Monday, January 26, 2009

The Wilhelm Scream

You might not know it, but if you've seen a movie in the last 50 years, you've probably heard someone Wilhelm.

10 Places You’ve Heard the Wilhelm Scream - Mental Floss

No one knows who recorded the Wilhelm scream, but sound designer Ben Burtt coined its name based on the 1953 Charge at Feather River - the character Private Wilhelm is hit with an arrow and screams the scream. Burtt uses it a lot, but other filmmakers and sound guys have picked up on the inside joke and hide it in their movies, too.


The article goes on to list 10 of an estimated 140 occurrences of the Wilhelm Scream. All I had to read was the description of where the scream happens in Return of the Jedi to know exactly what they were talking about.

I'd re-post the entire Mental Floss article, but that seems in bad form. I will however, embed the same YouTube video compilation of Wilhelms for your enjoyment. Read the article first though, if you want to see if you can recall the scream from memory alone.

1 comment:

  1. They made sure the Wilhelm Scream was in EVERY episode of The Middleman. :)

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