Star Wars - Poorly Directed?

It is blasphemy to say that the original star wars was poorly directed. Poorly budgeted yes but I think George did a great job with what little funds he had. Star Wars looked better than any of big budget films of it's day. 

CJackson said:

In some reviews for the 1977 film, I've seen it noted that this picture is poorly directed. How is Star Wars a poorly directed film?

Trekkie bitches.

To a certain extent, yes.  I mean, Lucas flipped at almost everything - whether it was the actors making a small joke or one thing went wrong.  We all know the editing process, if left to Lucas alone, would have gone HORRIBLE.  Even the official documentaries say that his first cut was bad.

George Lucas is a poor director - he jsut got lucky and had a friend in his wife of the time in the editing room.

No-George's early documentarian style peaks up in spots and serves to really heighten the immediacy of the action and further transport audiences into a galaxy far far away.

Eh, I really, really hesitate to say this, but I can see where someone making that claim would come from.  The documentary-esque style could appear to some to be rushed and simplistic, especially compared to the cinematic cohesion of Empire.  And I know most of us attribute a lot of the success of the original films to Marcia's editing, but there are a few sloppy moments in there.  Don't tell me you've never noticed any, like in the scene where Tarkin learns that Leia lied about the location of the Rebel base.

Vader and Tarkin in a master shot:
Vader:  I told you she would never consciously betray the rebellion.
(long pause.  Vader begins wagging his finger as if Dave Prowse was giving a line, but Vader is not saying anything!)
Tarkin:  Terminate her, immediately!

Haha, never ceases to crack me up!  Hard to say if that's a problem with the editing or with the footage that George shot, or maybe Prowse.  Who knows, but it's a glaring, poorly-constructed error.

One editing flub that always bugs me is during the attack on the Death Star, and I'm sure you've all noticed it, but I think it's worth a mention. Red Leader (I think that's who he is; I can never remember my pilots :P ) says "Hey there, I just lost my starboard engine! Get set up for your attack run!" THEN his starboard engine gets shot, and he goes down. That bugs me every time I watch the movie now.

Nanner Split said:

One editing flub that always bugs me is during the attack on the Death Star, and I'm sure you've all noticed it, but I think it's worth a mention. Red Leader (I think that's who he is; I can never remember my pilots :P ) says "Hey there, I just lost my starboard engine! Get set up for your attack run!" THEN his starboard engine gets shot, and he goes down. That bugs me every time I watch the movie now.

Hmm, I have noticed that, but I was never entirely sure if it was a flub or not.  I mean, yeah, it certainly seems like that now that you mention it.  I always assumed he just had a technical problem... um, and then Vader happened to hit the same spot?  Okay, about the only thing that does make sense the way it is Red Leader's calm demeanor as he was saying that line, followed by his screaming plunge after he gets hit.  What would cause that sudden shift if those two shots were supposed to go together?

This reminds me of some guys review for return of the jedi from 1983 i saw on youtube.  He said it was "malodrous awful"  whatever the hell that means.

But when he talked about the trilogy being only special effects and the actors walking through their roles robotically i instantly thought of the prequels.

You want to talk about poor direction episodes 1-3 are pretty damning examples.

Lucas is not alone either war of the worlds, 1941 and crystal skull were crap and were directed by the legendary director of hit films Spielberg.

Some films critics unfairly hate on like Willow and Return of the Jedi, and The Temple of Doom, The last crusade i liked all those movies.  I did not like Howard the Duck, however once i tracked down a copy of the star wars holiday special it made howard look like the best film ever made.  Seriously who wrote that garbage and what the hell were they on?

SilverWook said:

 

Show me something that saw print in 1977.

 

I was going to ask the same thing. I doubt if there were many (if any) reviews in '77 that said the film was "poorly directed."

Yeah the film was so poorly directed that Lucas was nominated for an oscar for his directing.

He publicly badmouthed the academy so he got nothing.

The film was so poorly directed it was also nominated for best picture.

It was so poorly written it was nominated for best screenplay.

rcb said:

did they even have those back then? besides in documentaries?

Did they even have what back then?

I think he may have been asking if they even had movie reviews back then, but I find it hard to believe he'd ask that since he said he was alive to see the first film in the theaters. And I have never heard of a movie review in a documentary... so that probably wasn't what he was talking about at all. Must of have been in response to one of the earlier posts.

 What exactly were you refering to, rcb?

SilverWook said:

What reviews, where? Anybody and their aunt can write a "review" on the net these days. ;)

Show me something that saw print in 1977.

I personally don't think Lucas was a poor director in the 70's. (And if he was, he had an army of seasoned pros helping him.) THX-1138 is a dystopian masterpiece, and American Graffitti was a huge hit that has influenced Hollywood almost as much as Star Wars has.

It's hard to believe but Star Wars did have some negative reviews in '77. This is all from memory, so excuse any inaccuracies. On the eve of Episode I being released in the UK, a friend showed me an article from the British press that reported on the negative reviews the film was receiving stateside and the journalist contrasted them with quotes from bad reviews of Star Wars 22 years earlier. It ended with a quote from GL saying something along the lines of that he had learned to ignore the press because they had always said unfavourable things about his work.

Looking back now I wish I'd kept the article because some of the critics comments were cluelessly hilarious, such as one that described the film as lots of noise and lacking on the whole! Normally I'd never cite Wikipedia because it's usually a dubious source but their page on Episode IV does contain details of bad reviews written at the time which can be corroborated through further searching.

Personally I believe those people all lived to eat their words and I absolutely agree about THX and American Graffitti, they're both amazing films and illustrate his talent (and that of the team around him too).

The irony of the situation is everything bad said about the films from 77-83 that was not true or based on circumstantial evidence was true of the prequels from 99-05.

I would go even further and add in the 1997 special edition added content and the 2004 added content.

And if malodorous = smells bad. Then that is a perfect criticism of the prequels because  star wars episodes 1-3 are big giant piles of shit.