What has George Lucas done with his life?

[ComicKaze]

Why is George Lucas considered such a big hollywood producer/director? When he started out he was supposed to be this revolutionary, cool, young director with projects like THX1138 and American Grafitti.

Then he did Star Wars, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Indiana Jones, Young Indiana Jones, and then Star Wars, Star Wars, and this summer Star Wars, and in 2007 Indiana Jones.

So like, what's the deal with this guy? His good buddy Spielberg's been cleaning up everywhere with hit movies one after the other. Lucas has collossal movie success but it's nothing but 9 movies made out of the same 2 franchises. Sure a lot of his money went into Skywalker Ranch and Industrial Light and Magic but they are parts of his company, not his personal projects with total involvement like film production.

Maybe all these years of doing nothing is why he's gone insane and went and raped our collective childhoods?

I guess maybe you can't fault him. If 1974-1983 was Star Wars. 1979-1993 were Indiana Jones. And 1997-2005 are Star Wars. He's keeping busy I suppose. Better than most of us. And raping the box office too.

Edited April 26, 2005 by ComicKaze

[JB0]

I can tell you what he HASN'T been doing.

Giving me his bank account #, that's what.

[Wes]

Eatting.

A lot.

Edited April 26, 2005 by Wes

[JsARCLIGHT]

He won the movie lottery by making Star Wars and Indiana jones. Who needs to do anything else when those two properties spawned ILM, Skywalker Sound and other mega million dollar businesses... besides Star Wars and Indiana Jones. All he can do is wake up, go outside, rake up the piles of cash on his front lawn and go back to bed.

What a hard life filled with responsability and the need to work hard to put food on his plate.

Edit: You could also ask "why isn't Thomas Dolby still making music?"

Edited April 26, 2005 by JsARCLIGHT

[Ladic]

his companies have revolutionazied sounds and special effects.

[azrael]

With the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies, Lucas has pushed technological advancements to the forefront. Lucas really pushed bluescreen work to the front. Now every movie uses bluescreen/green screen work to do those hard action shots. Like having a close-up on the actor as things are blowing up and the actor is on a moving vehicle. Or having a small number of extras then applying a green screen to make it seem like thousands of extras. He also pushed special effects into a wider range of work.

With the Young Indy, he made digital editing more common place. Now digital editing is what people use. With Episode 2, Lucas made use digital filming for the entire film. Now editing is cut down since you can take the footage and go straight to editing/post-production the day you shoot the material.

[yellowlightman]

He created three of the most beloved movies in American cinema history.

I think that's "enough."

[NERV]

With the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies, Lucas has pushed technological advancements to the forefront. Lucas really pushed bluescreen work to the front. Now every movie uses bluescreen/green screen work to do those hard action shots. Like having a close-up on the actor as things are blowing up and the actor is on a moving vehicle. Or having a small number of extras then applying a green screen to make it seem like thousands of extras. He also pushed special effects into a wider range of work.

With the Young Indy, he made digital editing more common place. Now digital editing is what people use. With Episode 2, Lucas made use digital filming for the entire film. Now editing is cut down since you can take the footage and go straight to editing/post-production the day you shoot the material.

well then that another reason to dislike lucas, if the action shot is too hard, then dont do it, dont try to fake it, thats one of the reasons todays movies arent as good, used to be aside from some off camera stuff like pads and wires, all the stuff that happened really happened which is what made it cool, these days theyll CG half the shot, and paste the actors face in

[Agent ONE]

... More than you.

[Mr March]

Quite simply, George Lucas was one of the pivitol technical innovators of modern american cinema, a modernizer of classic storytelling on film, and one of the biggest contributors to the technical progression of the medium. Regardless of how you feel about his work or personally, he will always be that person and has earned his place in film history. For example, I dislike Quentin Tarantino's films, but he will always maintain his place in the history of film as a notable innovator of narrative structure for Pulp Fiction. Other unique praises can be applied to other directors as well (Hitchcock's pioneering of camera techniques, Sergio Leone inventing the spaghetti western, etc).

