Star Wars Lightsaber for Sale: The Story Behind the Iconic Saga
When you think of Star Wars, how can you not hear the unmistakable buzz of lightsabers? The famous weapon, wielded by Darth Vader during legendary battle scenes in the saga, was exhibited Wednesday, August 6, in London. In September, it will be auctioned in Los Angeles, where its price is estimated at up to $3 million (2.6 million euros).
In reality, the object is not a real weapon: collectors will only be able to acquire the sword handle. Despite its value, it is simply an assembly of a piece of camera flash and salvaged parts, notably from a calculator. The famous luminous blade is also not included: it exists only thanks to special effects added in post-production.
To create the lightsaber sounds, Star Wars director George Lucas teamed up with a young engineer. Ben Burtt, then 27, was given carte blanche and the team's complete trust to let his creativity run wild. The only requirement: to create original sounds that sounded natural, "sounds that would make this fantasy world seem plausible," explains Ben Burtt, quoted in the book Star Wars Decrypted by Fabrice Labrousse and Francis Schall.
The buzzing of the lightsaber would be his first contribution to blockbuster films, a sound creation as singular as it was momentous. He achieved it through a fortunate coincidence, combining the hum of an old projector's motor with the static from a faulty cable picked up by his television's cathode-ray tube.
🎥 The lightsaber sounds in Star Wars come from a combination of the hum of an old projector and static picked up by a TV's CRT. Sound taken from www.starwars-universe.com (@starwars-universe.com)
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He will go further by collecting sounds from the ignition of graphite sticks, but also dry ice and metal to produce the sound of the lasers striking.
These soundtracks, which have been preserved throughout the saga's 12 films, all come from Ben Burtt's ingenuity, but also from chance. The sound of " basters ," the pistols in the Star Wars universe, fired came from a hike in Pennsylvania. The engineer's bag got caught in a radio tower cable, generating a plucked-rope sound.
His masterful work earned Ben Burtt an Oscar for "special contribution" in 1978. But his genius is the result of years of passion. Even as a child, Ben Burtt enjoyed reworking the soundtracks of his favorite movies. As he grew older, however, he followed in his scientist father's footsteps and earned a degree in physics from Allegheny College.
Yet his love for cinema never waned. In 1970, at the age of 22, Ben Burtt won the National Student Film Festival in the United States with a war film called Yankee Squadron . He later worked on the special effects for Genesis. His work earned him a scholarship to the prestigious University of Southern California, where he studied film production.
Thanks to his exploits in the world of sound, he was quickly spotted by producer Gary Kurtz to take care of the soundtrack of the first Star Wars , broadcast in 1977, and then all the following ones. Ben Burtt's arrival in the cinematic world, with his original sound effects, was a revolution in science fiction films, until then accustomed to using electronic and very artificial sound effects.
Since then, the engineer has never stopped. With a career spanning nearly fifty years, he has provided sound for numerous American blockbusters. From Indiana Jones to the voice of the little robot in Wall-E , Ben Burtt has continued to explore formats and take on ever more ambitious challenges. The voice of Chewbacca, for example, was created from sounds emitted by animals at the Los Angeles Zoo, including bears, a walrus, a seal, and a badger.
La Croıx
