Comments on: The Cause Of George Lucas’ Fall – And How He Can Rise Again

By: Nanner Bux

Nanner Bux — Mon, 23 Nov 2015 01:45:00 +0000

Just ran across this very old post from a long, long time ago.

Lucas redeemed himself ‘somewhat’ with me since this was written when he FINALLY sold the rights to Disney. I have to stress somewhat because of things he has been popping off at the mouth about recently.

I have to point out- you can see a direct link between his divorce with his first wife Marcia(who won an Oscar for her work as Editor for A New Hope) and his split with Gary Kurtz (he also had a big hand in making Star Wars great).

During Return of the Jedi, George and Marcia’s marriage was about to implode. She cited in her one interview it was due to the sheer amount of time George was working and his friend Francis Ford Coppola and George’s family.

So what did George do during that time? He decided to wrap up the entire Star Wars saga in Return of the Jedi. He is on record (just read the Forward in Splinter of the Mind’s Eye) stating he had Sequels and Prequels in mind. In the past ten years he has either forgotten about all this or he is lying.

His decision to just end and gut the story lead to his friction with Kurtz.

Since, he decided to get remarried and suddenly, he sells every-freaking-thing in Lucasfilm LTD to Disney.

Lucas though is still an egotistical, self centered jerkface sometimes. He has been taking jabs at the new films- stating he is ‘worried’ they will make the Force some gobbley goop and how he still has not seen the new trailers.

He is simply not aware of the sheer power of humility. Humility is the MAIN power behind creativity. You cannot be creative and assume you know everything.

Thus why he sat on his laurels for 30+ years screaming all purple faced, “MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE!” and why all of his work has been as exciting as a 1980’s Saved by the Bell episode.

Ralph McQuarrie, Joe Johnston, John Williams, Gary Kurtz, Marcia Lucas, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels, Mark Hamill, David Prowse, James Earl Jones, and Irvin Kershner- In Lucas’ mind, none them are why Star Wars was great- Just HIM.

He even stated he could have made The Empire Strikes Back just as good as Kershner. Good gods.

He just cannot take ANY type of criticism- at all. IMHO- that makes him weak and untalented.

I think his divorce just traumatized the living hell out of him and he never got help for it.

By: Matthew Walker

Matthew Walker — Tue, 14 Apr 2015 18:16:00 +0000

It seems a little crazy for me to be commenting on this interesting article around 7 years after it was written, but sadly the last 7 years have done nothing but affirm that George Lucas has just disintegrated as a creative filmmaker. It was a good thought, that he needed a new direction in order to recapture his creativity and, in 2008, that seemed to be the solution. Unfortunately, since this blog was written, the incredibly average to poor film “Red Tails” was made by Mr. Lucas. Everything that makes Red Tails so “meh” equates to the problems in Star Wars 1,2 & 3 & Indy 4. For me, George Lucas needs something FAR harder to rediscover his creative genius than a simple “new direction”. He needs to start entirely from scratch. Part of what made his early works so great is that he had nothing and, as a result, concentrated on things like the storyline, the script, the acting to push a concept forward from his mind & onto the Silver Screen. However, now he has every possible technique of filmmaking & more at his fingertips, & George Lucas’s problem (in my eyes) is that he attempts to use them all. Sure, this has lead to the advancement of many areas of filmmaking over the years, but it has also made him a bit of a jack of all trades, master of none. I find this sad, as he is a master of something – a master storyteller. However, he has allowed himself to get distracted from that art as he gets caught up in new technology. It used to her the story came first with Lucas, then he found a way to tell it using increasingly clever techniques. Nowadays though, Lucas seems to find new techniques first and then try to find a way to use them in his story – sometimes writing entire stories just so he can incorporate some new way of filming it. His films have suffered MASSIVELY as a result. Sometimes I watch some of his more recent works and I just want to grab him and give him a slap so he snaps out of this obsession of his. “FOCUS ON THE STORY FIRST, GEORGE!” I want to scream in his face, “WHO REALLY CARES THAT YOU’VE DISCOVERED A NEW WAY TO DIGITALLY RENDER HIGH-SPEED AERIAL DOGFIGHTS??!!!” (Or whatever his new thing might be). Basically, this trend George Lucas is on is much more than him just getting away from Star Wars/Indiana. I actually think that he could do a brilliant Star Wars 7 or Indiana 5 but only if he writes the story first and puts some restrictions on himself just like he had when he was starting out. I sometimes write electronic music and I find that ones of the easiest ways to lose your direction is by adopting too many fancy new tools to try and do fancy new musical things which, by and large, you were managing just fine to do already with limited kit. Sometimes the most creative, and consequently most successful, techniques is not to write music with as many expensive instruments and effects as you can afford but, actually, just the opposite – restrict yourself to as little as possible. That way you are fully focused on the end product and not the means to make it – something I think George Lucas has failed to do since The Last Crusade.