It's actually been fashionable (and long since past fashion I might add) to criticize Lucas for his weakness as a director since the release of the Star Wars prequels. Despite how well or poor his career may proceed as time passes, he will always have his accomplishments and what he has achieved for the industry/medium. Critics can attempt to downplay or understate the past accomplishments of Lucas(oh yes Mr. Brin, we see right through you like glass), but ultimately history will look favorably on Lucas. Well that it should.

I often see comparisons between Lucas and other succesful directors of his generation, particularly Spielberg and Coppola. Often Spielberg is portrayed as a much more successful director or somehow more important in comparison. In reality, it will certainly depend upon what you like as an individual...and I suppose a certain cultural-elitism given the amount of importance you place upon american film in relation to film the world over. If one were to grant each director due credit for the true innovations and contributions to the progression of the medium, I'm sorry to say Lucas' work would far exceed Spielbergs. Spielberg has all but led a crusade against digital and his involvement in Dreamworks is a shadow of what THX, ILM, and SS has accomplished for the entire film industry. Many prominent directors owe direct lineages to Lucas' impact on the industry (Fincher, Bird, Jackson, etc). In contrast, Spielberg's contribution to storytelling on film has far exceeded Lucas. Let's face it, the man has directed far more films and been a more consistant pleaser of the moving going public at large. Spielberg has also taken on a much broader variety of subjects in film and been responsible for more modern classics than Lucas can ever hope to accomplish as a director.

Keep in mind though, Spielberg has his critics as well. Spielberg is largely held responsible for the downfall of intelligent filmmaking in the late 1970s and the rise of box office banal that would come to be known as the "summer blockbuster." His chain-filmmaking has also lead to the slow homogenisation of mainstream american cinema; his status as a benchmark long outrunning his innovations. Many successful modern filmmakers have actually created entirely new methods of filmmaking in direct opposition to the accepted methods established by Spielberg. Modern indie filmmaking came about because of such a need to rebel against the norms and break molds in the mainstream studio system.

Personally, I do not look to Lucas or Spielberg for edgey, innovative, or provocative material in film. They did that in the 1970's and 1980's. Their films now provide entertainment or transport me elsewhere. There are other creators, writers, and directors that have appeared on the world scene that progress film. And yes, even Tarantino was among that group

[JB0]

With the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies, Lucas has pushed technological advancements to the forefront. Lucas really pushed bluescreen work to the front. Now every movie uses bluescreen/green screen work to do those hard action shots. Like having a close-up on the actor as things are blowing up and the actor is on a moving vehicle. Or having a small number of extras then applying a green screen to make it seem like thousands of extras. He also pushed special effects into a wider range of work.

With the Young Indy, he made digital editing more common place. Now digital editing is what people use. With Episode 2, Lucas made use digital filming for the entire film. Now editing is cut down since you can take the footage and go straight to editing/post-production the day you shoot the material.

well then that another reason to dislike lucas, if the action shot is too hard, then dont do it, dont try to fake it, thats one of the reasons todays movies arent as good, used to be aside from some off camera stuff like pads and wires, all the stuff that happened really happened which is what made it cool, these days theyll CG half the shot, and paste the actors face in

Pfft.

It's not the design of the action sequences that's made movies go downhill. It's the fact that Hollywood realized they could assemble a catchy-looking ad and guarantee movie profits without a decent script.

That's why most non-action movies suck too.

As for not doing the action shot if you can't actually do it in real life...

Am I the only person that sees they hypocrisy in expressing this sentiment on a message board devoted to a show about 30-foot tall aliens and transforming planes?

Besides which, stop motion was being used for this stuff LONG before Lucas came around. He just perfected it on his way to other, more advanced, effects.

Ironically, he took flak for it at the time.

Harryhausen resented Star Wars' perfect stop-motion with computers nudging the models as the shutter opened to add that touch of motion blur. Said that stop-motion wasn't SUPPOSED to look realistic and that it was a cheapening of his art.

Personally, I think anyone watching an XWing swoop down on a TIE fighter, then seeing King Kong's fur creep across his back like a swarm of ants, would disagree.

[EXO]

... More than you.

I don't know if you meant that to be funny... but it's the best answer in this thread.

[NERV]

there is a big sifferende between live action and animation, in animation you can basicaly get away with anything because none of it is supposed to be real, if animation was supposed to be realistic than anime basicly wouldnt exist. and the same problem in liv emovies is currently in animation too, CG that doesnt belong, if the film and the CG effects dont match then it looks obviously fake, CG isnt as bad to animation because CG doesnt look real and animation dont go real so it just a matter of manipulating them both to match up and you have good CG in animation, but with live films it used to be if someone was jumping out of an explosion, someone was jumping out of an explosion, today its a person in front of a green screen on wires jumping around and they superimpose them into the explosion video and add come CG fire around the person to make it look real, but it still doesnt look real, the best CG i have seen was jurrasic park, it was the least obviously fake

[ewilen]

Didn't he do Willow?

Edited April 26, 2005 by ewilen

[Keith]

Didn't he do Willow?

Nope, that was Ron Howard.

[yellowlightman]

Didn't he do Willow?

Nope, that was Ron Howard.

Lucas was the executive producer and is credited with the story (but not the screenplay).

[EXO]

But he DID DO Willow...

badabump!

[Graham]

But he DID DO Willow...

badabump!

Ewwwww.......

Graham

[Gui]

With the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies, Lucas has pushed technological advancements to the forefront. Lucas really pushed bluescreen work to the front. Now every movie uses bluescreen/green screen work to do those hard action shots. Like having a close-up on the actor as things are blowing up and the actor is on a moving vehicle. Or having a small number of extras then applying a green screen to make it seem like thousands of extras. He also pushed special effects into a wider range of work.

With the Young Indy, he made digital editing more common place. Now digital editing is what people use. With Episode 2, Lucas made use digital filming for the entire film. Now editing is cut down since you can take the footage and go straight to editing/post-production the day you shoot the material.

well then that another reason to dislike lucas, if the action shot is too hard, then dont do it, dont try to fake it, thats one of the reasons todays movies arent as good, used to be aside from some off camera stuff like pads and wires, all the stuff that happened really happened which is what made it cool, these days theyll CG half the shot, and paste the actors face in

Pfft.

It's not the design of the action sequences that's made movies go downhill. It's the fact that Hollywood realized they could assemble a catchy-looking ad and guarantee movie profits without a decent script.

That's why most non-action movies suck too.

I believe Hollywood understood this a long time before Lucas, this guy simply abused of the process beyond the most basic decency: all these improvements in CG and film-editing techniques were supposed to serve this purpose only, sell (sh!tty) movies, and certainly not to allow developments for the sake of 'progress', this is what I reproach to him in the end...

Well, actually, I reproach more to the people who are stupid enough to buy the ticket and so encourage this industry

[eriku]

But he DID DO Willow...

badabump!

Gak...I'm choking on my toast! HelP!!

[KingNor]

Didn't he do Willow?

Nope, that was Ron Howard.

Lucas was the executive producer and is credited with the story (but not the screenplay).

replace "ring" with "baby"

then replace "destroy" with "wander around with"

then replace "lord of the rings" with "willow"

:-D

personally i don't think lucas has provided much to movies. Star Wars was brilliant, the rest of the franchise is muddled and ok. I don't care what you say, Star Wars stands alone better than the Trillogy stands togeather. I won't talk about the new episodes.

The Indy films seem like better if less deep movies individually, and they dont' really try to tell one story togeather.

where lucas has "revolutionized" is more in movie making than anything else.

