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When did you realize that George Lucas was full of it

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When I was young discovering SW for the first time believed, I everything about some of the things that GL had said about SW. That the SE were always how he intended the OT film’s to be, that he had written the PT back in the 70s etc.

Then on the TPM making of feature on the DVD, I saw the poor decisions he was making as a director as if he needed to take a step back and let someone else do it and when he said “Jar Jar’s the key to all this” was when I realized that he was making this all up as he was going along.

As I got older, I started to see how ridiculous some of the irrational SE changes were and from reading information from other fans learned that they were a marketing ploy because ILM was not doing that well at the time and the SE (or was it the PT?) were made to generate revenue for the company.

I also never bought into the claim that he planned Vader being Luke’s father from the beginning of writing ANH because my take on it was “then why would Obi-Wan say something different?”".

What about you guys? Old and young fans, newbie and veterans; at point in your life did you realize that GL was just full of it?

Analog Releases of Films That Contain Deleted, Extended, & Alternate Footage That’ve Never Been Released on DVD/BluRay

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In '07, after I watched ROTS for the first time. That’s when I stopped seriously believing in any “original vision”.

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In 1983 when Luke said “Leia, Leia’s my sister…”

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I never really heard about the whole grand plan thing until a few years ago. But before I did I knew that George wasn’t all knowing I just didn’t know why he wasn’t.

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I completely stopped believing in George when I found out that he edited midichlorians into The Making of Star Wars. If he can just change history like that, I don’t trust a word he says.

My preferred Skywalker Saga experience:
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX

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Wait, he edited midicholorians into The Making of Star Wars?

I think it was when he said that the the original films were too damaged or don’t exist, and that the only way to watch Star Wars on new media formats was with the SE versions. Then later he released the original OT on DVD, although it wasn’t remastered or anything.

It seemed to me that he wanted the updated SE’s to be seen as the definitive versions, and just made up excuses as to why he couldn’t put out the theatrical version of the OT.

I don’t necessarily have a problem with him making stuff up as he went along. Writers and creative types often do that for a variety of reasons. And on top of that, I can see why he wants to push the narrative that he had the whole thing planned out from the very beginning, and that Star Wars was always about the redemption of Anakin Skywalker. Some fans don’t want to hear that key aspects of their favorite story, good or bad, were a mistake or last minute.

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I can’t say there was a particular moment where I began questioning his credibility since it’s been rather ongoing since childhood but the moment where I more or less stopped trusting his claims all together was when he claimed Greedo shot first in the original version despite mounting evidence to the contrary.

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I love George Lucas. I don’t agree with every decision he has ever made and I don’t like everything he has ever done, but he created the greatest franchise of all time and he deserves my gratitude. I do think he gets far too much credit for some things and far too much ridicule for others, but if you enjoy cinema at all, then George Lucas is someone you should thank.

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The GOUT debacle was what finally did it for me, and I bought more tickets to each of the prequels than I’d like to admit.

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Some of George’s comments around the time of the GOUT did turn me off somewhat, and the continued absence of an official release of the Unaltered Originals hurts too. But none of this would be here without him so there’s that to consider.

Yes, there is some revisionism, we’ve all done it ourselves. I think a lot of other people like Ralph McQuarrie, Dennis Muren, John Dykstra, Irvin Kershner, Lawrence Kasdan, Ben Burtt, and Marcia Lucas deserve more credit that they’ve received. But in this age of entitled fans spewing hate, Lucas has been the target of an unfair amount of criticism as well. Maybe the prequels would have been different if Lucas was more collaborative at that time, maybe that’s not the case at all. It hardly matters now.

I can’t imagine there will ever be anything like Star Wars to ever come along again. I feel privileged to have grown up at just the right time to have fully enjoyed it all from the beginning, and I’m still enjoying the ride, bumps and all. I’m enjoying the new movies immensely, and I don’t think I’ll live to see the end.

Thanks again George. May the Force be with you!

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StarkillerAG said:

I completely stopped believing in George when I found out that he edited midichlorians into The Making of Star Wars. If he can just change history like that, I don’t trust a word he says.

Are you serious! Do you have a time stamp for the offending piece?

It would seem then that even the original official documentaries need preserving as protection against revisionist George 😕

I have much respect for the man for numerous reasons and could never thank him enough for giving us Star Wars but in the same breath I hate what he has done to the OT and wish he’d had the type of people helping him shape the OT, onboard with him as well for the PT.

I don’t think George is full of it but the point at which I started seriously getting pissed off with him was the changes to the OT crossing a culmulative threashold where Han no longer shoots first, there’s prequel level silly shit going on around Mos Eisley, Obiwan’s force scream mimic to scare of the Sand People sounds ridiculous that it makes me do a “WTF?” laugh, Luke now screams as he falls down the Cloud City shaft, Vader says “NOOOOOOOO!” when picking up the Emperor, completely different end celebration music after the funeral pyre with obvious CGI locations celebrating, including Gungans.

