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It's Official: George Lucas hates his fans :P — Page 4

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he's not delusional.  control for the sake of control was always more important than artistic integrity and public enjoyment and availibility.

hypocrite? yes. and deceitful con artist.  reviews seem to confirm my suspiscion that red tails is nothing more than pearl harbor/red dawn/delta force.  he just wanted to use the tuskegee airmen as a gimmick to differentiate his movie with your average juvenile shoot-em up.  whats great is most reviews are stating that the tuskegee airman do deserve to have a great movie and that red tails doesn't cut it.   Lucas was hoping to label critics as anti-tuskegee and anyone that criticized the movie as racist and nobody is falling for it (well....except for the apologist sycophants).  and people are now laughing at his bogus "im really an art-house filmmaker' nonsense. 

It took 30 years...and sadly the desecration of a once-proud saga...but we are finally making progress.  the academy can't vacate his irving thalberg award, but maybe perhaps digitally remove him from the footage of martin scorsese winning the oscar in 2007.

click here if lack of OOT got you down

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SilverWook said:

Manos The Hands of Fate on Blu Ray. This is actually happening now, although not from Criterion. You get the idea. ;)

Yeah, I was just wondering if there was some alternate reality they had to offer but was reminded that I was already in it. ;)

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

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SilverWook said:

Manos The Hands of Fate on Blu Ray. This is actually happening now, although not from Criterion. You get the idea. ;)

 

This is fantastic. I love that someone took the time to do this. I also love fake Criterion covers.

I have mixed feelings about this being restored. It's such a hideous piece of crap, I almost prefer that it rots. I've also never watched it without the MST3K gang. I'm not sure I could unless it was in a theater with other people or something.

 

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I've watched it uncut and also have seen a DVD of the stage play. I have a weird affinity for bad films going back years before MST.

Manos' restoration is a blessing in disguise. If one of the worst movies ever made can be lovingly restored though donations, the official arguments against a restoration of the OOT start to look ridiculous, even to those outside the fandom. This is a potential game changer.

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And please, let's not go expecting LFL to make the same effort required of other, more prestigious and lucrative trilogies.

 

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Mr. Bungle said:

SilverWook said:

Manos The Hands of Fate on Blu Ray. This is actually happening now, although not from Criterion. You get the idea. ;)

 

This is fantastic. I love that someone took the time to do this. I also love fake Criterion covers.

I have mixed feelings about this being restored. It's such a hideous piece of crap, I almost prefer that it rots. I've also never watched it without the MST3K gang. I'm not sure I could unless it was in a theater with other people or something.

 

I really, really, really need to see this movie.

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You don't see Manos, it sees you. ;)

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walking_carpet said:

It took 30 years...and sadly the desecration of a once-proud saga...but we are finally making progress.

How?!

Mr. Bungle said:

SilverWook said:

Manos The Hands of Fate on Blu Ray. This is actually happening now, although not from Criterion. You get the idea. ;)

 

This is fantastic. I love that someone took the time to do this. I also love fake Criterion covers.

I have mixed feelings about this being restored. It's such a hideous piece of crap, I almost prefer that it rots. I've also never watched it without the MST3K gang. I'm not sure I could unless it was in a theater with other people or something.

 

I saw the MST3K version. Once was sufficient, twice maybe if I was drunk or with friends. Without the MST3K, I think I'd qualify as masochism. And us Star Wars fans have enough of of that.

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.”

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

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Love it or loathe it, it's on the way to becoming the counterpoint to "the OOT is too expensive to restore right now" baloney.

I've seen movies that make Manos a cakewalk. ;)

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georgec said:

Georgie can say and do what he wants because 99% of SW fans will always be there, frothing at the mouth for any table scraps he throws down to them.

Now the UOT crowd is the mean group of people who hurt Georgie's feelings so badly that he decided to quit the movie business. Of course, George isn't quitting anything nor has he been particularly active in Hollywood since ROTS, other than with Indy 4. It's an erroneous, misleading statement but it succeeds in painting the UOT people and other non-apologists as haters who turned on their beloved creator and ruined SW for everybody.

