Star Wars Saga (OT/PT/ST) Discussion Thread

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:yess:
 
Been watching the Icons Unearthed: Star Wars series and have been struck by things I've never realised all these decades:
  • Marcia Lucas' editing gave the OT its heart. Without it, the OT might have been like the PT. (Ergo, if Marcia had still been around the PT might have been more like the OT).
  • While the OT generation was b---ing about the PT, Lucas was successfully locking in the next generation of fans. Mission accomplished!
  • Han was frozen in carbonite because Ford wasn't locked in for the third film. Genius move to put the character in limbo just like the actor!
  • The ANH and Carrie casting occurred together, which is why William Katt was almost Luke.
Unfortunate (but probably understandable) that George wasn't interviewed for the series.
 
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Been watching the Icons Unearthed: Star Wars series and have been struck by things I've never realised all these decades:
  • Marcia Lucas' editing gave the OT its heart. Without it, the OT might have been like the PT. (Ergo, if Marcia had still been around the PT might have been more like the OT).
  • While the OT generation was b---ing about the PT, Lucas was successfully locking in the next generation of fans. Mission accomplished!
  • Han was frozen in carbonite because Ford wasn't locked in for the third film. Genius move to put the character in limbo just like the actor!
  • The ANH and Carrie casting occurred together, which is why William Katt was almost Luke.
Unfortunate (but probably understandable) that George wasn't interviewed for the series.
I think the credit attributed to Marcia Lucas for the OT overall has gotten a little out of proportion. She did a brilliant job of reigning in George's excesses on ANH (trench run in particular), and making sure he didn't cut little touches which gave that movie bits of emotional charm (Chewie roaring at the mouse droid and Leia kissing Luke for luck). But ESB is widely regarded as the "best" of the OT, and it happens to be the one that she was least involved with of the three (at least by all accounts I've heard/read). Whether it was Marcia and Gary Kurtz on ANH, or Kurtz and Irvin Kershner on ESB, the 1970's version of George Lucas was more willing to be guided in a collaborative way, IMO.

The difference in output between OT George and PT George probably has less to do with the skills of those assisting him on a professional basis and more to do with his personal changes. OT George had something to prove and some incredibly successful friends who were leaving huge imprints on cinema history. He had more reason to be attentive to suggestion and audience response, and also to strive to match the success of his friends/peers. PT George, on the other hand, had already become a legend who could afford to do whatever he wanted and tell *his* story in *his* way.

A lot of people say that if Kurtz had never left, or if other directors had been brought on to direct the PT, that the outcome would've been far different. I used to believe that too, but I no longer do. That trilogy would always reflect the vision of a George Lucas in his 50's, and everything that fatherhood and outrageous acclaim had morphed him into. There was no way, after all of that life-shifting experience, to ever again get the Lucas in his 30's (with something to prove and inspiration from his youth being fresher in mind).

Kurtz left because George was already putting a heavier foot down on ROTJ; and that likely had to do with the enormous success and reputation garnered from the first two films. There's no reason to believe that anyone would've altered George's intent during the 90's and early 00's. Not Marcia Lucas, not Gary Kurtz, not great directors... no one. The "yes men" all over the PT production weren't an accident. He knew what he wanted, what financial interests he was using the PT for, and what type of story he wanted to leave behind. I think the two distinctly different trilogies represent two distinctly different versions of the man making them, and not so much a reflection of who he was making them with.
 
^ Yousa point is well said (as usual!)

For better or worse, the franchise has lasted long enough to show us every eventuality:

OT = filtered Lucas
PT = unfiltered Lucas
ST = total studio control*

* Granted, Abrams and Johnson were given some creative freedom but it was still mainly a Disney/LFL beast
There's still another version of George hidden away in the offices of Lucasfilm in the form of his ST treatment. Lucas wrote that *after* he decided to sell LFL, and did it just to increase the overall value by way of having new Lucas sequel IP. So, with such a short time frame to construct the outline, it'd be perhaps the most stream-of-consciousness Lucas SW.

He had no real incentive to craft it for toy/merchandise sales. No incentive to accentuate juvenile aspects for the purpose of cultivating another new generation of future SW consumers. Further removed from romanticized notions of re-invigorating serialized pulp cinema for modern audiences. Instead, more just George's brain spitting out ideas into an outline, using characters and themes from both of his trilogies, and knowing he wouldn't be the one directing/guiding production. So... collaborative by necessity, and also conceptually raw, would make it interesting to see, if nothing else.

If Disney really is going to canonize in live action the (insane) idea of multiple timelines within the SW universe, then there's no reason not to put George's ST treatment on screen in some form. Multiple timelines introduced at this point is the equivalent of telling the audience, "hey, nothing playing out on screen actually matters," so why not?
 
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