Why do you hate George Lucas?

I have heard this theory before and I say NUTZ!

Your friend paid good money to fix his ride and it was his property. George didn't. We paid for it. 20th Century Fox paid for it

He ruined it. He betrayed cinema.
 
overlandfilms said:
I thought JAWS was a Spielberg picture? American Graffiti, like SW 4 and 5 did rock.

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Right, that was the famous one upmanship between JAWS, Star Wars, Close Encounters etc.

American Graffiti was great. I remember seeing the movie in a theater named "Vogue" in Indianapolis. Back then there was no such thing as General Cinema in most places and seeing a movie was done in a neighborhood theater. Where I grew up there was a neighborhood theater every 20 blocks. Once Star Wars and Jaws came out there were General Cinemas and Loes theaters everywhere and the neighborhood theater experience was dead.

I think American Graffiti was the last movie I ever saw in a neighborhood theater. Great movie and great memory for me...
 
The good ole days

I saw Each of the Star Wars films in a 'Regular' theatre as well as Raiders and Temple (Jedi and Doom being in Lakeland, FL before the corporate company took over

I was fortunate to see Titanic on San Diegos last single screen. A huge huge huge single theatre.

I dislike the corporate 40 plexes.
 
I think the last film I saw at the local 2 screener was Twister... a few month's after that they were gone and replaced by several megaplex's that opened the same year.

Having experienced the older style for more of my life I' personally prefer a bigger screen, better sound, and more comfortable seats. I hate to be the one to say it but that's how I feel.
 
overlandfilms said:
Working for KOR / ILM isn't everything it's cracked up to be. It's not significantly more or less incredible than working for any other studio, and once you get past the secret-code-at-the-door mystic and the original Darth Vader and R2 unit in the lobby... well, okay - that is kinda cool.

It might be all peaches and cream up at the Skywalker sound facility (except I've been told that it's not), but the El Camino-mounted-camera-shooting-the-trench-sequence-for-E4-ILM we all fantasize about was more realistically realized at John Dykstra's sadly defunct Apogee in SoCal.

Apogee was the place where the "waterslide incident" took place, and on any given day, you'd find Jon Erland and many of the original ILMers puttering around the shop doing analog effects day in and day out. Oh, what's that lady doing? An eight foot wide on-glass matte painting. What's he doing over there? Calibrating the Dykstraflex motion control system. What are those? Those are the pneumatic stakes we're building for the Indiana Jones Adventure Show at Universal Florida.

foto4_01.jpg


My visit there - and the awestruck face time I got with Dykstra and Erland - set me up for a major fall when I finally went to the Deloite and Touchesque ILM facility in San Rafael to work on Daylight and Eraser.

I think Lucas is an incredible innovator, but I can't figure out what he's doing when he starts writing and directing. Yikes.

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I used to work quite a bit with John Dykstra, Richard Edland, John Hues, Jim Rygel, James Cameron and Scott Ross. [How's that for name dropping]. ILM might not be on the cutting edge as it once was, but its still a very impressive company. Very few of the desciples of ILM who went on to start their own facilities, like Apogee, Boss Films and Warner Digital could make much of a go of it.

People might not like his movies but Goerge Lukas has done a hell of a lot of good for this industry and the people in it. John, your not serious about "we pay for it" are you? 20th Century Fox has made so much money on the Star Wars brand.

Don't get me wrong, I hate the studio system but the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Goerge Lukas created and developed Star Wars and it's his to do what he wants.
 
John_Hudson said:
I have heard this theory before and I say NUTZ!

Your friend paid good money to fix his ride and it was his property. George didn't. We paid for it. 20th Century Fox paid for it

He ruined it. He betrayed cinema.
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Mighty strong words John, I think you've gone beyond hating Lucas :)
 
Ok, I will chime in. Lucas is what he is. He started out a true indie filmmaker, and somewhere in the middle he became more of a good businessman and less of a filmmaker, during that time he brought so many good things (THX, ILM etc) to filmmaking. Pioneering work, revolutionary thoughts and ideas that bettered moviegoing for generations of fans, unfortunately he went to far and became an evil businessman that was interested pretty much in milking the filmgoing public like a cow. To his shameful credit, a vast majority continue to offer him a teat. (there's a good image) It seems almost that his career mirrors that of Anakin himself, starting out good, with great intentions and ideallistic dreams, but being seduced into the obscene excesses of capitalism, from which he probably may never emerge. However maybe, like Anakin, on his death bed, he will re-release the original theatrical versions of Episodes 4-6 in High Def, but even then his true intentions would be questionable.
I can't say though I would have behaved any differently in his shoes. I'd want the money too, to build a formidable filmmaking empire of my own.