I seriously don't comprehend why anybody who dislikes Lucas' antics continues to support him in some way, be it watching Clone Wars, playing SW video/PC games, buying books, buying the blu-rays, etc. Now Lucas has called out anyone who dares question him and blamed them for his selfish behavior. How many times can he tell his fans, "FU," before they stop giving him money? Georgie is curious to know because everybody always comes back. "Oh, I don't like the new changes, but I guess it's Star Wars on blu-ray."

I probably sound harsh and arrogant but people need to get over the need to have SW continuously in their lives. I love the originals and that will never change, but I don't need to watch them all the time nor do I need to fill some void for new SW material with anything that exists out there today. That's not to say I don't think the fan restorations (Adywan, Harmy, etc.) are amazing efforts. I'm talking more about newly created SW crap.

SW as a phenomenon is extremely played out. Dogs barking Imperial March in commercials? Don't care. 3D rerelease? Don't care.

Move along.

You took the words right out of my mouth georgec!  Couldnt agree with u more.  I havent spent a dime on SW crap since 2005. 

"There's no cluster of midiclorians that controls my destiny!" -Han Solo, from a future revision of ANH

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 (Edited)

Even if the OOT actually gets restored (which will probably never happen, admit it), the stature of the SW franchise has been destroyed beyond repair. The generation of film-goers born right now will have no understanding of why SW was so great; any good in the OT has been nullified over the past 15 years by incessant recuts and bad prequels. It hasn't helped either that with the advent of TPM that GL's mask of genius has been uncovered, and there are dozens, if not hundreds, of B-movie schlock filmmakers that are far more talented than GL ever was or will be. I can't believe he lied to us for over 20 years.

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Mike O said:


I just think the GOUT was half-assed. If Lucas did believe that he would never release the OOT again, then he should've stuck to his guns. If he did, then it should've been done properly or not at all. I just think the OOT is too big a stumbling block for most people to get over, good bad or indifferent. On the other hand, I also think its entirely true that many fans have been whiney and immature. I don't personally feel like I should be grateful for anything that I don't like, but the sheer amount of crap Lucas has faced from his fans is pretty staggering and many have been immature, disrespectful, downright rude, and even threatening. I can hardly blame Lucas for not liking this kind of childish bashing. I think there's a place for real constructive criticism here, but unfortunately George's attitude towards the OOT and the fans' attitude in turn has created a whirlpool that caused problem on both ends.  It's now an impossible impasse. I don't see the GOUT as something sort being grateful for and I do see Lucas as the big figurehead of why the OOT isn't out. I also see lots of fans behaving like assholes and I understand why Lucas doesn't take to it. He has quite the right to be upset. 


nightstalkerpoet said:


I'd really encourage faneditors not to remove George's name from edits... despite being able to read his comments that way, it is better to assume that is not what he meant. Lucasfilm has (in their own way) been very supportive of the fanediting community, and I think any direct attempts to slight them or George is unnecessary and liable to cause issues.

... As fans of the OUT, there needs to be a change. Even if we feel that George shouldn't take offense to internet complaints, he obviously does. For once, why not acknowledge what George is looking for from the fanbase, and make an effort on our end, to give him what he wants, and to get what we want. Stop all of the George bashing, and switch to a constructively critical tone.

- We asked for a release of the OUT, and got one. It was non-anamorphic, but it was an attempt to do something for the fans that George didn't want to do anyways - a small sacrifice, but one none the less. (also, keep in mind that in 2006, your average person had not converted to HDTV or widescreen, and didn't suffer the same issues with that format that videophiles did)

How many people thanked him for doing that? vs How many people complained about it? Had people even attempted to be content with it, I think we might have seen a Bluray release of the OUT... but obviously that's not how things went. George proved he doesn't react well to negative fan pressure. He expected it on the PT, but not on this.

Years later, after people continued to push and say "The non-anamorphic version isn't good enough", it's time for the Bluray release.... but rather than say "Cool, Star Wars on Bluray" or "I'd prefer not to get this, because I prefer the original releases I got in 2006"... there is an organized boycott generating bad publicity... Not an organized, polite request that the films be included, but a hatred filled boycott.

