Life After Darth
Steve Silberman writes to point me to his Wired cover story on a post-Star Wars George Lucas (Steve probably found me while researching Lucas’s connection to obscure Canadian filmmaker Arthur Lipsett). It features quotes from the world’s greatest living editor, Walter Murch:
“For me, those films pummel you into submission,” Murch says. “You say, OK, OK, there are 20,000 robots walking across the field. If you told me a 14-year-old had done them on his home computer, I would get very excited, but if you tell me it’s George Lucas - with all of the resources available to him - I know it’s amazing, but I don’t feel it’s amazing. I think if George were here and we could wrestle him onto the carpet, he’d say, ‘Yeah, I’ve gotten into that box, and now I want to get out of that box.’”
I really hope Lucas branches out, now that he’s spent twenty-five years in the limelight.
If you’re interested in the profession of film editor, read The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film. It’s a great series of interviews with Murch conducted by Michael Ondaatje. Reading it changed the way I watch movies.
