In an ideal world JEDI could have been no more constricting for Lynch than Elephant Man was, but oh well. (Looking solely at THX-1138 you would have thought Lynch/Lucas would have been a pretty good teamup. )

Very interesting threads, ATM. Especially putting an image to draft 1. It's been a while but I remember thinking that superficially at least, the scene in Phantom Menace of Qui-Gon fighting Maul in the desert, with the kid running out of the way, was very evocative of the opening scene of the first draft, where the Sith have tracked down the Jedi in hiding.

Some other thoughts: The Brackett script is actually closer to the finished movie than Lucas' own early SW scripts were to that movie, so I think she was more on the right track than she's generally given credit for. But had she lived the movie probably would have been missing Kasdan's younger, sort of 80s smartass vibe which really helped keep both sequels from disappearing up their own ass (the way ongoing science fiction stories often do).

I think Dale Pollock wrote that ultimately the greatest influence on Star Wars will always be Lucas' own previous 2 movies, and I tend to agree. Mismatched parents it would seem but it feels like a perfect blend to me.