This left us (not surprisingly) without the OUT on Bluray...

Has anyone realized it's time for a new approach. Maybe an apology for the boycott and negative press? Maybe some attempt to stop the constant attacks on George? He is the mastermind behind Star Wars and Indiana Jones people... You may disagree with his decisions now, but at the very least the respect we owe him for giving us the OT and Indy 1-3 should keep us civil towards him.

With as many times as George has stated that he doesn't want to release the OUT, to do so would make him look bad, going back on his word, unsure of what he wants... the press jumps all over you for that. Why would he do that for "fans" that are ungrateful for what they're given, and attack him any chance they get.

I read that interview and see one thing - that he is perfectly happy to allow his films to be fanedited, and for those edits to be shared. It's a pretty rare person in any corporation that will allow those kind of freedoms to be taken without persuing legal action. But rather than revel in that... everyone would rather tear him limb from limb.

Just my two cents...


The obvious thinking error here is the idea that there is some kind of direct A-to-B communication between "George" and "the fans". The latter is, of course, problematic because "the fans" is an incredibly wide body of people with different opinions. A petition signed by a large amount of "the fans" at least puts a number to the amount of people that support restoring the OT properly, but if not for that, sites like this would simply be fringe sites, and Lucas would not have to deal with their opinions at all. As it is, however, the call for the OUT simply becomes too loud to ignore, and that's why it exists far beyond the declining memories of the declining group of people who once saw the films in cinema originally.

So anyway, the thinking error consists of the idea that "the fans", being in direct contact with "George", need to communicate with George in a certain way, and this will cause George to do what the fans want. We do X, and George will do Y. Quite frankly, I fail to see the evidence of this. It seems much more likely that George and the fans exist in such different surroundings that there is a total disconnect between them. There is a total disconnect between, on one hand, fans who have the idea that it should be possible to see the movies that once won Oscars, and the filmmaker who has, judging by the interview, somehow concluded that these fans are actually reincarnations of the evil studio bosses trying to stifle his creativity (I just want to be a cool indie filmmaker, but those corporate sons-of-bitches are telling me not to let Darth Vader go "NOOOOO!!!!", this hurts my artistic pride :( :( :( :( ).

I think it's incredibly disingenuous to say that people who just want to see the OUT are somehow "acting entitled" or being rude pricks. It seems to me that these entitled jerks did shell out a lot of money for a new release of the godawful 2004 DVD versions, just because it had the poor-quality GOUT as an "extra". "Lucas-bashing" is just a reaction to frankly puzzling decisions by the one and only true entitled and rude person, Mr Lucas himself. Of course people who send hatemail and threats are idiots, but you always get them when you're famous, even if you're perfect. Everyone with a high profile gets these, it has nothing to do with the OUT.

We all know that if the OUT proper was ever released, people would once again go out to buy it, no matter how much they bitch about Lucas now. Even if Lucas released the OUT on a disc with a picture of a giant turd on it, as part of a box set including the prequels costing $1,000 because it has a trailer of a new video game, and you couldn't watch it without listening to George rant about it for hours:

"You are about to watch an utter piece of crap. I cannot for the life of me understand why this trash won me Oscars and made me a billionaire. Are you petition-signing pricks happy now? What, you actually went without any kind of social or sexual life for two decades just to make some paltry 'fan-restorations'? Ha! Hey, you know something? I'll probably be dead in a few years or so, so I figured I'd finally give you your damn movies. Happy now? Hey, I think I'm going for a swim in my lake on my $100 MILLION RANCH. Enjoy my crappy first drafts!"

People would still line up for it, sleep outside of the stores, even if the above "feature" was pre-announced on the internet, believe you me. Seriously, just read every discussion about this, all the petitions. Most of them are quite respectful, really: "Dear George, we respect that it's your movie and you can keep it hostage for as long as you want, but we started worshipping you because of it. Can we have it in a watchable format, pretty please???" If there is any kind of direct relationship between Lucas and fanboys, it's the abused spouse who keeps coming back for more beatings (in b4: "ZOMG you can't accuse Lucas of abuse!!111!").