And to anyone who says "I dont like Lucas the director, I like Lucas the Executive Producer!" I have only to boldly point at......HOWARD THE DUCK.
 
our neighborhoof theatre in Brooklyn, the Lowes Oriental, a Gold gilded 70 foot ceiling lobby with 1 screen 100 feet wide, closed in 1992 i think. now its a marshalls...... i want to cry everytime i pass by it, because the exterior of the building is still a art deco masterpiece.
 
San Francisco still has a few of the old neighborhood theaters, but they're quietly slipping away. In SoCal, you can't beat seeing a picture in Westwood though - AVCO, Village and the National...

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I was able to catch the first LOTR and sit in on the ranch's Ep2 screening at the
Stag theater/Skywalker Sound which is pretty much the THX reference theatre.

Now that was impressive. Perfect sound, a respectful audience that worked
on the films and it was a trip sitting in front of Lucas and a row up from Muren
and his crew :)

Kinda spoils the whole multiplex thing.

Disney also had monthly screenings in one of the theatres in the 'Hat building' as
part of the artistic development programs. Seeing American Graffitti on 35 again
was spectacular. The film really holds up well and Haskell Wexler's influence
visible is all over that project.
 
I just don't get the Star Wars religious experience. :huh: It was just a movie. A good movie, but not great. I'm wondering how you separate the Star Warriors from the Trekkies. :evil:
 
I'm not a big fan of Lucas' later efforts as a director, but I give him props for creating Star Wars. THe first film was a great action film, with virtually no camera movement. I don't know the statistic, but I would say about 95% of all the shots are static. That says something about good directing and great editing. I cannot think of even one film that can say that.

And really, genius may fade, but you might say the same thing about someone like Orson Welles, (director, not actor...something he was good at into his later years). They guy pretty much blew his wad on his first film, but he's practically a cinematic saint. I'd cut Lucas that much slack. Both men have legacies that stem from their earliest work. Lucas' choice to focus on the technological has been a benefit to us all. Maybe if he had focused on being a better story teller instead of a technical innovater, we wouldn't be doing the 24P dance every day. Hard to say. I appreciate where he has put his efforts.

Besides, he has done exactly what he wanted to do, made the films he wanted to make, the way he wanted to make them. Who wouldn't want that?

I have no beef with Lucas...still I have to say that EP 1-3 are nearly worthless to me personally. Watching Natalie Portman even talk to Hayden Christiansen is a physically painful experience.
 
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Jim Brennan said:
Maybe if he had focused on being a better story teller instead of a technical innovater, we wouldn't be doing the 24P dance every day.
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Lets be honest here.. that dance hasnt changed.

Lucas has shot a few films in Techniscope, which is a '2 perf' 35mm format. Basically
the film passes through the camera at 1/2 speed and only 'half' of each 35mm frame
is exposed for a non-anamorphic, 2.35 image. Its the digital equavalent of shooting
in 'squeeze' mode as its 1/2 the resoultion.

Generally, this was an ultra-low budget tactic and the most famous usage is the
Sergio Leone spagetti-westerns.

Cheaper, better, faster (...and more intense - hehe!)

The tech has changed... the dance remains the same.
 
I was referring to his technological advances and how he has embraced digital video. I believe he is directly and indirectly responsible for a lot of what we take for granted.
 
I loved the original Star Wars trilogy, but then I was five when the original came out in 1977, so part of it is being of that generation. I liked Revenge of the Sith too. I don't love or hate Lucas or his movies. I don't quite get the venom people have for him or the complete adoration.

This is OT, but since I was cleaning out my hard drive today and found this, I thought I'd share this little Photoshop thing I did last year to annoy my boss. I love Ann Arbor, but my boss is so into Michigan football it's obnoxious.

michigan-vader.jpg


Back to Lucas, I look forward to seeing what he does next since he said he's going to do small indie movies. I don't have high hopes, especially if he's the scribe, but I'll give it a chance.

Cheers,

Josh
 
Jim Brennan said:
I was referring to his technological advances and how he has embraced digital video. I believe he is directly and indirectly responsible for a lot of what we take for granted.
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They are one in the same...

The tech is secondary to cost/performance for everything that Lucas does. From
non-linear editing via Edit Droid, to using hi def cameras for capture (quality suffers but
its cheaper) to techniscope (quality suffers but its cheaper).
 
Blaine said:
I just don't get the Star Wars religious experience. :huh: It was just a movie. A good movie, but not great. I'm wondering how you separate the Star Warriors from the Trekkies. :evil:
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I agree

Now I found the original trilogy to be just epic. I played Star Wars when I was little on the playground. It is a major influence on me as a filmmaker and filmgoer and is a huge part of my child hood memories.

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As far as it being some kind of life altering geek Jedi thingy ? No way. That's just weird. I too, do not get the Jedi obsession or the religiously changing someones life thing. The dressing up and going to the theatre and waiting more than an hour in line ?

Screw that.
 
John_Hudson said:
The dressing up and going to the theatre and waiting more than an hour in line ?

Screw that.
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Walking *past* those guys while in a crew jacket is kinda fun though :)
 
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