATOR: Star Wars nearly
swept the Oscars.

-[OVERLAPPING APPLAUSE]
-SPEAKERS: Star Wars!
Star Wars. Star Wars.

NARRATOR: Winning for
Art Decoration, Set Decoration,

Costume, Score, Sound Mixing,
Sound Effects,

and Visual Effects.

JOHN: I didn't really have
an expectation

of winning,
so I got good and drunk.

[APPLAUSE]

RICHARD EDLUND: Joan Fontaine
gave me an Oscar.

I mean, it was like,
"Is this reality?"

NARRATOR: It also won an Oscar
for Best Editing.

-The winners are
Paul Hirsch, Marcia Lucas,
-[AUDIENCE APPLAUDS]

and Richard Chew for Star Wars.

I couldn't believe it.
I didn't expect it.

The Oscar came so early
in my career

I hadn't even developed
a desire for one yet.

-Thank you.
-[AUDIENCE APPLAUDS]

It was unreal.
[CHUCKLES DISBELIEVINGLY]

And together we will
announce the nominees

for the Best Director.

-NARRATOR: But as for
Marcia's husband...
-[PLAINTIVE MUSIC PLAYS]

-Woody Allen for Annie Hall.
-[AUDIENCE APPLAUDS LOUDLY]

George didn't win Director.

Well, that made me sad.

If ever there was somebody
who deserved it,

a directing award, it was
George Lucas for Star Wars.

-Annie Hall.
-[CROWD CLAPPING]

NARRATOR: Woody Allen's comedy
also beatStar Wars

for Best Picture,
but George had done something

no single award
could recognize.

George changed the way
motion pictures were made

with Star Wars.

You look at an old film,

no matter how good it is,
the dialogue went on and on.

-Today it's fast.
-[BEEPS] All George would
say was,

-"Do it again faster."
-"Do it again faster."

"Faster and more intense."

Cutting is faster.

-Music is better.
-[LIGHTSABERS HUM AND ZAP]

-Sound effects are terrific.
-[HIGH-PITCH BEEPING]

George owned and created ILM
which was, and is,

the best visual effects house
in the world.

NARRATOR: With
Star Wars: A New Hope,

George Lucas had
truly disrupted the industry.

-Creatively and
technologically.
-[STIRRING MUSIC PLAYS]

I never expected,
when I was working on the film,

-that it would be poured over
by students and scholars
-[FILM SLIDING]

for the next several decades.

NARRATOR: And now,
nearly half a century later,

we can celebrate
the fantastic talents

of those who helped realize
this masterpiece.

In my heart,
I'm so proud of my involvement

and I think that when I do
get recognition, it feels good.

NARRATOR: But the recognition
George Lucas wanted most

wasn't an Oscar.

REYNOLDS [ECHOES]: His father
did not respect

the entertainment Industry...

It's not the same as success
in a "respectable" field.

POLLOCK [ECHOES]:
Own your own business.

Don't work for other people.

MARCIA [ECHOES]: I don't think
his dad had much expectations
for George.

NARRATOR: And so for the family
of this small-town hero...

POLLOCK: They were shocked.
Really shocked.

Shocked by his success.
Never saw it coming.

And I...And I think
that would hurt.

NARRATOR: The painful process
of makingStar Wars

had taken its toll on George

and those in his orbit,

but George was far from done.

And for the team
behind this now-iconic movie,

everything was about
to change,

but for some,
not exactly how they expected.

After the movie was a success,
George went,

"Oh, God,
now I have to make a sequel."

[FILM CLICKS]

[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING]

MORTON [ECHOES]: The idea was
to make a sequel cheap.

There was a space battle
and George said

to cut it out.

[LASERS ZAPPING]

[STIRRING MUSIC PLAYS]