Subject:
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Re: George Lucas: Galactic gasbag
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Fri, 17 May 2002 11:02:40 GMT
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Viewed:
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282 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Erik Olson writes:
> http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/feature/2002/04/10/lucas/print.html
Thanks for the link, Erik. Hilarious stuff. Sadly, all too true.
Let's say this about Lucas: he set a new level for the arts of film special
effects and sound quality. You just gotta give him Industrial Light & Magic
and all that it means to the film industry and arts. And you have to give
him "American Graffitti." Maybe I read to quickly, but that Salon.com
author didn't mention this film I think. And it's not bad -- in fact, I'd
say it was quite good. The fact that it is almost certainly mostly
biographical material from Lucas' own youth in the Stanislaw County of CA
doesn't diminish his evocation of a particular time and place. And he did
supposedly conceive of the Indiana Jones character -- a kind of Doc Savage
adventurer. That and a lot of help from Señor Spielbergo gives you that
trilogy. He has even been a succesful producer -- as when he and Coppola
produced Paul Shrader's clever and tightly written "Mishima." And if that's
all he ever achieves, it hasn't been too bad a run -- not by any measure.
Let's talk about Shakespeare for a minute. Did Shakespeare write a great
play called "Romeo and Juliet"? Yes. Did he come up with the story himself?
No, it was from a book of popular Italian stories or some such thing. Did
he write a great play called "Hamlet"? Yes. Did he come up with the story
himself? No, its part of a series of tales that are equal parts history and
legend from the northern countries. So what do we know about Shakespeare's
genius? He didn't come up with much entirely by himself ("The Tempest"
being an exception -- apparently coming out of him fully formed and showing
that he was at his full powers as an author when he wrote it). What
Shakespeare DID do well was tell familiar stories in an unmatched manner.
His words leap from the page. His lyrics sing. His characters are more fully
developed than almost anything done by any of his peers: his development of
female and ethnic characters is unusually sympathetic and far ahead of its
time; and his interest in motivation is almost incipiently psychological
(predating any such science or kind of analysis). Like Da Vinci or say
Mozart, Shakespeare's sheer ability to "think" in a particular way would
likely warp any method of measurement.
But is Lucas similarly a genius-type storyteller? A wildly imaginative
myth-maker? Ah...no.
Lucas has done little more than stand on the shoulder's of others for years
-- I mean, do you think he works alone over there at ILM? I never thought
there was anything particularly interesting about the SW films except when I
was too young and ignorant to know any better. The fantasy/high adventure
genre has been a mishmash of influences for years and Lucas is certainly no
better than his sources. But too often, he is pointedly far worse than his
sources -- and that's really the problem.
Think of it this way:
Lucas is credited for conceiving a trilogy of movies many years ago that
proved unprecedented in their popularity. In all the intervening years, one
might imagine him honing his skills, thinking and rethinking his ideas,
finessing his materials until such a time as he was fully prepared to give
the world SW in the manner in which he had always wanted to present it.
What did we get? Episode One. Thanks, George! -- Maybe you should just
consider merchandising the characters and stuff, try making some money that
way....
Doh!
So, genius storyteller? Nope. Does he know how to turn a buck? Oh yeah...!
-- Hop-Frog
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: George Lucas: Galactic gasbag
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| (...) And you have to give him "Twice Upon a Time." I'd like to think he had a direct hand in that, beyond being executive producer. I loved that movie so very, very much. best LFB (YOU ALWAYS WERE MY FAVORITE, RUDY!) (23 years ago, 20-May-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | George Lucas: Galactic gasbag
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| I just found this article, which says exactly what I've wanted to investigate for a long time: Lucas is making up all this stuff about his influences (Joseph Campbell and all) in order to avoid being associated with the sci-fi authors he stole it (...) (23 years ago, 17-May-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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