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| George Lucas and some things he made. |
No gaming talk
today. Star Wars is foremost on my mind.
I feel sorry for
George Lucas. He made one of the most popular movie series in
history, and the new installment is premiering to very good reviews.
Mr. Lucas is not taking part of the fun because this is not George's
Star Wars.
Last month he talked
about fretting seeing the film which director J.J. Abrams invited him
for a private screening. I can see how he feels. He was Star Wars. It
was his baby (with a lot of Gary Kurtz, the original co-producer whoquit when Lucas started turning Jedi kid friendly to sell those toys,
and the forgotten Marcia Lucas, who helped shape the story and wasthe film editor that saved the Star Wars from obscurity in 1977.
After he divorce from George Lucas in 1983 she has been excluded in
the official history of the original trilogy, but it was a bad time
for them both and he does not speak her name, only referring to her
as his ex- when he has to). Now it belongs to Disney and a new era of
writers and directors.
After the prequel
trilogy, this is not a bad thing. All the new filmmakers grew up on
Star Wars and get it, even if the prequels and the changes to
the original trilogy show Lucas himself does not get what made the
original three so good.
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| George and Marcia Lucas |
Disney, after the
purchase of the franchise, let Lucas make a pitch for Star Wars VII.
They rejected it and announced they were going in a different
direction. Around that time Lucas announced he was “done with Star
Wars.” After seeing the new film a few weeks ago he avoided giving
his opinion, only that “the fans will love it.” I interpret this
as an acknowledgment that a lot of the fan base was disappointed with
the prequels, and this is not what he would have done.
Martin Scorsese in
on the record saying Star Wars was a terrible thing to happen
to Lucas, moving him away from the other projects that could have had
him be a great film maker with edgy films similar to THX-1138
or American Graffiti. Instead, Lucas turned to further
escapist entertainment: the good (Indiana Jones)
and the bad (Howard the Duck),
and except for the prequels, giving up directing. Lucas could have
done both big-budget fun and serious films, like his friend Steven
Spielberg, but Scorsese points out how much Lucas changed in his
career goals because of the success. Also, success changed his
storytelling goals as well.
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| Original poster is worth big bucks |
We
have a past of what could have beens. The Revenge of the
Jedi that did not have little
teddy bears beating an advanced technological force, which I would
have loved. Also, the bad was avoided like young street-urchin Han
Solo with his adopted father Chewbacca in Episode III
(yeah, that was an idea), or
Boba Fett and Vader being brothers. Or Jar Jar, no wait, that
happened. Some things cannot be unseen.
It
looks like Disney and J.J. Abrams have a hit on their hands. Let's
not forget who got us here in the first place. Lucas is an
interesting duality that has played out over most of our lives. Let's
not bad mouth him, he gave us something we cherish. This is his son
going off to college, and he is the dad in the empty nest.
