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.