The hippie kids who REALLY blew up the Death Star

As a follow-up to our post the other day about the troubled production of the original Star Wars, Monsters and Rockets reader Charles Lapo has sent along a link to a really interesting (if a tad overlong and occasionally rather technical) article focusing on the creation of the film's special effects. I already knew that a lot of effects techniques were invented for the film, but this article paints a vivid picture of just how young and green the effects crew really was. 20th Century Fox basically handed over a few million to a group of post-collegiate hippie geeks, and prayed that these kids knew what the heck they were doing. (The image of these kids being chased around the effects stage by an out-of-control, rampaging motion control camera is pretty hilarious.)

Got a tip for Monsters and Rockets? Want to contribute to the site? Send us an email.