Downfall

Despite the impact and Legacy of Star Wars, George Lucas also has his dark side. 20 years after the final chapter of the Star Wars trilogy, he decided to make the highly controversial Star Wars Prequel Trilogy. Fans are split over the films, some embrace it as an addition to the Saga, while others, disdain them.

Here's a critical examination of the Star Wars Prequel (Contains Adult Language):









Episode II



Double click to watch parts 2-9.

Legacy

Thanks to the genius of George Lucas, Star Wars has become a highly succesful franchise influencing today's filmmaking and storytelling.

Crafting The Saga

After the success of American Graffiti, George Lucas decided to pitch his dream project... STAR WARS.

American Graffiti

American Graffiti became a critical and commercial success, winning the Golden globe for best picture, and was nominated at the oscars for Best Picture, Best Director (George Lucas), Best Original Screenplay (Lucas, Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz), Best Supporting Actress (Candy Clark) and Best Film Editing (Verna Fields and Marcia Lucas), it also allowed Lucas to establish Lucasfilm, Skywalker Sound, and ILM.

Questioning the System

After the unfortunate disaster of THX 1138, Lucas felt bitter towards the Hollywood studio system. In a 1971 PBS interview he said, "Making film is an art. Selling film is a business. The trouble is they don't know how to sell films. As a result, they try to make you films that people will go to without them having to be sold. This is the real key to the problem. If they can't put a film in a theater and have people rush to the door, they're not interested." During this time Coppola challenged Lucas into developing a project that would satisfy the studio, a standard film. This project would become American Graffiti.

USC American Zoetrope & THX 1138

Beginning a new journey in Southern California, George Lucas discovered his true passion, filmmaking. He realized that it was the merging of his two hobbies, art and photography. It was at film school that Lucas began to use film as his canvas as shown in his short films:



Freiheit



Look At Life



THX 1138 Electronic Labyrinth 4EB

His student film THX 1138 won him a scholarship to intern at Warner Bros. Originally he wanted to get into Animation, realizing that the WB Animation offices were closed, he came across, by accident, a film set being directed by a young Francis Ford Coppola.

Realizing Lucas was the only young filmmaker on set (Average crew was in their late 50's) the two soon bonded.

The following documentary, A Legacy of Filmmakers: The Early Years of American Zoetrope , tells the story of how Lucas and Coppola teamed with other young filmmakers to create an independent film studio, American Zoetrope.

The trials and tribulations of getting their projects funded and greenlit, examines Lucas' disdain for the Hollywood Studio system, as his first feature film, THX 1138, a feature length adaptation of his student film, was taken from him after failing at the box office.

A Long Time Ago In A Town Far, Far Away....

Born in Modesto California (May 14, 1944), George Walton Lucas Jr. had very little interest in movies. The closest to an interest in storytelling was listening to radio serials, watching adventure serials on television, and reading novels such as Treasure Island and Tom Sawyer. His passion was in cars, and as a teen he would cruise around the streets of Modesto. "When I was fifteen, cars kicked in. I started hanging out at a garage, doodling with cars and working on engines… once I was sixteen, I got my license and I could really drive around, out on the streets, and I kind of got lost in cruising from that point on- cars were all consuming to me" (Lucas p.12)



He was an average student, disappointing his parents as he found academics boring and preferred daydreaming his time in class. "I was never described as a bright student. I was always described as somebody who could be doing a lot better than I was doing, not working up to potential. I was so bored" (Lucas p.12). He'd spend his time with friends cruising at night and flirting with the ladies. The cruise culture of the late 50's and early 60's had come and with it, rock n roll. Music and driving became his escape from the mundane classroom, he aspired to become a race car driver but this would soon come to a near fatal halt.

Three days before graduating high school, Lucas was driving his Fiat Bianchina when one of his classmates tail gated him, destroying the vehicle and injuring Lucas. He spent his graduation day in intensive care. His recovering period gave him time to reflect on his life, realizing his close encounter with death, Lucas decided to walk away from his reckless adolescence and hit the books.

Contrary to popular belief, Lucas didn't want to learn filmmaking. After the accident he was unsure of what he wanted to do and contemplated on becoming an architect, photographer or illustrator. At one point he wanted to apply to the Art Center College of Design but the high tuition prevented him. But his determination to pursue an academic subject of interest kept him going. He took general education classes at Modesto Junior college, discovering anthropology, he applied and was accepted to San Francisco State University. His interest in culture and mythology would later help in the making of Star Wars:

"Star Wars came out of my desire to make a modern fairy tale. In college I became fascinated by how culture is transmitted through fairy tales and myths. Fairy tales are how people learn about good and evil, about how to conduct themselves in society" (Kline 1999, 143).

However, his desire to attend Art School was still in the back of his mind and his best friend at the time asked Lucas to accompany him in taking an application test at USC. Lucas recalls, "My best friend was going to USC to go to business school and he wanted me to go and take the test with him. But I said, 'What am I going to do down there?' He said, 'Well if you go down there, they have a school of cinematography, which is like photography, and I know you like photography.' I thought it seemed close enough to art school, and I really wanted to go to art school.' (14). Lucas took the test and despite his average grades was accepted to USC's school of Cinematic Arts.