I recently watched Star Wars: The Special Edition with audio commentary; and it was stellar. I’ve listened to it before, but I thought it’d be good to bring it up here for those into films and filmmaking who want to experience the classic sci-fi film in a new way. The commentary features overlaid sound bits and thoughts from four folks recorded independently and integral to the film. The featured speakers are Sound Guru Ben Burtt, FX top dog Dennis Muren, the-man-himself Mr. George Lucas, and actress Carrie Fisher (who many will know as Princess Leia).

Any time Lucas talks it’s fantastic. He presents not only a window into filmmaking but also the state of cinema during the making of Star Wars in the 1970s, as well as numerous details about mythology and how to construct sequences. I loved his discussion about going from one place that i dangerous to an even more dangerous place, THEN heightening the tension through even worse dangers, forcing your characters to get out of one mess by diving into another. His discussing the structure of the screenplay is sensational, and his contributions to the track alone are worth the time investment.

Ben Burtt and Dennis Muren are also fantastic. It’s amazing to hear from Burtt how wide and diverse the sources for sound effects were, and Muren’s explanations of effects and the effects industry in the 70s were fascinating. Burtt’s discussion is really encouraging as well, since many of the effects were simply recorded and filtered, not synthetically produced in an expensive program. The FX Muren discusses are much larger and more difficult to replicate, but it’s still great hearing him discuss them. Carrie Fisher was okay, but doens’t add too, too much.

I am trying to make sure that I keep these “Commenting on Commentaries” articles nice and sweet, but this is one I certainly recommend this one.