Is "Empire Strikes Back" really George Lucas' least favorite? — Page 3

1990osu said:

msycamore said:

1990osu said:

Could somebody show me evidence that he actually said it wasn't very good?  Thanks

Lucas complained about it in 1983's Skywalking:

"It was just a lot better than I wanted to make it."

Wow....

This explains a lot.  I'm shocked he would actually say that.

It's the words from a businessman's perspective, it's a weird choice of words, but it basically translates to; "You could have gotten it made with much less dollars spent, and it would've been equally successful." That's how I read it.

and thats why lucas screamed when the book was released and continues to insist it was full of lies.  the personality cult was still in its infancy back in those days and lucas could not afford to be exposed.

if everyone knew that lucas could not care less about filmmaking quality, story, characters and the prequels were created strictly to consolidate and secure, TPM would have been as anticipated as a final destination sequel.

no different than lance armstrong making sure for 15 years his doping was kept absolute secret.  it doesnt matter now - he got his millions and a legion of sycophants carefully cultivated.

walking_carpet said:

and thats why lucas screamed when the book was released and continues to insist it was full of lies.  the personality cult was still in its infancy back in those days and lucas could not afford to be exposed.

Can you provide any examples/sources, I always heard about this but never read what he actually thought and said about Pollock's book. I'm curious.

hmmm...would have to dig for links;P

• one was i think a chat transcript that the author had with readers of the washington post around the eve of episode III's premiere. 

• another was some 'interview' lucas had and the reporter asked him about something referenced in Skywalking and Lucas said the book had as much truth as the national enquirer.  I think he said that Pollock wasnt there and his info was hearsay and then offered the so-called truth of what happened.  Whatever the topic was, it actually wasnt about bad directing or writing.  the reporter then asked about something else and lucas said "yeah, again - they got that info from Skywalking..."  and i think this was a year before TPM...i think.  and it was a print 'interview', not video or online. 

I havent seen/read an 'interview' firsthand since 2006, so maybe he doesnt talk about it anymore unless someone brings it up.  So I may re-edit and say "he insisted at the time".  Maybe its no longer necessary to bring it up - you dont need Skywalking anymore to realize what lucas is ;P 

I myself read the book in 1995 and laughed at the thought of how horrified everyone was at lucas' lack of direction and incompetant screenwriting thinking to myself "man, he must have really been bad - how did AG and the OT turn out good?". 

It should have been a harbinger of things to come but I shrugged it off- after all, in the 'interviews' Lucas said all the right things.  No, the only thing that caught my eye was around the time of the SE and Cinescape (I think) did an interview with Gary Kurtz and Kurtz said something like "I dont know....Lucas just doesnt want to push himself".  That raised an eyebrow.  I mean, to accuse an artist (if you even want to call lucas that) of not putting a 100% is fighting words.  but its true. 

The only place I've ever read that L:ucas didn't like TESB is in Simon Pegg's autobiography - and I don't think he mentioned where he'd found that out. I've never really believed it but I think it serves a lot of fans to go along with it.

For the record, though, there is nothing of Leigh Brackett's screenplay in the film so anyone thinking that all that is good about this movie is down to them is really fooling themselves I think. Lawrence Kasdan replaced Brackett - he didn't work with her - and I think the general consensus is that he did a fine, fine job.

^^Lucas did say it again in 2007 though (over 20 years later):

http://blog.moviefone.com/2007/02/10/george-lucas-empire-strikes-back-was-the-worst-star-wars-film/