Originally posted by: TiptupOriginally posted by: JediRandy
And can you imagine their work on Star Wars without Lucas? Wow....McQuarrie's Darth Vader design.... Burt's Sound design...... ILM's SFX..... JW score..... the editing...
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Oh wait. Without Luca$h, there wouldn't have been a movie.
So, are you then saying that George Lucas has the moral and ethical right to disregard the work that so many people accomplished for him? There's nothing wrong with him treating the theatrical releases as rough garbage?
Sure Lucas was the epicenter for the creation of Star Wars, but without him, those same great movies wouldn't have been crippled with disgustingly worthless changes. Even if you think the SEs are superior (which is totally nonsensical to me, but everyone has the right to hold an unfounded opinion), quality treatment for the original theatrical releases shoud still have some importance to you.
To say nothing of the fact that he is also mucking with Empire and Jedi, which he did not direct, and that Gary Kurtz, who prouced the first two films vehemently disagrees with him, as does Mark Hamill, the star of all three films, as well as millions of fans. It think that the issue with the comparison is that many, particularly Lucas himself, seem to regard an attack on the SEs (which I don't neessarily dislike per se, I just won't associate with them because of what happened to the OOT because of them), when in fact the comments simply mean that we prefer one version while he prefers the other. I really don't care about his original vision. He can change the releases with new one ever single day of the year for the rest of his life, for all I care. But I want the originals to be availabe on high quality releases. They are not. And that to say nothing of THX 1138, which I can't watch because it's not available on DVD, just Lucas's altered version. And I very much doubt that the original version will ever see the light of day.
Lucas seems to be to be a much more skilled technican and craftsman than storyteller. He is great at cmoing up with characters and stories and taking them in new directions; witness such works as The Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark. He is a phenomenal producer--Lucas can hold together a production like few people, and is great at manipulating people (I don't meant that word in a negative connotation, it is simply the best way of phrasing description that I am thinking of) and contructing things. That's probably what makes him such a marketing genius. Heck, the PT, especially AOTC (which Lucas co-wrote), has a great story. The problem is the dialogue and the performances (and isn't it widely believed that his two American Graffiti co-writers assisted with original screenplay of Star Wars?).
Lucas was AWESOME in the 70s. I'd never downplay his talents from back then. To direct Graffiti, THX1138, and Star Wars by age 32, or whatever he was, is fucking brilliant. And all three original works, not based on a book, or a true story, and all made with limited resources. He was great. I miss that guy.
Not to start anything, but the fact that a work is adampted from a comic book/novel/whatever does not in any way diminish its artistic quality, in my opinion. All 13 of Kubrick's films were based on books, but that doesn't make them any less brilliant.
Now that's a favourite of mine! There are many directors who seem to make their most interesting work when they have no resources. Increasing age + increasing money = decreasing quality. I'd suggest John Carpenter as a pretty good example of that trend.
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