The 'Holy Grail' Moment That Gave Star Wars Its Iconic Lightsaber Design
George Lucas' "Star Wars" was a whole-cloth piece of world building. Inspired by gee-whiz sci-fi serials like "Flash Gordon," Lucas envisioned a sprawling saga that would stretch over multiple chapters. There was just one problem: the technology required to bring his vision to fruition didn't exist.
If you're any kind of "Star Wars" fan, you know about John Dykstra's revolutionary motion-control camera (the Dykstraflex), a pioneering piece of equipment that allowed Lucas to pull off the climactic trench run. You're also most certainly aware of how Rick Baker and Stuart Freeborn conjured up their groundbreaking creature effects. But do you know the story of how the lightsaber, the Jedi weapon of choice, was discovered?
While Lucas' idea for the lightsaber was brought to vivid life by the brilliant conceptual designer Ralph McQuarrie, someone had to either build or find the saber That someone was art director Roger Christian. And he found it in a most unlikely place.
'I had found the treasure that was eluding me'
In an interview included in Titan Books' "Star Wars: Icons of the Galaxy" (edited by Jonathan Wilkins), Christian related the story of stumbling upon the lightsaber in the London photographic shop Brunnings. According to Christian:
"I asked David French, the manager of the shop, if they had any old or damaged equipment I could buy for a movie I was working on. He pointed me to boxes of equipment that had obviously lain untouched for years. I started rummaging through them and found old lenses and rangefinders, pulling out anything I thought might be useful. I then discovered one old box under the others, covered in dust, that had obviously not been opened in years."
That box contained what Christian described as "several silver, tube-like objects with red buttons set into the handles." He'd found the goods. Per Christian:
"I pulled one out, amazed. They actually looked like Ralph McQuarrie's paintings of the lightsaber. Somehow I was at the moment of finding the Holy Grail. Even the red firing button seemed perfectly designed for a lightsaber handle. I held one in my hand; it was the right weight and size. I had found the treasure that was eluding me, and I knew exactly what to do with it as I headed straight back to Elstree Studios."
A lightsaber by way of Texas Instruments
Christian applied black rubber t-strips to the tube to emulate the hilt, and added LED lights from an old Texas Instruments calculator to complete the illusion. All he had to do was place the strip onto the contraption, at which point his work was done:
"I superglued the plastic strip onto the Graflex, and there, before my eyes, was Luke's lightsaber. I placed a strip of chrome tape around the shaft to hide the Graflex name, and then added a small D-ring so it could hang from a belt. The elegant weapon was finally ready to make its on-screen debut in Obi-Wan Kenobi's hut!"
The rest is Hollywood history. Nowadays, lightsabers are brought to sizzling life via CG, but once upon a time you had to have a practical prop on set to get the audience to buy in. Throw in Ben Burtt's sound design, and you've got the coolest sci-fi sword in film history!