Now what interested me much was why he wasn’t to direct Jedi too? It turned out Lucas offered this but Kersh himself got out. The reasons he listed seems contradicting to me:

It took too long and was too exhausting both physically and emotionally

He felt doing two for George would be too much and he didn’t wish to be «an employee of Lucas» (Wow, interesting, isn’t it? He considered Lucas a very creative and adored his earlier work, so why in the name of art and talent not to help him more than once? Eventually, he directed not for «thank you» but for being paid/gyven credits and I doubt that doing Empire didn’t result in his bank account increase)
He didn’t want
He didn’t believe the script

Considering the last one, what is «didn’t believe the script»? He only mentioned some early draft. Nevertherless, rough and terrible Brackett’s draft of ESB didn’t look to be an obstacle that would force him to exit the project. Rough draft always are just preparatory to be brought into refinement at later stages. Anyway, either you have to choose one credible explanation of your reasons or just say «I got tired», or «SW was a crap» and the like, not all in one. This, however, didn’t stop him from criricizing Marquand later. Any crititicism is welcomed and Marquand should be criticized in the same way as Kershner and any other pro. However, one should avoid formalistic approach and should always look for what was behind. It’s worth reconstructing the actual course of events affecting Lucas’ decision to choose a new director for Jedi apart his quarrel with DGA. Kershner was a superb old pro, but his approach was too slow as for meeting a schedule. Empire was way beyond the preplanned shooting timeline and this caused catastrophic financial consequences. According to Kershner Lucas approached him with the suggestion to direct the next installment during the period of principal photography when probably he didn’t expect such troubles that occured closer to the end of it. So by the time of post-production George firmly decided Kershner would NOT be asked to reprise his duties in the third chapter. He was determined not to cross the line again. And here’s where paradox pops up: you have either to commit yourself to the art, ignoring financial «banalities» and with all the suffering make the piece of art OR restrict yourself by fiscal matters. We really can’t be out of dilemma of what is better and blame Lucas either.

Yes, Marquand was not of the same class as Kershner was. «You take a director who’d only done Eye of the Needle, still a young guy who came out of TV...Kersh was an old pro, Kersh just said, ‘been there, done that. I know what to do. And if I don’t understand the visual effects, T’ve got these guys at ILM» (Jim Bloom). Well, first of all Kersh wasn’t and didn’t feel being under pressure. He requested a full freedom and got it. The second, Bloom fails to recognize George’s own flaws of him being a director and the fact that in the sence of pure directing, i.e. actual working with actors in the field of classical dramaturgy his own experience was close to zero that he admitted himself («I’ve never really liked directing»: if you DON’T like doing something, you CAN NOT be a great at that) and knowing all this, I feel that the final look of some of his earlier movies aside of his beloved editing owed to his co-writers (take a look to writing credits of American Grafitti - there were somehow two other writers and according to Kaminsky the final draft of ANH was polished by Lucas’ friends - Kaminsky mentions their names that I don’t recall), assitants and Garry Kurtz, who wasn’t just producer in a mercenary meaning of the word but sort of DA. The third, did Bloom or anyone express openly such an opinion to Lucas or was ILM (and Lucasfilm) even back then a bunch of «yes-men»? So brave are you when the time has passed, huh? Meanwhile, despite the fact that Marquand was «young» (he was older than George by the way) he had MUCH MORE experience (and what’s far more important - the passion) with directing actors, he called himself «an actors’ director». Could you recall George saying such kind of things? The young age and talent aren’t mutually excluding notions, so what’s wrong with giving directing of SW to a young man? Did they forget how young and inexperienced they all were on the set of the original? Why nobody of them said exactly the same about George? It looks like an attempt to get Lucas off and put Marquand in the wrong. I watched Eye of the Needle, Jagged Edge and Until September. Watch them too and you’ll understand that Marquand could be awesome, very theatric, profound, romantic and charming and also to introduce much of suspense. And it’s not about how many movies you’ve made but what movies you’ve made. What’s interessting, according to popular beliefs Marquand all but was supressed by George. But as it turns out, initially George desperately wanted to diminish his involvement to minimal possible extent thus gaining opportunity for spending more time with his kids and wife. There’s certain bit of truth that Marquand’s own part was overshadowed by Lucas’ presence, however this was an open secret and later would be given distorted interpretation that grew to be an urban myth. Perhaps the following can explain it all: «we had been meeting daily -<...>, but I had warned him that was the way I wanted to work. I just said,‘Look, George, if I am going to do this properly, you’ve got to give me your time’,<...>you’ve got to be there<...>,you wrote this goddamn thing, so let’s get it right». Perhaps for Marquand, who wasn’t experienced with the visual effects and all that nosh, it was something quite natural and desirable, one that he didn’t look on as «restriction of freedom» and it were biased media and ESB/Kershner’s/Kurtz’s fanboys who’d demonize the whole thing long after Jedi came out. There’re many things about Lucas’ writing/directing approach I don’t like and there’re also much I agree with Kurtz, but not on Jedi&Marquand matter: I think all we have read the interview where he says that Lucas reportedly was dissatisfied with Kershner in that that he was unable to push around him and impose his will - that’s where this urban myth descended from. Now, when we got our hands on Rinzler’s «Making of ESB» we see that contrary to that Lucas wasn’t intervening and hadn’t any problems with Kersh at all otherwise the latter wouldn’t leave his such a positibe feedback of working with Lucas’ producing capabilities. And if there had ever been some disagreement then it was merely of constructive nature. In fact when Marquand called Kershner the latter said «Lucas will leave you alone, more than any producer you’ve ever worked with» - so that’s what Kershner really thought of work with Lucas, not just what Kurtz said. Besides, there’s more to why many think of Marquand as of «a hired director»: both in the book and in a rare interview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvGrt_B6714 from around that time Marquand said that he prefered original Star Wars style to Kershner’s Empire that he felt was «too excessive» to his taste while describing his own personality as that of «a sentimental, very emotional Welshman» and it feels like he was rather sensitive guy. If his vision was somewhat similar to Lucas’ it doesn’t automatically mean he tried to «kowtow» Lucas or something, it was just a

concurrence of opinions. In a bout of rage towards Lucas, some tend to miss that if one agrees with him it doesn’t turn him to a «yes-man». All what I say may appear to you as if I tried to suck Lucas’ ass but I’m just trying to be as much objective as it’s possible because I’m interested in expossing real and deep causes of why did everething moved that direction not the other and so on, because I like cinematic history and I always thought simple-minded «whoever-bashing» is no match for objective critisism. Do not forget: this may be a topic for endless debate however one thing is certain that can not be ignored regardless of the level of Lucas’ genuine involvement in shooting Jedi: Richard was the one who were doing the most laborous task - directing the principal unit, not Lucas.