Lucas waves hand: "Greedo shot first from the beginning..."

[kennermike]

For more on Marcia Lucas, check out the book "Skywalking: The Life and Films Of George Lucas", which I believe was written with Lucas' cooperation, and then not authorized by him.

There's a summary of that book and other insights into Marcia Lucas here:
The Secret History of Star Wars

There's some gossipy stuff mixed in there too, but I have to say, I don't think his work has been as good without her - so I do think that lends credence to her being a key to his success to some degree. Also, he really does seem fixated on re-writing his own history.


Here's some insight into her influence:

I totally forgot about the contribution Marcia Lucas brought to the project

[Werewolf]

For more on Marcia Lucas, check out the book "Skywalking: The Life and Films Of George Lucas", which I believe was written with Lucas' cooperation, and then not authorized by him.

There's a summary of that book and other insights into Marcia Lucas here:
The Secret History of Star Wars

Thanks for the link. Informative read. Makes a lot of sense in context on how his movies have gotten worse. Jedi is definitely weakest of the original trilogy and the film he had the greatest control over. The new movies just suck. No emotional spark. You don't care about the characters and the "romance" between Padme and Anakin was just cringe worthy.

I knew he was a self important thin skinned BSer that liked to rewrite his own history but to try to erase a person's existance and accomplishments is more cruel, petty and vindictive than I would have given him credit for.

[johnmiic]

Maybe Marcia Lucas should be hired to do Special Editions on the prequels.

[samurainoir]

I haven't reread Skywalking since the nineties, but it was definitey a must read for Star Wars fans.

Given his closely he skated to risk and ruin throughout the first half of his life as a filmmaker, I think it gave hs films a real sense of urgency and energy that the new films really seem to lack. just as there were ridiculous stakes in those original films, these were really real stakes for Lucas who was always convinced that he was going to crash and burn. What's really telling is the part of the book which details the production of Empire, and how he beleived Kirscher was ruining his film, and managed to return to micromanaging on Jedi.

Also worth reading alongside this book is the biography Lucas' mentor, Francs Frord Coppola. Given their close relationship in the beginning, I think it really helps to see what Coppoa went through during those times... Particularly since Coppola did actually fall off that cliff that Lucas always feared, both creatively and commercially. And more than once!
Amazon.com: Whom God Wishes to Destroy . . .: Francis Coppola and the New Hollywood (9780822318897): Jon Lewis: Books


And if you want to follow the lineage, there is the biography of Coppoa's mentor, Roger Corman.
Amazon.com: Roger Corman: An Unauthorized Biography of the Godfather of Indie Filmmaking (9781580631464): Beverly Gray: Books

[Bruce Banner]

"Skywalking" is definitely a great book.

And yeah, that "The Secret History of Star Wars" is also very interesting and informative. The PDF version I read a few years ago was full of terrible grammar which actually made the thing a chore to read, but I hear it's been tidied up and proofread since then.

John Baxter's biography of Lucas is also worth reading:

[Brazoo]

I haven't reread Skywalking since the nineties, but it was definitey a must read for Star Wars fans.

Given his closely he skated to risk and ruin throughout the first half of his life as a filmmaker, I think it gave hs films a real sense of urgency and energy that the new films really seem to lack. just as there were ridiculous stakes in those original films, these were really real stakes for Lucas who was always convinced that he was going to crash and burn. What's really telling is the part of the book which details the production of Empire, and how he beleived Kirscher was ruining his film, and managed to return to micromanaging on Jedi.

Also worth reading alongside this book is the biography Lucas' mentor, Francs Frord Coppola. Given their close relationship in the beginning, I think it really helps to see what Coppoa went through during those times... Particularly since Coppola did actually fall off that cliff that Lucas always feared, both creatively and commercially. And more than once!
Amazon.com: Whom God Wishes to Destroy . . .: Francis Coppola and the New Hollywood (9780822318897): Jon Lewis: Books
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA300_.jpg

Too funny - I was actually going to come back and add that there was a doc called "A Legacy of Filmmakers: The Early Years of American Zoetrope" that people should check out. Interviews with Coppola and others (including Lucas) recounting young Lucas as a filmmaker and Coppola's dream of creating American Zoetrope with Lucas (and how "TX 1138" kinda brought it down).

You'll see TONS of parallels between Coppola's dream of American Zoetrope and what Lucas ended up creating with Skywalker Ranch.

Playing amateur psychologist I think a major problem was that Lucas stopped working with or listening to anyone critical after Irving Kirshner and Marcia Lucas.

For example, people at ILM were concerned about Jar Jar Binks, but Lucas dismissed that criticism. Later, when fans complained about the character, he turned the criticism back on the fans saying things like: "(Fans) want the films to be tough like The Terminator, and they get very upset and opinionated about anything that has anything to do with being childlike." not understanding (or not admitting) that just because something might be "childlike" doesn't automatically make it good.

It's the same thing here with this Greedo thing - Lucas deals with criticism by just flipping everything back on the critic - despite logic or facts. I think there's a exposed nerve there based on his history.

[Gorn Captain]

In about another 20 years, and a couple of more Special Editions, they won't be shooting at each other at all: Han will gently tell Greedo to go home and rethink his life. That guns are bad and that we should all get along, and that not even harsh language is warranted. It will no longer be called Star Wars but...ahum..Star Trek...

I'm still hoping for a version that has Greedo beat the **** out of Ford for marrying Callista Flockheart and getting his ear pierced...

[Figuremod73]

He thought Kirscher was ruining The Empire Strikes Back? What??? Lucas should have let him handle Jedi, IMO. Have to admit I dont understand him sometimes either...

There was bounty hunters after Han, could you blame him for being a little trigger happy?

[ctc]

>In about another 20 years, and a couple of more Special Editions, they won't be shooting at each other at all

From points 8 - 6:

The 10 Best Sci-Fi Films Never Made | Cracked.com

....notably:

>Here's something unpleasant: All art comes from demons. Not real demons, in most cases, but demons of angst and horrible memories and sexual frustration. You get beat up in school because, while the cool kids are putting bruises on each other on the football field, you were sitting on the steps writing your science-fiction stories. That fear and tension that winds itself around your soul like steel wire as you try nervously to sneak out of the locker room before the big kids give you a Wedgie and a Tittie-Twister and a Dirty Sanchez, all that builds up into adulthood. Art is how you let it out.

>It was an angsty ******* who introduced Han Solo to the world by showing him ruthlessly blowing the face off a mafia bill collector, shooting him from under the table and then cooly walking away and paying his tab. Lucas introduced Obi-Wan Kenobi by having him end a bar fight by slicing a guy's arm off.

>Lucas didn't flinch at the thought of blowing up the peaceful planet of Alderaan and killing billions. None of this was gratuitous; it told us the story and what the stakes were.

>Angst drives it. Now, if the artist is lucky, that angst goes away. If the audience is lucky, it doesn't. The art dies with the angst, you see. By middle age the artist finds himself watching his old films and trying to make ones that sort of look the same, or trying to make films his children can watch. It gets bland.

Don C.

[Gorn Captain]

I'm reading The Making of The Empire Strikes Back, which is very candid about all the arguments during the production.
During meetings with Lucas and the pre-production crew (writer, director, producer, etc), the person who took notes of that meeting only wrote down "what George said".