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A response to the "They're His Movies" arguement

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http://www.angelfire.com/comics/nes_star/CQuests/Articles/HisMovies.html

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"They're His Movies And he can do what he wants with them!"

I'm sure anyone who is into Star Wars and dislikes the various altered "Special Editions" of the movies will have heard this arguement probably thousands of times. The general premise behind this arguement is that we're not allowed to complain about the Star Wars Special Editions, because George Lucas created Star Wars and thus can do what he wants with it.
But I wonder if any of the people who actually use that arguement ever once stop to think about how fundamentally stupid it is?

Think about it: George Lucas created Star Wars so we're not allowed to complain about what he does with it. By that logic, you can't criticize any work of fiction ever made.

"God, Wheel of Time's prose is so over-descriptive!"
"Well, it's Robert Jordan's book. He can write whatever he wants!"

"God, 2001: A Space Oddysey is so drawn-out!"
"Well, it's Kubrick and Clarke's movie, they can make it however they want!"

"God, the iron age Superman comics make Superman so out-of-character!"
"Well, it's DC Comics' character, they can write Superman however they want!"

"God, there's too much sin!"
"Well, it's Satan's sin! He can make however much of it he wants!"

I hope I made my point clear enough by now. If anyone ever uses the "They're his movies" defense again, please show them this article. Hopefully it will kick some sense into them.
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What you say is true from a certain point of view
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Originally posted by: jimbo
What you say is true from a certain point of view
Even the devil may quote the scriptures for his own purposes.
(anyone know of a good text bible search? I think this is an actual verse, and I'd like to be able to give the actual quote and verse number)

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Case in point: The Devil took Him to Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple and said, "If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the scriptures say, 'He orders His angels to protect you. And they will hold you with their hands to keep you from striking your foot on a stone.'" Jesus responded, "The Scriptures also state, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" Matthew 4:5-7 or Luke 4:9-12.

There is no actual verse that states Satan knows scripture, although from the above demonstrates he is very well acquainted and versed, and will twist the Word to lead many astray. However, the key is to understand, based on the above, that Lucifer masquerades himself as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14), and that you should always test the spirits to see whether they (or the message) are from God (1 John 4:1-3).

Now, back on topic. What exactly were we talking about?

Kevin
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but will have eternal life." The Holy Bible - John 3:16
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Interesting. I thought that there was an actual verse...

A "discussion" didn't really start yet, but the topic is about potential retorts to morons that say Star Wars belongs to Lucas, and its his right to change them any way he wants.
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Originally posted by: Kaiju Eiga
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Case in point: The Devil took Him to Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple and said, "If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the scriptures say, 'He orders His angels to protect you. And they will hold you with their hands to keep you from striking your foot on a stone.'" Jesus responded, "The Scriptures also state, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" Matthew 4:5-7 or Luke 4:9-12.


I had this ilustrated bible when I was a kid, and in that translation Jesus and the devil are in the edge of a cliff, and the ilustrator might have been a SW fan, because it looked like Jesus and the devil were at the edge of the desert cliff looking at Mos Eisle (cant spell) down there.

"And than Jesus went to toshi station to pick up some power convertors." - hey perhaps Jesus was a Jedi.

OK now my passport to hell has been sealed and approved by God himself. "SLAM! Next!"
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering
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BLASPHEMY!!!

God is Holy, and has a sense of humor!

Peace,
Kevin
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but will have eternal life." The Holy Bible - John 3:16
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You might say he invented humor.

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

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Absolutely!

Just look at GL and all us SW geeks.

Kevin
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but will have eternal life." The Holy Bible - John 3:16
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If God didn't have a sense of humor, would we have Monty Python's Life of Brian or Holy Grail??
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"They're His Movies And he can do what he wants with them!"

by my understanding, the above statement means he can do whatever he wants with his movies.. but it doesnt mean he's free from being criticized.

why is there an argument about it? people can complain all they want.
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why is there an argument about it? people can complain all they want.


To Drooling SW Fanboys, Lucas = God

In their crack-addled minds, no one should ever question their divine God about what He does with His Creation.

'To do so is pure blasphemy against His Word.
http://web.newsguy.com/theprofessional/ebay/sw_logo_s.jpg
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no way ,theses films belongs to the people too,we care and love as they are for almost 30 years and then he change our memory and destroy those fantastic moment (the old anakin =the new anakin )maybe george his happy with the changes but that make 3billions star wars fan unhappy and i'm scared now when the six boxset dvd will be release to have more lame change
indiana jones and the quest for the holy trilogy comming soon!!
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Three billion? There is NO way half of the world's population are Star Wars fans. 20% of the world's population hasn't even made a phone call...

