Ahh, the sweet sound of blasters

In my last column, I talked about the history and politics of DVDs and the role that George Lucas' "Star Wars" saga has played.

After spending a few hours with the newly released DVD of "Episode I," I've come to realize that for all the criticism that the film has received, there are just some things about it that are too cool for words.

I used to use the lobby scene from "The Matrix" to demo the surround sound capabilities of my stereo system. With bullet's flying, walls crumbling and the music blasting, it's very impressive.

But not anymore. I had heard that the new "Star Wars" DVD would set the standard for DVDs to come but had no idea what I was really in for.

Simply put: "Star Wars: Episode I" is far and away the best DVD presentation of a feature film to date.

What really sets it apart is the mind-blowing audio. I've always been a bit of an audiophile, with respect to both music and film. Once CDs were readily available, I simply ceased buying cassette tapes, for instance.

My family even sprung for a LaserDisc player back in the days before DVD. LaserDisc, an analog format, represented the closest thing to movie theater quality one could get. But even LaserDisc could only provide stereo sound, not the six channel surround sound available with DVD.

Fox and Lucasfilm have really upped the ante here. From the moment you pop in the disc you will notice a difference in sound presence.

There is tremendous use of the surround channels not just for specific locational effects, like the firing of a blaster from off-screen, but for general three-dimensional environment creation. You're not listening to the soundtrack of a movie anymore, rather you feel immersed in the alternate reality that the film creates.

Combine that with several hours of additional content on the second disc of this two-disc set, and you get a must-have DVD for Star Wars fans and general film enthusiasts alike.

The special features include an unusual commentary track culled from separate commentaries by Lucas, the producer, the visual effects supervisor and others.

There are also several insightful documentaries about the making of the film — light years better than your average DVD featurette, which is often nothing more than an extended promotional piece for the movie.

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Lucas was meticulous about documenting every aspect of the movie-making process from day one, and there is a lot to be learned from all the behind-the-scenes material about that process.

One segment follows Lucas around his house on Nov. 1, 1994, as he begins writing "Episode I" on sheets of yellow 8-1/2-by-11 notepaper.

One of my favorite moments comes in the hour-long "Making of" documentary when Steven Spielberg shows up at the London studios and chums around with Lucas for a while, playing with props and whatnot.

Then there's the story of how a rare Tunisian thunderstorm all but destroyed the production's "Tatooine" sets. "The main thing here is not to have panic," remarks one producer. Lucas writes the incident off as a positive omen — the same thing happened on the original "Star Wars" shoot.

There is extensive coverage of how the Jedi fight scenes were choreographed. The fighting style is a synthesis of several different sword fighting techniques and was performed entirely by the actors without the aid of stuntmen.

"Star Wars" has achieved mythic proportions over the years, and nowhere is this more evident than when the actors joke about joining that mythology.

Samuel L. Jackson, who plays a minor character, but one whose role will increase in "Episode II," was clearly very excited to be involved, having seen the original "Star Wars" premiere in 1977. "To make it even better," he says, "all of a sudden I was there with, you know, Yoda."

Ewan McGreggor remarks, "to have my own light saber — that's cool! Not many people can say that."

The added content is somewhat redundant in that brief segments overlap throughout the second disc, but on balance it's a great bonus to this already excellent DVD. Macauley Peterson is a contributor to The Independent Film and Video Monthly and the Princetonian Access Arts columnist. He can be reached at macauley@princeton.edu.