You know, the usuals...De Palma, Coppola, Scorsese, The 'Berg, John Milus, and Walter Murch. In film school, we obviously studied many directors and writers but I just took a keen interest in Lucas more than the rest of them. Alot of that comes from Episode IV, but most of it comes from seeing THX 1138 for the first time while in college. Took two days to pull my jaw off the floor after watching that film.
And since then, I've just almost read every interview and insight that he's ever given ('98 to the present) when it comes to what he feel film is....
I'm no expert at all in his thought processes but alot of what he says about film (being a visual medium and how filmmakers have gotten away from that) and his films just makes alot of sense. Now, of course, you have to weed through alot of it because Lucas has a habit (and I don't think it's one purpose) of contridicting himself. But, I can sort of understand why. He's been talking Star Wars for 30 years and essentially repeated the same phrases over and over again, so I can see how, in interviews, there are "WTF?" moments in some of his comments.
I'm one of those guys, like him, that feels that dialogue is way overrated and way overused today. As much as there are alot of dialogue in the Prequels, you can easily turn the volume down on those films and easily get what's going on just based on composition, lighting, costumes, color, and body language. Not saying all of them but most directors in today's Hollywood don't do that....or they don't think in those terms as much as they should. There are a few that do...Michael Mann being one of them (Best working director today if you ask me....)
But if you were to take the isolated score from the films and no dialogue, every Star Wars film works because of the visuals. And it's rare today to see that. I'm not saying it's in every scene, in every frame, but it's there alot in his films.