Ryan McAvoy said:
Also the clip below shows the kind of stuff George shot before Muren, Burtt, Williams and Co sorted it out...
So you are using failed special effects footage to prove Lucas incompetence as a director? This is the sort of stuff Lucas got great chest pains from during the production.
It was the first cut of the film when John Jympson was still the editor that was a disaster, special effects and editing was junk at that point. The film didn't start to take shape until Lucas fired Jympson halfway through the production and started to edit the film himself and ultimately hired Paul Hirsch, Richard Chew and his wife Marcia Lucas. The rear projection stuff was just another failed step during the production.
It's amazing to what lengths people are ready to go when it comes to criticizing Lucas. George himself was an uncredited editor on the film, some people seems to forget that. It may be hard to accept now for some but it was very much George Lucas who was the main driving force behind the original Star Wars. Sure, he did have a great team around him but without Lucas as the captain of the ship, it would have sunk.
The later installments in the series is another matter...