[Hoptimus]

Why is George Lucas considered such a big hollywood producer/director? When he started out he was supposed to be this revolutionary, cool, young director with projects like THX1138 and American Grafitti.

Then he did Star Wars, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Indiana Jones, Young Indiana Jones, and then Star Wars, Star Wars, and this summer Star Wars, and in 2007 Indiana Jones.

So like, what's the deal with this guy? His good buddy Spielberg's been cleaning up everywhere with hit movies one after the other. Lucas has collossal movie success but it's nothing but 9 movies made out of the same 2 franchises. Sure a lot of his money went into Skywalker Ranch and Industrial Light and Magic but they are parts of his company, not his personal projects with total involvement like film production.

Maybe all these years of doing nothing is why he's gone insane and went and raped our collective childhoods?

I guess maybe you can't fault him. If 1974-1983 was Star Wars. 1979-1993 were Indiana Jones. And 1997-2005 are Star Wars. He's keeping busy I suppose. Better than most of us. And raping the box office too.

After he got Divorced following Return of the Jedi he raised his kids.

He raised his family and built up his properties.

I heard he wanted to make sure everything was stable before he went into making more of the SW films. They suck the life out of him when he does it. Watch the Episode 1 behind the scenes documentry. He tells the 2nd unit director that he will sit back and look miserable lol.

I look forward to him doing something else after Ep3.

[Blaine23]

Personally, I don't think much of Lucas as a director or a screenwriter. Lucas really is a story concept artist. He took special effects to where they are today mainly by not giving up and pushing the envelope. As a writer, he comes up with great ideas that translate into great visuals.

Really to me, Lucas is what I'd think of as a super-producer. Ultimately, he's not that much different than a Jerry Bruckheimer. He finds incredible art talent, manages it all effectively, and really has made so much of his money from having made smart deals with Star Wars. Back in '77, it was pretty much assumed that SW would be a huge flop and Lucas took marketing rights over money. This isn't a decision that a Spielberg or a Coppola would have made.

A screenwriter writes good dialogue. Lucas isn't that guy. He's got a pretty tin ear in that regard.

A director controls a film set, interprets the script, and directs actors. Lucas can pull off the first two okay... but on the 3rd, he's just terrible. Often we like to blame wooden performances on actors (and quite often they deserve it), but a director who doesn't work with well with actors will get terrible reads.

Combine bad scripting with bad dialogue... and you get Anakin.

Lucas is a visionary in many, many ways... he's done a great deal with his life and he's got quite a few achievements under his belt. But there's a reason he's not really considered a great director, like Spielberg or Coppola or any others in his generation - that reason is that he's more suited concepting and effects more than he enjoys actual acting and story.

You can't compare the work he's done as director and screenwriter with works like The Godfather or Schindler's List. It just doesn't hold up.

Edited April 26, 2005 by Blaine23

[bandit29]

What has GL done with his life?...

...and for the 1000th time said on this board...

HE RAPED MY CHILDHOOD!!!!!!!!

[bsu legato]

Blaming CGI for bad movies is lazy criticism at best. You want to know why so many movies suck these days? Its because we have "music video" directors and absolute hacks like Renny Harlin, Simon West, Paul Anderson and Stephen Sommers making movies. Its people like them who make movies that suck because they don't know the first thing about telling a story, and I'm not even talking about any Campbellian "Hero's journey" type story. Instead they have Will Smith mugging at the camera with a "Aww hell no!" or a Van Helsing-esque barrage of mind numbing action scenes, and the audiences eat it up. All they have to do is appeal to the lowest common denomiator and they will be guaranteed a good opening weekend, which we all know is what the bean-counters look at. So if viewers want good movies, they should stop patronizing crap like Van Helsing and Resident Evil 2.

As for Lucas himself, I think his contributions to the industry speak for themselves. Star Wars aside, only a fool would question all that he has done for film. Or as AgentONE put it, he's done "More than you" or any of us will ever do.

[azrael]

where lucas has "revolutionized" is more in movie making than anything else.

