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skyjedi2005 said:The prequels were almost souless. Full of over the top bad humor, wooden pathetic acting, bad writing and directing. And almost nothing more than special effects reels to shop to other studios on what ILM can do with CGI.
There is an axiom that exists in all forms of life. Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely. In Lucas case his sucess has blinded him, and star wars has chained him down to where he cannot do anything remotely new, different or creative. He is a slave to the franchise.
Altough I don't agree with your view of prequels, it is definetly a matter of perspective. Debates in that area will continue forever. For me it is more of a copy/paste discussions that were even active during the OT but later transfer to PT. The fact is that younger fans do not care about that perspective. I am also coming from older generation but I understand the gap between the both worlds.
About thesis that his "sucess blinded him" and that he become slave to the franchise I definetly disagree in the sense of Lucasfilm productions. The other part of equation is TV series "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" - artisticly and criticly acclaimed. Altough the series was a commercial flop (at least in US) Lucas has decided to continue with filming altough ABC declined to air the rest of the episodes. But his vision was a long term one. Over the years Young Indy has become sort of a artistic and education succes - and the waiting for a DVD release was a big one.
It was a beatiful TV production that was done all over the world with great presentation of human spirit, naivity and romanse and with wonderful score of Rosenthal and McNelly.
And here is also one beatufil example of aproach towards the Young Indy from the person who was involved directly at the sets:
Source: http://tinyurl.com/2ddbkk
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News group: rec.music.movies
From: [Parke... @ aol.com (Capt.Damage)]
Date: 28 Oct 2002 15:58:09 -0800
Subject: Re: Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
I actually had the opportunity to work on this series many years ago,
and agree that it's a shame this type of programming doesn't get made
more often. The reason, of course, was that Lucas financed it entirely
out of his own pocket, and was determined to bring together the best
writers, directors, and composers he could find for the project. This
is where he began his longterm relationship with EP1 and EP2 Producer
Rick McCallum, EP2 & EP3 co-writer Jonathan Hales, and also where
Frank Darabonte got his directing start (read his screenwriting
biography sometime for a few surprises).
And since 'Young Indy' was independently financed, Lucas was
determined to finish it at any cost (and the cost became
considerable), whether a network picked it up or not. He was making a
project close to his heart, and (for once) didn't care about the
profit. So when ABC canceled it after 32 episodes, and it moved to
cable in expanded form, Lucas was already eyeing an eventual video
release to reach the audience he really intended: history classrooms.
The whole idea was to bring history alive by re-enacting it through a
familiar hero's eyes.
Fortunately, I think the spirit of feature-quality storytelling (and
score composition) for television continues in such efforts as HBO's
"From the Earth to the Moon" and "Band of Brothers".
To answer your question about music, though, the two principal
composers for the entire series were McNeely and Rosenthal. Fred
Talgorn and Curt Sobel were brought in to score some of the later (and
expanded) episodes that aired once the series moved to cable - I don't
think any of their music has been released yet.
More info than anyone probably wanted, sorry. I really enjoyed the
series, thought it deserved a bigger audience than it got. I'm glad
it's still playing in other countries.
-Capt.Damage
>News group: rec.music.movies
>From: [Jostein Hakestad ]
>Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2002 00:30:42 GMT
>Subject: Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
>They're showing this series here on a channel called TV3, and I'm VERY
>impressed by it. The series is being aired two episodes at a time, glued
>together to make series of TV movies, if you will.
>The production value, the acting, the stories presented in this series, are
>all marvellous. The past few episodes have been dealing with the horrors of
>the first World War, and they have been as gripping and horrifying as
>anything seen in cinema. A couple of the episodes have had Saving Private
>Ryan-esque sequences 6 years before that movie was even made. There's also a
>lot of humour and romance. For example, Indy becomes involved with Mata
>Hari, and there was also a "Great Escape" -like episode where Indy was a
>prisoner in a war camp.
>Anyway, the scores by such talented people as Lawrence Rosenthal, Joel
>McNeely and Frederic Talgorn, have all been excellent so far. It's some of
>the finest TV scoring I've ever had the pleasure of hearing. The episode I
>saw today (about Indy being a motorcycle courier for the French army) even
>had a big choral cue, which worked very well indeed.
>I'm one of the people who missed this show when it aired in the early 90's,
>so it's an absolutel delight to be able to watch it now.
>--
>Jostein H
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When you go deep in the series you can notice that there are so fantastic moments that are equal to the big screen - Indy in the Verdun playing with the small ball and with the epic tourning when the soldier calls his name: "Corporal"...Indy dissapears in to the night after the night walk with Vicky...His journey to find the meaning of life....
It is going beyond of every expectations of the TV productions. Young Indy is a great filmaking on the TV screen...The journey of finding yourself...
So for my take, Lucas never betrayed the main ideals of his independent filmmaking. I am still waiting to see the series that would be on the scale of independent spirit as Young Indy was.
