THE PEOPLE VERSUS GEORGE LUCAS Attempts To Prod The Fanboys One Last Time
Speak the name "George Lucas" to most people in and out of the industry, and you're likely to receive a variety of reactions. Mostly negative. He was, at one time, the self-made king of his own kingdom, a weaver of dreams who managed, on his third try, to accidentally tap into a subconscious vein in the pop culture landscape. People stopped referring to his first two films, THX-1138 and American Graffiti. Since 1977, Lucas became the man who made Star Wars, and with it came all of the money, expectations, and disappointments that such a figurehead eventually earns. So why is there such animosity for Lucas today? Because Lucas dared to return to his beloved saga and tell its backstory. Only this backstory would be told from the perspective of a sixty year old man, rather than a brash young man in the prime of his creative powers. And so the prequel trilogy, hyped beyond reason, became bogged down in trade disputes, silly and vapid characters, and misguided subplots. Where the original films were streamlined and scrappy, the prequels were overblown and leaden. The fanboys of the original trilogy hated the new films, and subsequently turned on him. I, however, did not turn on Lucas for what eventually became the prequel trilogy. I turned on Lucas because he traded his creativity and remarkable resources on cheap and rehashed nonsense. He became fat. He became mentally lazy. He became emotionally tired. He no longer felt the urge to produce meaningful work. His films are products filled with product-placements for the latest merchandise coming out of Lucasfilm. In reality, this sad decline has been happening since Return of the Jedi in 1983. I remember walking out of the theater that afternoon in May bewildered by lidless Ewoks, belching Sarlaacs, a catatonic Han Solo, and recycled climaxes. The prequels only confirmed to me that the circle was now complete; Lucas had turned over to the dark side. By the time The Phantom Menace rolled around, I felt curiously empty inside. The film is awful, of course, but it was so bland that it barely registered at all. The effects were nice and pretty, but it just felt like being stuck in a Chuck E. Cheese for two hours. You stand there while the kids scream and run around you, and when you leave, you're thankful. The two remaining films were much the same - sound and fury, signifying nothing. More interesting than the story itself was watching to see how Lucas was going to try and tie the elements together. He didn't even do that right.
I don't know what The People Vs George Lucas is supposed to be exactly, or what I am supposed to take away from it. The title makes it sound like there is some authority or something that is at least creatable to whatever it is intending to be, but the more you think about whatever that thing would be, the more you are confused and don't know what you really want, out of this movie, or George himself.AICN:
Failure might be too harsh of a word. Its definitely a success at what it sets out to be, the definitive document on the arguments for and against the prequels, but the problem is that for anybody who is or was a Star Wars fan there is nothing new. Its like listening to the discussions youve had with your friends ever since 1999 or even earlier the real divide starts with the Special Editions. There are other angles, with professors discussing Star Wars true impact on culture and the gray area of the creators artistic rights vs. the audiences right to the art. Those are fascinating topics, but are presented and quickly moved on from so they can get a bunch of fans talking about how stupid Jar-Jar Binks is. Ive had these discussions, youve had these discussions and Im sad to say that I think this movies about 5 years too late. It almost feels like its trying to open up old wounds. Most of us that hate the prequels have made our peace and moved on.As a former fanboy, I hear about this film and shrug my shoulders. What is the point of persecuting Lucas for these films after so much time has passed? Besides, it's pretty clear that Lucas simply doesn't care what anybody thinks about the films products he places in theaters. Lucas knows that every single person in this film crying about Jar Jar will go see whatever he puts into theaters next. I mean, Lucas made an Indiana Jones film in which the fabled Dr. Jones flies around in a fucking refrigerator, and the damned thing made $300 million dollars! The fifth Jones film could be called Indiana Jones and the Menace of the Incontinent Bunghole and everybody would line up around the block! Frankly, films like The People Versus George Lucas are not only pointless for those few fanboys still hanging on to a dead franchise like Star Wars, but they are useless to the general issue of Lucas himself. If everybody just stayed away from the films Lucas makes, he would either be forced to retire (thereby ending the downward spiral) or forced to reassert his creativity (thereby producing improved films). As long as Lucas continues to receive financial support - which he misreads as creative support - no amount of conjecture will change or improve the problem. Here is the trailer for the film, which had its debut this weekend at SXSW: