Originally posted by: TheCassidy

By no means am I a blind, accepting fanboy, but enough is enough.

Who the hell do you guys think thought up the stories in the first place?

Who created the characters? The ships? The planets? The tech?

George Lucas created the Millenium Fucking Falcon, and that's cool. He created TaunTauns. That's cool. He created Jabba. That's cool. Carbonite? Lucas. Pod Races (arguable the best part of EPI)? Lucas. The Clone Battle in EPII? Lucas.

It's not that I don't recognize the issues with Lucas or his filmmaking, but it's become so en vogue to bash him by saying "Well, he didn't do Empire or Jedi so he must suck." I call bullshit.

Yeah, Kersh and Marquand were great directors, and they helped forge amazing films, but their role was to interpret the scripts, block the scenes, coax the actors (who, let's face the facts, didn't win any Oscars for them) and compose the shots. They didn't make or break Star Wars. They were along for the ride. A ride that Lucas created - lock, stock, and smoking barrel.

It's the internet whining and Expanded Universe marketing that is killing Star Wars, not Lucas.

EDIT - @ Marvolo - where are the poop jokes and slapstick in Star Wars - sorry, EPIV: A New Hope?

Cassidy, I love the original SW more then any movie ever, including ESB, but ESB shows what a different director can do to a SW film. If you look at Lucas's work before SW, THX & American Graffitti, they are not these great dramas either, that is not Lucas's fortay.

SW/ANH is a perfect movie cause it doesn't try to delve too much into the characters, and it is a pure serial like Indiana Jones, where the characters are archetypes: A wizard, a farmer, a princess, and a scroundel. That is exactly why American Grafitti is a great movie, it isn't these great performances by Ron Howard and Richard Dreyfuss that drive the movie, it is the overall makeup of the movie and the chemistry of the actors that make it great, and that is what Lucas was great at.

ESB is a totally different movie then SW/ANH, and they are both classics because of that. The performances in ESB HAVE to be dead on or that movie doesn't work, because the drama is all from the characters adapting to the situation, where SW/ANH drama is from the story and the situation as the characters react to that.

For instance, just watch the whole Asteroid scene, Fisher/Ford really turn in great performances that make it believable that they are about to get pulverized. They are arguing, joking, and yelling at each other. Then go to the carbon freezing scene, and look at the drama from Fishers face as Han is shown in Carbonite the first time. THe best line in the movie is Han saying, "I know." That wasn't even written by Lucas, it was improvised by Kersher/Ford, and Lucas even thought at the premiere people would laugh, as it is stated in The Annotated Screenplays pg. 208.

Then look at the dramatic moments of SW/ANH, they are all visual, and that is what Lucas is great at: The binary sunset, Luke/Leia flying across the chasm on the deathstar, Luke blowing up the deathstar, they are 3 of my favorite moments and the reason I love the Original SW, but they have zero to do with acting, and more to do with the power of visuals accompanied by music.