Anything that simply enhances the original experience I was fine with and often improved the movie in terms of more believable effects, though with the OOT unavailable I think anything that replaces at the time ground breaking effects and models that people helping make Star Wars put untold hours and effort into, is simply not on.

At this stage I am also not happy that he sold the franchise to Disney. I think he should have kept hold of it and simply allowed other directors to make new Star Wars movies for him with himself as Exec Producer / Assistant Director and story consultant or something like that.

Val

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There’s plenty of stuff to dislike about the SE without citing Luke screaming the Emperor’s scream as he falls in Cloud City, one of the few (the only?) changes George actually reversed in later re-revisions of the OT.

It’s weird to think that George offered the Episode I director’s chair to other people (Zemeckis, Ron Howard, Darabont et al), all of whom turned him down and said he should direct it himself.

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Valheru_84 said:

I have much respect for the man for numerous reasons and could never thank him enough for giving us Star Wars

Yeah, same here.
The Star Wars OT, and the Indiana Jones trilogy were amazing, and a treasure to watch during my childhood.

I don’t think George is full of it but the point at which I started seriously getting pissed off with him was the changes to the OT crossing a culmulative threashold where Han no longer shoots first, there’s prequel level silly shit going on around Mos Eisley, Obiwan’s force scream mimic to scare of the Sand People sounds ridiculous that it makes me do a “WTF?” laugh, Luke now screams as he falls down the Cloud City shaft, Vader says “NOOOOOOOO!” when picking up the Emperor, completely different end celebration music after the funeral pyre with obvious CGI locations celebrating, including Gungans.

I think the actual animosity started not from the quality of prequels, but when he initially refused to release the theatrical versions on DVD, then later relented but there were a poor quality and not remastered or anything like most other films.
I think Ridley Scott’s final cut of Blade Runner is the perfect example of tweaking a film for the better.

I love the added effects to Cloud City in ESB. Makes it look so much better. Other than that, I don’t like any of the other SE changes.

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In an interview with Empire when the new version of THX-1138 came out he said “it’s like Star Wars there is no original version”. What a scumbag.

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Valheru_84 said:

StarkillerAG said:

At this stage I am also not happy that he sold the franchise to Disney. I think he should have kept hold of it and simply allowed other directors to make new Star Wars movies for him with himself as Exec Producer / Assistant Director and story consultant or something like that.

Val

I agree.

But if I understand correctly, he did reach out to Ron Howard to direct TPM but he declined so whether he really did reach out to people for collaboration but they told him “it’s your movie you do it” or people really did try to tell him “you need to fix this script before we shoot it” or “I don’t think this is a good idea” but he refused to listen, or none of the above who knows.

He was a consultant on TFA and made a suggestion to Howard while filming Solo. I didn’t hear him being a consultant on the TLJ, I wonder why?

Analog Releases of Films That Contain Deleted, Extended, & Alternate Footage That’ve Never Been Released on DVD/BluRay

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Fair enough Tantive, sounds like it just wasn’t meant to be.

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Valheru_84 said:

StarkillerAG said:

I completely stopped believing in George when I found out that he edited midichlorians into The Making of Star Wars. If he can just change history like that, I don’t trust a word he says.

Are you serious! Do you have a time stamp for the offending piece?

It would seem then that even the original official documentaries need preserving as protection against revisionist George 😕

I meant the book by Rinzler. There’s a thread about it somewhere.

My preferred Skywalker Saga experience:
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX

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^ Ah ok…so we need to preserve the books as well! 😛

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Valheru_84 said:

At this stage I am also not happy that he sold the franchise to Disney. I think he should have kept hold of it and simply allowed other directors to make new Star Wars movies for him with himself as Exec Producer / Assistant Director and story consultant or something like that.

Val

I think he should’ve let it fall into the public domain.

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For me the initial situation was the ongoing editing of the OT for puzzling reasons imo. After it was realizing how much of the finished product that ended up as Ep 4 had a lot to do with other people George worked with.

I think if SW ANH was all Georges like the PT…well, there wouldn’t be a PT.

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For me it was the moment when Lucas was babbling about this whole TRAGEDY OF DARTH VADER thing. The OT is not about Luke, Han and Leia - thus fun & entertaining space adventures - noooo, it’s reaaaallllly about how a good person gets bad. It’s the tragedy of Darth Vader bla bla bla. George Lucas … the master of autohypnosis.

Rogue One is redundant. Just play the first mission of DARK FORCES.
The hallmark of a corrupt leader: Being surrounded by yes men.
‘The best visual effects in the world will not compensate for a story told badly.’ - V.E.S.
‘Star Wars is a buffet, enjoy the stuff you want, and leave the rest.’ - SilverWook