georgec said:
Rick forgot to say, "It's so dense. In every shot there's so much going on."
lol
no question rick is a sycophant, boot-licker and yes-man.
thing is, as a producer, he seemed pretty good at what was required as far as managing resources, staffing and schedules. While it does suck that he told everyone how awesome everything was even though he knew damn well it was a POS, Im not sure I entirely agree with the premise that the fall of star wars was because lucas replaced kurtz with mcallum.
people keep saying that a 'strong producer was needed to keep lucas in line and kurtz was exactly that'. but is that really what a producer should be doing? does kathleen kennedy need to make sure spielberg doesn't phone it in? did barbara de fina need to make sure martin scorsese was putting an honest days work? was it lawrence benders responsibility to make sure actors and tarantino were on the same page? james cameron produces his own movies nowadays but i don't recall gale anne hurd telling him to write better scripts.
If Kurtz felt it was his job to push lucas because a producer does that to directors - i don't agree. But if Kurtz felt he had no choice but to do this because, well, george was being george and it was wrecking the movie - i consider that to be an indictment on lucas more than mccallum.
of course rick was going to green light everything lucas did, and he had no issue lying to the fans. and that really sucks. But it should have been expected that lucas demands unwavering groveling and fawning as an employment requirement. sycophancy is perhaps the only thing lucas values more than money. LFL is a personality cult first and foremost.
the fact that kurtz had to fight with lucas for the quality of the movies and rick does not, really just means lucas craves underachievement and the arrows should be pointed at him.