Marcia Lucas spoke about this in Jonathan Rinzler’s Howard Kazanjian book. She debunks the narrative that she is the sole reason for “saving” the film.
Many of us on here are aware of the downplaying or ignoring of Marcia Lucas’ contributions to the films in the official Star Wars history - and applaud content which illustrates and highlights her input - along with the input and work of others too… yet there is now a narrative where she is the sole reason for ‘saving’ the film? And the above words debunked that narrative? Huh.
It was all a collaborative process and George was very much involved in piecing it all together.
Indeed, and yet it is such a shame that some of the content out there which attempts to highlight the contributions of others to the Original Trilogy is somehow labelled as ‘lying, biased nonsense with misdirection and misinformation across the board’ along with false inferences that the editors somehow created Star Wars, or that such content is viewed to be an affront or insult to George, or ‘literally a lie’.
Especially so when one of those people who had a significant input on the Original Trilogy has seemingly been omitted / erased from the official Star Wars history.
The following passage of words by Marcia Lucas didn’t get much attention on social media (unlike the quotes re the Prequels and Sequels has over the past day or so) - yet they are worth putting up on here… it is the foreword written by Marcia for the book ‘Howard Kazanjian: A Producer’s Life’, by the late JW Rinzler:-
Seems like it is a good intriguing book - I hope people do read it (and not just Marcia’s quotes on the Prequels & Sequels).
As well as looking up other rare content where Marcia talks about her work and contributions on the Original Trilogy films…
‘Star Wars 40th with Marcia Lucas and Duwayne Dunham’:-
https://vimeo.com/224132896 - a 10 minute video at the Athena Studios vimeo channel.
The blurb: ‘Academy Award-winning editor and George Lucas’ former wife Marcia Lucas discusses the creation of Star Wars with Emmy-winning editor Duwayne Dunham who worked on The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
From the 40th Anniversary ILM reunion held at 32ten Studios on May 27th, 2017.’
‘Star Wars Visual Effects Pioneers Highlight The Academy’s “Galactic Innovations: Star Wars & Rogue One” Event’:-
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOxfmq0nCEs - a 2 and a half hour video from the Alexis Alcázar youtube channel.
The blurb: 'Watch live as VFX pioneers behind “Star Wars” and “Rogue One” share the journey of creating the impossible with their breakthrough visual effects.
We’ll share rare images that compare the technology and visual results from both films. Guests include John Dykstra, Dennis Muren, John Knoll, Ben Burtt, Marcia Lucas, Bill George, Harrison Ellenshaw, Bruce Nicholson, Richard Edlund and Rachel Rose.’
^ Marcia appears on the video to talk about the editing aspects of Star Wars at 60 mins, alongside Ben Burtt - then later at 2h 07m.
Edit: Plus, this in-depth ‘In Tribute to Marcia Lucas’ article written by the author of The Secret History of Star Wars - Michael Kaminski (aka zombie84):-
http://fd.noneinc.com/secrethistoryofstarwarscom/secrethistoryofstarwars.com/marcialucas.html
Double Jedit: an article on Marcia Lucas - and Charles Lippincott’s contributions to the Marcia Lucas segment in ‘The Secret History of Star Wars’ book and article (above). It also touches upon the some of the people who contributed to / worked on the film - and were later written out of the official history of Star Wars - such as Lippincott himself, Gary Kurtz, and Marcia Lucas…
“The ‘secret weapon’ behind Star Wars” (from 2015, by Charles Lippincott)