Hoth-Nudist said:
Luca$...got lost and forgot what made SW so special.
From the years of reading behind-the-scenes stories & interviews with those who were part of the team, I've long since thought Lucas never really understood what made Star Wars so special to begin with.
From Huyck and Kurtz's rewriting some of the scenes - to Marcia telling him which scenes should stay and which should be edited, it seems as though he wasn't ever aware of what would make the film resonate with audiences, allow them to bond with the characters emotionally.
Kaminski's book has several examples of Marcia having to explain to George why certain scenes needed editing to allow more or less time, to give them the proper emotion, etc.
The same was true with American Graffiti. After the first screening for the studio it was apparent that thing was a hard-to-follow mess. It took Marcia to save it and make it the icon it is.
That's really my point with him being a great idea man, but not a great executor of those ideas - as is clearly evident from the prequels. At least the only one I've seen. I don't remember a great deal about Phantom, but I most certainly remember the story being incoherent and very poorly done.
The Indiana Jones series doesn't suffer from that because - whether he likes it or not - George is forced to be part of a team where he can be vetoed. He doesn't have to understand what makes the character and the stories special to people - Spielberg & Ford take care of that for him. Just as Marcia, Huyck and Kurtz took care of it for him with American Graffiti and Star Wars.