This really goes very far. Even the most prejudiced haters of the prequels and special editions will still buy or watch them whenever Lucas decides that his "original artistic vision" now also includes Vader going "NOOOO!!!" (the evil corporate execs and entitled Lucas-bashers must have blocked that in 1997, 2004 and 2006). Not only that, they will dress up in Vader and Stormtrooper costumes, they will line up in front of the cinema, they will run inside yelling once they're allowed in, they will kiss the other side of the threshold, and they will hoot and holler (well, American audiences will, but that's just because they're noisy Americans) as soon as they see the Lucasfilm logo on the screen. They will also do that when they see "20th Century Fox", "A long long time ago...", "Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace", "Turmoil has engulfed the Galactic Republic", etc. etc., even if they actually hate every minute of it and have said that they will hate it on a forum just before that.

So yeah, I'm pretty sure that OUT supporters are generally not bitter, entitled jerks and they certainly don't owe George Lucas anything. What a ridiculous suggestion, by the way, that "I decided not to make sequels because of fan backlash". Whatever.

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generalfrevious said:


Even if the OOT actually gets restored (which will probably never happen, admit it), the stature of the SW franchise has been destroyed beyond repair.


Not even Locu$t can outrun the Phantom Zone. Once he's banished there, the OOT situation can only improve.

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Still, it's kind of hard for the sw franchise to redeem its dignity when you have darth vader vw commercials and r2d2 toothpaste. Do you think the godfather or taxi driver would have the stays they have as masterpieces if ther was a marlon Brando mr potato head or Travis Bickel doing pizza hut commercials? Every day the public is moving further and further away from the oot, and it being replaced by this over commercialized garbage.

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Now that's BS. Those are completely different kinds of films, however much you may want STAR WARS to be this great peace of fine serious art, it's just a space fantasy film, one of the best ever made, but it still is what it is. And there were cheesy STAR WARS commercials since 77.

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generalfrevious said:

Still, it's kind of hard for the sw franchise to redeem its dignity when you have darth vader vw commercials and r2d2 toothpaste. Do you think the godfather or taxi driver would have the stays they have as masterpieces if ther was a marlon Brando mr potato head or Travis Bickel doing pizza hut commercials? Every day the public is moving further and further away from the oot, and it being replaced by this over commercialized garbage.

The VW commercial was in good fun, and probably the most popular Super Bowl ad last year. That kid had the Vader moves down, bless his little heart!

Star Wars characters have been doing commercials since day one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13oCCNMls9c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRO1sxXqE7Q

As for Marlon Brando toys...

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SilverWook said it better :-) I was lazy to search for examples :-)

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generalfrevious said:Do you think the godfather or taxi driver would have the stays they have as masterpieces if ther was a marlon Brando mr potato head or Travis Bickel doing pizza hut commercials?

They've been selling Travis Bickle t-shirts and posters to douchey college freshmen for 30 years.

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 (Edited)

man-o-man..i get lost for a moment seeing those vintage commercials.

[sigh] kids these days...anyone 30 and under just has no idea what took place between 1977-1983; it truly was an era for the ages.  nowadays we have PT, LOTR, Matrix, shrek, twlight and avatar and pixar, but i would love to take a time machine and show kids a series of films that truly was popular and captured a generations imagination.

its funny mentioning that kid vader vw commercial (which I liked).  no matter whats happened, the OOT is still the most storied saga in movie history.  will never forget when watching AOTC in theatre...i could feel the audience getting listless and just half-watching.  but the moment anakin told padme "I won't be long...." and you hear the force theme - just absolutely electric.  everyone just sat up a little straighter.   and ONLY because of the OOT.

[sob] man...now i feel like popping in harmys SW AVCHD just for old time's sake.

click here if lack of OOT got you down

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It's funny that there are few Prequel characters in Advertisements.......Hmmm

They always hark back to the 'real' Trilogy

J