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Rinzler writes about Marquand in Blueprints

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I can't remember having read anything quite as honest on Marquand's role on Jedi, as this, from page 187 in Blueprints, or did I miss something?:

 

The other new kid on the block was higher up the pecking order, director Richard Marquand, whom Lucas hired to complete the trilogy. Lucas was determined not to experience the gut-wrenching experiences of the first two *Star Wars* films: *Jedi* was going to come in on schedule and on budget, as *Raiders* had. To that end, he replaced Kurtz with producer Howard Kazanjian and promoted Robert Watts to producer; the latter would deal primarily with work in England, and the former would take care of production in the United Sates, were filming would also take place this time around.

In retrospect, it's easy to see that Marquand was the odd man out; nearly everyone else working on the film at that level as an old hand. Early on, because he was under tremendous pressure to move quickly, it was clear that Marguand's dailies were not looking as good as those of *Empire*. Marquand and his DP, Alan Hume, came mainly from television and were lighting *Jedi* equivalently in order to stay on the hectic schedule.

"Richard was more conventional, a charming man, very thorough, and he worked closely with George," says Reynolds. "He was very easy to work with, but a little bit more predictable. I do believe he was a bit intimidated by George, because *Star Wars* and *Empire* were such a huge thing by then."

"George got a little bit worried about the way Richard Marquand was directing it," says Roger Christian, who was brought in unofficially as second unit director. "That was what Robert Watts explained to me, who said, 'Can you come up now and take over second unit? But I can't give you credit, because we promise it to Dave Tomblin.' And I said, 'It doesn't matter to me. I'll help George do anything.' We're family, really. That's how I regarded it. So I arrived–I'll never forget this–I arrived and George said, 'Can you take over?' And Robert said, 'We're under horrendous scheduling problems here. I have to get off these stages and move on, so come with me."

Kitbashed
Essays, videos and thoughts on the inspiration behind Star Wars.

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That's why I never complain about Richard Marquand. He wasn't really allowed creative imput. He was just the guy who directed when George didn't want to get out of his chair.

"The other versions will disappear. Even the 35 million tapes of Star Wars out there won’t last more than 30 or 40 years. A hundred years from now, the only version of the movie that anyone will remember will be the DVD version [of the Special Edition], and you’ll be able to project it on a 20’ by 40’ screen with perfect quality. I think it’s the director’s prerogative, not the studio’s to go back and reinvent a movie." - George Lucas

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That's a strange interpretation, if you ask me.

Kitbashed
Essays, videos and thoughts on the inspiration behind Star Wars.

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That's interesting when compared to this interview with Marquand:

"I fit the bill in that it seemed like they were looking for a younger man who has a great deal of experience, can work hard and fast, make up his mind and stick to it, and run a crew very quickly," he explains. "I knew then what George was searching for was not the old school movie director who would wait for the weather to get the shot he wanted. He wanted someone who could improvise, think on his feet."

"When we met, I felt extremely comfortable. It was one filmmaker talking to another filmmaker. It was very good," he says. "We talked about our films and how we dealt with certain problems. It was not in any sense an interview or the kind of thing that happens in Hollywood where you must put on a tremendous performance to impress somebody.

"I told George that, if I was going to direct this adequately, I would need loyalty and support in the areas that were new to me," Marquand says. "In a way, being the director of a film of this size is rather like being the President of the Ford Motor Company. You don't necessarily have to know how to weld a car door, but you must make damn sure the guy who is doing it for you is someone you know, that you know his skills and that he'll do a good job."

The Star Wars galaxy really does belong to George Lucas, the man who conceived the cosmos, but retired from actually directing the films. As producer, he wields a great deal of power, but on Jedi, Richard Marquand was the man in charge.

"If you are the director," Marquand says, "you are really the man who says what goes. There are always stories in the movie industry about directors getting pushed around by producers. But, all those producers are people who really don't understand how movies get made. You can only really have one person doing that job. The good thing about George Lucas is he knows that fact."

Marquand leans forward on his desk and plays with a pen. "All you can do is tell the story your way, the best that you can. I must say I like the way George made Star Wars, the way he set it up and did it was extremely clever. He made it seem to have a very simple surface, but, in fact, it had a very dense, complex background to it.

"I preferred that surface naiveté to the much more sophisticated way [Irvin] Kershner told his story. His style very much suited this rather more dark, metallic second section of the saga. I think this third segment has a different kind of glow and flavor to it. But, I tried to make it simple because the textures in Jedi are so very, very complex. There's a world of new people and some of them are incredibly difficult to appreciate at first meeting."

Full Interview

 

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I find the lack of any Marquand interviews on the Blu Ray unfortunate. (They dug up vintage Kershner interviews from the archives.) He must have sat down for a chat on the set at some point?

Aside from the Classic Creatures doc, he' s barely mentioned if at all in the other material on the bonus disc.

Hopefully, Rinzler's forthcoming Jedi book will set the record straight.

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Where were you in '77?

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 (Edited)

I get weirdly defensive about Marquand because GL expecting him to make that movie for less time and money than EMPIRE (which is about a million times more intimate) and yet maintain the quality seems really unreasonable and pretty much humanly impossible. (I also love that GL's idea of the second unit helping out was to shoot an utterly useless musical number that wasn't in the script)

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In that case, you're going to love this bit:

The Ewoks were portrayed by little people wearing five-piece suits with full head masks, elements of which had been cast in the plasterer's shop. "I was second unit director for six weeks, and they put me on the Ewok village, which I started during the end party," says [Roger] Christian. "And George fell in love with these things, the Ewoks. And the more I shot what he wanted, the more he kept saying, 'Oh, have the babies dancing, and do this and do that.' We spent ten days shooting the Ewoks dancing and falling and doing acrobatics

Kitbashed
Essays, videos and thoughts on the inspiration behind Star Wars.

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Guess that explains where the new shots of Ewoks celebrating in the SE came from?

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Where were you in '77?