Bingo. Lucas's movies are no Casablanca or Gone with the Wind. But behind the scenes is where Lucas has been most influential.

After he got Divorced following Return of the Jedi he raised his kids.

He raised his family and built up his properties.

I heard he wanted to make sure everything was stable before he went into making more of the SW films. They suck the life out of him when he does it. Watch the Episode 1 behind the scenes documentry. He tells the 2nd unit director that he will sit back and look miserable lol.

I look forward to him doing something else after Ep3.

Again, true. His kids were his first priority after RotJ.

[bandit29]

Instead they have Will Smith mugging at the camera with a "Aww hell no!"

You're not giving Will Smith enough credit.. he also uses the lines "Aww hell ya" and the ever popular "Oh no you din't" and "git some of these".

Lucas has done more for special effects and behind the scenes than anyone I can think of. A true pioneer.

[eugimon]

this is lame... lucas has turned his passion and love into some of the greatest movie franchises in history.. his technology and innovation of have changed film making and marketing forever.

And weak sauce fan boys like you can only sit and gripe because you didn't get your lightsaber wet dream filled by him.

[Blaine23]

this is lame... lucas has turned his passion and love into some of the greatest movie franchises in history.. his technology and innovation of have changed film making and marketing forever.

And weak sauce fan boys like you can only sit and gripe because you didn't get your lightsaber wet dream filled by him.

Which of us is more likely to have a "lightsaber wet dream"? I'm guessing it's you, dude. If you think SW is Lucas' "passion and love", then you might be a bit too romantically attached to it.

Weak sauce? Are you a "strong sauce" fanboy? Did we invent new sauce-related slang while I was sleeping?

[bsu legato]

Weak sauce? Are you a "strong sauce" fanboy? Did we invent new sauce-related slang while I was sleeping?

Ooh! I call dibs on "HP" Sauce!

[KingNor]

this is lame... lucas has turned his passion and love into some of the greatest movie franchises in history.. his technology and innovation of have changed film making and marketing forever.

And weak sauce fan boys like you can only sit and gripe because you didn't get your lightsaber wet dream filled by him.

if anything, lucas utterly indulged the lightsaber wetdream ness with fights become woo movies, dual light sabers , flying super ninja yoda, and campy crap.

honestly i think fan boys got everything they thought they wanted, and they saw how lame it was.

[bsu legato]

honestly i think fan boys got everything they thought they wanted, and they saw how lame it was.

Awesome. I'm guessing that you fall into this category then?

[Prime]

With the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies, Lucas has pushed technological advancements to the forefront. Lucas really pushed bluescreen work to the front. Now every movie uses bluescreen/green screen work to do those hard action shots. Like having a close-up on the actor as things are blowing up and the actor is on a moving vehicle. Or having a small number of extras then applying a green screen to make it seem like thousands of extras. He also pushed special effects into a wider range of work.

With the Young Indy, he made digital editing more common place. Now digital editing is what people use. With Episode 2, Lucas made use digital filming for the entire film. Now editing is cut down since you can take the footage and go straight to editing/post-production the day you shoot the material.

well then that another reason to dislike lucas, if the action shot is too hard, then dont do it, dont try to fake it, thats one of the reasons todays movies arent as good, used to be aside from some off camera stuff like pads and wires, all the stuff that happened really happened which is what made it cool, these days theyll CG half the shot, and paste the actors face in

You obviously have a different opinion that me, since I would rather watch this

than this

and I think these

are better than this

For me I don't really care how the effect was created, as long as it looks good. I don't get more enjoyment out of it if I think someone really performed the stunt. And CG is just a tool. If it is misuesed, that is the fault of the filmmakers, not the technology.

[do not disturb]

whats GL done with his life?

jeez i don't know, maybe hes been counting these $$$$$$$$$$$ for the past 20 years.

[GRAND CANNON]

...and then thinking of how much to spend on rest of the Howard The Duck trilogy!!