633 Squadron showed RAF de Havilland Mosquitos make their way through a Norwegian fjord, dodging and weaving through anti-aircraft fire to destroy a German rocket fuel facility. It wasn’t just WWII battles that influenced George Lucas, as shots from movies like The Dam Busters and 633 Squadron helped craft some of Star Wars‘ most famous scenes. VFX artist Paul Huston explained in his book, Star Wars Storyboards: The Original Trilogy, that “ would show me a shot of a Japanese Zero flying left to right in front of a conning tower of an aircraft carrier and say, ‘The aircraft carrier is the Death Star, the Zero is an X-wing. Navy cameraman who filmed the very moment an incoming kamikaze’s aircraft was destroyed and engulfed in flames. This shot was recreated from dramatic footage of a U.S.
This same clip would be replicated by the VFX team when Rebel X-wings dropped out of formation one-by-one to attack the Death Star.Ībout a minute later, an X-wing is destroyed by anti-aircraft fire from the Death Star. fighters peeled off from a formation in a WWII newsreel. While it may have looked strange to his friends, Lucas was actually using the footage as guides for the movie’s visual effects (VFX) crews. Lucas collected hours of wartime film that he wanted to replicate in his own futuristic universe.