I would say there are 70% of people on developed countries who have watched it, about 40% of people on in-development countries, and about 15% of people in very poor, under-developed countries. Most people who watched it are not fans, so I'd say 25% of those people are fans. Now, there are fewer developed countries than under-developed ones, so... I'd say no more than 5 to 10% are SW fans. No more than 600 million.
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering
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It still stands, though, that in the cases of all those hypothetical arguments in the first post on this thread, those are all criticisms of the original work for which a revision of the work does not exist. In the case of SW, Lucas originally released the movies to the world in one form. A form which stood for nearly 20 years in the case of all three films, before being changed. That's 20 years of being ingrained in the public consciousness. He has a duty to preserve those versions for the people who grew up and loved his films for those 20 years and gave him the financial backing to be able to go back and revisit them. He can change them all he wants, I don't care. They are HIS movies and he can do with them as HE pleases. Just make sure you preserve what the public knows as well. If he had never released the films in the original version, this would be a non issue. But he did and therefore he needs to preserve them for the sake of the fans and, even more importantly, for the sake of film history.

If he cannot see the whole film history argument, then his film needs to be removed from the AFI Top 100 list as the version that was voted on to that list no longer exists in his words. Check the AFI list, it says "(1977)" after Star Wars. Not "(1997)". Not "(2004)".
"You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia'."
--Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), The Princess Bride
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Kevin A
Webmaster/Primary Cynic
kapgar.typepad.com
kapgar.com
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kind of like the Pope re-writing the Bible to bring it up to date
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That was one of the accusations made against priests in the time before the Bible was finally committed to print and was passed on through oral tradition. Who knows how much of the Bible was really there when it was first "written"?
"You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia'."
--Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), The Princess Bride
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Kevin A
Webmaster/Primary Cynic
kapgar.typepad.com
kapgar.com
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^ exactly.

Local dialects, many translations over the years, the development of words and language along with their meaning changes over the years.

Translating it itself would have been difficult, and then translating it into differing languages through two different eras - say 100 years apart may well give you a different book, as well as any political or power games played by those involved.

Not forgetting that the Bible is a collection of stories from many different people with differing points of view from a range of varying eras.

Bible rant over...

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I definitely hate when people say it is his films. The statement I hate more is, "They are the same movies, just a fraction different." I don't understand people who can say that.
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So you say, "AHA! So you ADMIT they're different movies!"
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You hear that Lucas?

It's BLASPHEMY!

Fondly,
Kevin
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but will have eternal life." The Holy Bible - John 3:16
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I think the premise is correct.

Any criticism over art is a stupid thing.
Opinion and preferance is ok, but there is no objective trouth outside the minds of human beings that
watch these films. If a human watches one of SW films and likes it, then it is good in his mind.
Once all the humans leave the cinema, and the roll of film ends up sitting in a dark place, it
is not a good film or a bad film, it is just a piece of polyester.

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IIRC, actually the original Star Wars trilogy was not entirely Lucas' baby. I mean, he didn't produce it all by his lonesome. Other pple had a big hand in writing the script, editing it etc... he just came up with the main story.

The first Star Wars movie - went for several revisions and editing- which was done by a team of editors led by Lucas' ex-wife - they even won an Academy Award for their work. In the 1997 release, Lucas took back all the crap they cut out - they re-inserted it back instead- and wah-lah! you see why they won the award. The scenes the editing cut out - was CRAP- poor acting or directing.

The same also goes for Empire... however by the time of Jedi, Lucas' power had grown so big and his bankroll so huge- that he could do whatever he damn well pleased- hence we see the Ewok-cong army.

It is unfortunate that Lucas has chosen this path. The Star Wars series could have gone down as one of the greatest space operas of all time. It had hopes of Wagnerian proportions. But now it seems a movie catered to 10 year old kids- who frankly aren't really interested in tragedies- (classical sense).

Its not just the story- its the way he directed the movie- he's an average director- even he admits it himself in the 1970s. But with so much cash and so much hubris up his ass, he's forgotten his own limitations.

I would feel sorry if Lucas came out with an altered version of the original series... but now... I couldn't really care less. Lucas has gone way overboard and thinks too much of himself these days it seems. So I'll burn my VCR copies into CDs- and buy pirate copies of the first trilogy.
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"The last we saw the cylons- they were walking chrome toasters"
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Maybe GL should just re-write the Bible to blend more naturally with today's world. Remove Adam and Eve and introduce evolution back to it, and the NAZIS are now the ones who ask the romans for Jesus H. Christ to be crucified.

And right now, God just stamped my passport to hell.
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering