If you were to come up to me and say 'Chris,
George Lucas changed my life', I could get with that. I
was nine years old when I went to see 'Star Wars', one of the
few movies I think that the entire family went to… Mom, Dad,
my two year old sister and my sixteen year old brother.
I can see where one could watch that movie and say 'I know
what I want to do with my life'. It was that epic.
'The Empire Strikes Back' is the better movie… but that's a
discussion for another day. Point being, I understand
the sentiment because 'Star Wars' changed lives. Now if
you were to tell me that 'Star Wars' is the most important
thing in your life… well… who am I to tell you what should be
important in your life? Nobody, that's who. I
might secretly wish, deep inside, that there were things more
important in your life such as friends and family and your
career and the like, but it's your life, correct? But if
you were to tell me that George Lucas ruined your life because
he made three inferior sequels to the legendary 'Star Wars'…
four if you count 'Return of the Jedi', which some do, but
that too is another story… That would make me sad. Only
because that's giving Mr. Lucas far too much power. He
probably doesn't deserve that kind of power over us, and I'm
almost equally certain that he doesn't want that kind of
power. This documentary by Alexandre O. Philippe, 'The
People vs. George Lucas' examines, in detail, the conflicted
relationship that George Lucas has with his legions of fans.
The film gives us a brief history of a young filmmaker who
made two movies, 'THX1138' and 'American Graffiti', note that
Mr. Lucas, other than his student shorts, has only officially
directed six films in his 40+ year career, and this young
filmmaker was sick and tired of the studio messing with his
films and obstructing his vision. Though I'm not quite
sure how he pulled it off, but somehow George Lucas had
complete control over the creation of his 50's styled space
opera serial 'Star Wars', and if the film industry were
categorized as Greek gods, on May 25th 1977, Zeus has
just been born. Then came arguably the greatest movie
ever made in 'The Empire Strikes Back', the Indiana Jones
films, Return of the Jedi, toys, TV shows, Industrial Light
and Magic, videogames… have you ever played X-Wing or Tie
Fighter? It just doesn't get much better than
that. My goodness…
Now we have an issue though. The man
who created something so he could avoid the system, has now
become the system… and in a big way. Now as a kid I was
unaware of all of this talk of 'systems' and 'controls' and
'commerce' and whatnot, but I did realize early that Mr. Lucas
was a pretty hardcore business man when, on the strength of
one of my first jobs, I went to buy a Star Wars VHS Box
set. Do you buy them individually? Do you wait for
the box set? Do you wait for the special edition box
set? Do you get the anniversary box set? I knew
the fanatics would buy them all, and even as a seventeen year
old I wept inside because I knew these poor people were being
taking advantage of. True, none of these people are
being forced to by all of this junk, but we know the laws of
addiction, now don't we?
Then the film eventually gets to what has ripped the fans of
George Lucas apart, 'The Phantom Menace'. This is
probably the best part of the film as we get to the various
talking heads and how they reacted to the announcement of the
film, to the epic release of the trailer of the film, the
anticipation of the release date of 'Star Wars: Episode I',
and from the moment the John Williams classic orchestra hit
reveals the classic Star Wars logo… and then the
fallout. True enough, I'm not a Star Wars fanatic, but I
am still on record as saying that 'The Phantom Menace' is the
most disappointing movie ever made. There are worse
movies, way worse movies, but I don't believe I've experienced
such as letdown, or saw anything quite as lackluster or as
detached as 'The Phantom Menace', especially when factoring in
expectations. Are those expectations the fault of George
Lucas? A little bit, yes, but mostly it's our
fault. Follow that up with two better, but still
lackluster films, and now the man who was once a god has to
see his subjects turn on him. Some of them in the worst
way. And we won't even get into the backlash about the
digital tinkering of the first three Star Wars films which
pleased almost no one.
The question asked, especially in regards to the first three
films, becomes one of ownership. The next three films…
that's a deeper issue and possibly plays more into a lack of
collaboration and George Lucas being slightly overrated as a
filmmaker… yet another discussion for another day
perhaps. But in regards to episodes IV, V, and VI, The
People have taken ownership of these films and prefer them in
their original states. George Lucas maintains ownership
of these films and feels that he can do whatever he pleases
with them. In principle, I agree with The People on
this, especially when the young man points out that tinkering
with the miniature and real world effects that were in the
first films and adding digital enhancements, or replacing them
outright, belittles the hard work of those that originally
worked on these films. I honestly can't verbalize the
disappointment I felt at the end of my DVD re-watching of
'Return of the Jedi' and seeing David Prowse replaced with
Hayden Christenson. Minor perhaps, but pretty major for
me. But in reality, the films belong to George Lucas and
he can do with them as he so pleases. It pains me to say
this, but it is nonetheless the truth as I see it.
In my opinion we just have to be thankful for what we
have. Of my personal top ten films, a list I'm sure we
all have, two of them belong to Lucasfilm in 'The Empire
Strikes Back' and 'Raiders of the Lost Ark', so the importance
of the existence of George Lucas isn't lost on me. So
while some may question the value of George Lucas as a
filmmaker, he is still a visionary and a genius on many
levels, and his films have altered the course of many
lives. The people definitely have a strong case against
George Lucas, and the evidence at times is damning. But
when it's all said and done… it's his ball and his
court. We are forced to declare him Not Guilty.
