Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2005 12:44:41 -0400
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
From: Elspeth Kovar <ekovar at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Take that Darth Vader, thwack! , was  Sith and
  before

At 11:45 AM 6/16/2005, Ted White wrote:

>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
>To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
>Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2005 1:38 AM
>Subject: [WSFA] Re: Take that Darth Vader, thwack! , was Sith and before
>
> > Who said it did that?!?  I've seen all but the latest movie, and the only
> > one who's ever been out in the vacuum of space during a fight was R2D2,
>and
> > I don't think he's ever given any indication that he was hearing anything
> > while out there.
>
>I'm not going to turn this into another long pointless argument.  You're
>right, Mike:  Sound really *does* travel through space.   And in the first
>STAR WARS movie they blew something (the Death Star?  It's been almost 30
>years, now) up Real Good, and bigolly you could *hear* it Real Good.

For what it's worth Lucas is on the record as saying that he and the others
working on the movie knew perfectly well that sound doesn't travel in a
vacuum.  He went on to say that they also knew that they were making a
movie, an "Epic Battle Between Good and Evil" sort of thing rather than a
documentary or educational film, and having tried it both ways decided to
go with sound for the dramatic effect rather than silence for the
verisimilitude.

Which is good enough for me.  It's a movie and to be enjoyed -- or not --
as such.  They did shoot things up and blow them up Real Good and while
intellectually I knew that we shouldn't be hearing the results I could
suspend disbelief and take pleasure in the very satisfactory noise of
explosions as the Death Star was destroyed.

Trying to come up with explanations that fit into the Star Wars world even
if not our own can be an entertaining exercise.  But, sligtly changing what
Ted said, to argue over it is pointless.

Elspeth