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From: reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: Re: RETURN TO OZ
Message-ID: <6167@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 27-Jun-85 03:28:26 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucla-cs.6167
Posted: Thu Jun 27 03:28:26 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 29-Jun-85 03:26:03 EDT
References: <741@vax2.fluke.UUCP> <1583@orca.UUCP>
Reply-To: reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP (Peter Reiher)
Distribution: net
Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department
Lines: 36
Summary: 

In article <1583@orca.UUCP> davidl@orca.UUCP (David Levine) writes:
>
>Disney has a real winner with this one.  Now let's see /The Black Cauldron/...
>
I have some reservations about "Return to Oz", but basically I liked it.  I
think it's a splendid film for children, and if it doesn't make a lot of money
I will have no more sympathy for parents who moan about the dearth of children's
films.

>(P.S.  Anybody know exactly what the "Special thanks to George Lucas"
>       at the end was for?)

Walter Murch, the director, is the foremost sound editor in Hollywood (or the
world, for that matter) and a fine film editor, too.  Having done the grunt
work for years on many successful films, he finally got a chance to direct
the film he always wanted to make, an Oz movie.  Alas, his experience had
been of two kinds: student films and postproduction, and "Return to Oz"
proved to be an enormously complex film, especially because it involved so
many mechanical characters which usually didn't do what they were supposed
to do.  Murch essentially collapsed under the pressure.  He more or less stopped
shooting the picture.  Fortunately for him, Walter Murch had friends, notably
George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Francis Coppola.  All three of these men
had worked extensively with Murch before, and Lucas and Murch were good friends
back at USC.  All three flew to London at various times to help out.  Coppola
and Spielberg essentially gave moral support.  Lucas' help apparently was more
substantial, and he stayed for a week or two.  According to the released 
account, they made it sound like he just said helpful things to Murch and awed
everyone with the fact that George Lucas was on the set.  Reading between the
lines, it sounds to me like he reorganized the production for Murch, then handed
it back to him.  Lucas did not shoot any footage according to all accounts I've
seen.
-- 
        			Peter Reiher
        			reiher@ucla-cs.arpa
				soon to be reiher@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU
        			{...ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!reiher