On another note, I feel that Lucas was never a "real" director to begin with. True film directors have an inclination toward the arts from childhood, and start making films when they are 7-8 years old (like Spielberg). Lucas only decided to become a filmmaker because his first choice of becoming a NASCAR racer didn't pan out, and he didn't want to go into the family business of walnut farming. Why was the pod race of TPM so goddamn long? Because GL's real passion was in racing, not cinema! He even admits to not seeing much films to inspire him in his childhood (due to living in a small town), and not seeing his own present-day influences until reaching USC. The original SW would have been just as bad as any of the PT had Kurtz and others intervened. By the time he started having more creative control in ROTJ the seeds of the prequels were being sown. It wasn't until TPM and AOTC that we got to see GL's style in its purest, most essential form.