By: Asorrycommando

Asorrycommando — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 14:39:11 +0000

I just found this article 4 years too late, but it helped me answer a question that I’ve wondered about for years…”What happened to George Lucas?” thanks for hitting the nail on the head. My inner child who grew up watching A New Hope can find some peace :)

By: Schnyger

Schnyger — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 22:07:53 +0000

Its nice to see someone defend George for a change. Its so sad that Lucas has reached a stage where people are questioning how big of a hand he had in his success. I had a friend who told me George Lucas is a man he was surrounded by all the right people and thats the only reason he got to where he is. That is bull crap. George Lucas is on the level of Walt Disney. A man who not only made great movies and stories, but had a vision of technology and changed the way movies are made. I really want him to make a comeback Rocky Balboa style.

By: blue butterly

blue butterly — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 02:56:46 +0000

Who cares its just indiana jones anyways.

and mutt was cool he was the best part I

think but mostly becaus im young like who else

am I gonna have fun watching the grown ups?

nah!

so just leave mutt alone everyone and just

enjoy the damn movie.

By: fkajlfak

fkajlfak — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 16:43:07 +0000

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

By: skyler seals

skyler seals — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 21:59:32 +0000

mr.lucas you are so great i am doing a project on you in school and it isso interesting thank you so much skyler shala seals

By: BamKazaam

BamKazaam — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 09:11:04 +0000

Peter Jackson should have inspired George Lucas again, somehow. but i think George is too rich to give a damn. Well, life goes on.

By: GeorgeSchmorge

GeorgeSchmorge — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:31:11 +0000

I agree that he need people saying no to him, during Empire, he wanted to add some funny aliens doing cute stuff and received a no, but during Jedi he was already a lot more powerful and we got…Ewoks.

It was the sign of the apocalipse.

I’m afraid not even spielberg could stop the big kid from doing whatever he wanted, and we got Mummy 3… I mean, Indy 4. As a producer in hollywood, he holds a lot more power than a director.

Lucas, time to pass the toys to new kids to play.

And c’mon John, Willow was mediocre at best.

By: DAVE

DAVE — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 07:57:45 +0000

I too would like to see some of the novels of the “extended universe” made into motion pictures/television shows. I think I can speak for most die hard fans when I say that novels by Zahn, Stackpole, Anderson and the rest kept us alive during the mid 90’s and it is a damn shame Lucas seems uninterested in bring them to film. Let’s face it: these authors handled the Star Wars universe more competently the Lucas with his last three cinematic abortions.

I’m especially upset about this new Clone Wars CGI movie coming out in the fall. I gotta sit through more of this prequel BS while the Thrawn Trilogy and the Rouge Squadron series sit on Lucas’ shelves…probably unread.

Sorry to get all fired up there–awesome article John.

By: hyper313

hyper313 — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 16:36:54 +0000

i think the problem lies within the prequel actors. they wer like bored, but tried hard to impress.. they dont have the same passion n chemistry as the sequel actors… still a fan of the old (i mean new..) star wars..

By: AC

AC — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 12:59:25 +0000

It’s a nice article, but seeing as people see his movies anyway, he doesn’t have any obligation to make “creative movies”. Maybe he should, but that’s something I’m not in a position to judge. Though I do hope that he DOES.

To be very honest, his new movies aren’t THAT bad.

Also; there are a few spelling errors in the article, like ilicit instead of elicit, there are a few more, but I’m too lazy to re read the article just for that.