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Topic: The mighty General Grievous has arrived (SW:EP3)
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Manny Knowles
"What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???"
Posts: 4247
From: Bloomington, IN, USA
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 02-23-2004 12:59 PM
From a creative standpoint, I think George Lucas owes much of his earlier successes to the fact that he was working within the context of the studio system which forced him to develop his ideas until they could get past certain gatekeeping mechanisms.
I suppose he might disagree but I believe those people helped Lucas make better movies.
Times have changed. Nowadays, the only opinion that matters is his own. What we are seeing now is more representative of the kind of movie he would have made back then, were it not for the collaborative nature of the process which broke his spirit.
George has discovered a way to enjoy a kind-of parallel existence. This is the George Lucas that might have been. These are the STAR WARS movies that could have been. Would we have cherished these movies? I suppose we would have.
I suspect that the backlash against the new movies is really based on a sense of desecration -- not of the original movies but, rather, our memory of them. Our enjoyment of those movies came out of the historical context in which they appeared. With the exception of "The Empire Strikes Back," the movies themselves are not truly as great as most of us would like to remember.
If George had made "The Phantom Menace" back in 1977 there would likely be millions of fans of Jar-Jar Binks. It's possible that we would have rejected Chewbacca by the time "A New Hope" emerged.
Thankfully, George's career is about more than just the movies he made. I would argue that his technical contributions more than make up for any of his aesthetic transgressions.
The industry on the whole owes a debt of gratitude to George Lucas for his vision of what was possible and for his commitment to realizing those notions.
ILM has revolutionized the field of visual effects TWICE (traditional and digital). Despite the present decline in status (among industry insiders) the THX program is responsible for the improved levels of showmanship that audiences are enjoying today -- even in non-THX houses. Didn't Pixar originate with Lucasfilm?
In a very real sense, George Lucas has touched and improved every movie. (Ironically, the obvious exception would be the original STAR WARS trilogy as it exists today.)
But to fully understand and appreciate George Lucas one must also bear in mind that he developed a great portion of his wealth thru ancillary markets. The original STAR WARS movies sold more than tickets, it sold toys. Those toy sales resulted in a hefty payoff for Lucas.
The trend continues.
EPISODE I helped sell the SA-10 EX Surround adapters and Lucas tried to use EPISODE II as the catalyst that would jump-start the dCinema revolution. It didn't work and he's gone so far as to essentially threaten theatres to commit to dCinema or they won't get EPISODE III. Lucasfilm helped develop the Dolby EX format and I recall reading (late 1990s) that there was a connection between Lucas and Qualcomm which was/is a player in the dCinema movement.
It is therefore impossible for me to look at these new films and evaluate them on their own merit. In any event, that would be too easy: Lucas has committed great injustices to the fans of his original movies. In the first instance, we have the less-than-special "Special Editions" which have unfortunately supplanted the true originals. And in the second instance, we have the emptiness and shallowness of the prequels.
If we regard these outings as a means to an end, we can see that they are qualified successes.
The EX format was not a resounding success and the dCinema revolution has yet to happen. So on those levels, the movies can be regarded as failures.
Still, they sold a ton of movie tickets, toys and DVDs along the way. There is no question that these films were commercial successes. And, like them or not, we happily went along and essentially financed those Special Editions by standing in line to buy tickets...and the upcoming DVDs are going to be HUGE sellers.
On that point, I find it interesting that so many people continue to drink from a well that they consider to be poisoned. As a manipulator of consumer culture, I'd have to say that Lucas is one of the best!
If the original series ever sees the light of day -- in theatres and/or on DVD -- it's going to be pandemonium all over again!
[ 02-23-2004, 02:23 PM: Message edited by: Manny Knowles ]
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Michael Schaffer
"Where is the
Boardwalk Hotel?"
Posts: 4143
From: Boston, MA
Registered: Apr 2002
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posted 02-23-2004 04:27 PM
I think it`s very simple: the original movies basically looked like everything was real. That made the fascination, plus the interwoven motifs from fairy tales, myths, westerns, knight movies etc. But most of all the feeling of seeing something that is real. There are millions of movies which take you to places far away and long ago, but most of them do not create this illusion and therefore the fascination.
"Star Wars" was not really made in the context of a studio system. He had to get the financing greenlighted, but then he was free to pick his crew and the movie was also filmed in England far away from Hollywood.
George showed with these movies that he was a master filmmaker because he managed to fit all these elements together seamlessly. I would have thought it would be no problem for him to create prequels which are movies of our time, but somehow fit stylistically with the original ones. But he really failed completely and miserably.
I think the main problems with the new trilogy are: that everything looks fake and equally or even more importantly: these films do not have a sense of discovery at all. It could have been so fascinating to explore where all the characters and story elements come from and how they - finally - come together. But instead, we are shown a very small world in which all the characters are basically there from the start, like in a TV series. The young Greedo, Boba Fett, the 2 droids etc., they are all there. That is really idiotic and completely destroys the sense of exploring a big mysterious universe.
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about the new Star Wars movies, but at this point in time (with just over a year to wait) didn't we already have the titles to the previous two?
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