• niktemadur@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      American Graffiti is a very good and extremely well-directed movie, and got him his first Best Director nomination at the Oscars. The second being, obviously, for the original Star Wars.

      I think he got lost in a maze of mirrors, a prisoner of his own massive success, considering his spectrum-ish profile and reclusive tendencies.

      • Ben Hur Horse Race
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        7 months ago

        i should give american grafitti a shot.

        starwars was good. empire was the best of the first three, but lucas didnt direct or even write the screenplay for it. he didnt direct jedi either, and only wrote half of the screenplay, which I believe was mostly ewoks (maybe not entirely).

        the prequels would have bombed at the first one if they were made in isolation imo. alas, this really isnt important to think about. the asd angle makes more sense than anything else I had thought of

        • niktemadur@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          It’s also widely said that the early rough cut of the original Star Wars was a disjointed narrative and tonal mess, that George took a bigger bite than he could realistically chew by himself, that he got all tied up into knots trying to sort out the details and stitch them together… does this sound similar to what we got in The Phantom Menace, perhaps?
          Didn’t he end up in the hospital, collapsed from stress and exhaustion? I seem to remember something like this happening.

          Then George’s wife Marcia Lucas stepped into the editing room to rescue the film, and for her legendary effort and result she received the Academy Award. One of eight Oscars that film won.

          The original trilogy was the result of Lucas’ vision, but also of many people collaborating and not afraid to sometimes say “Let me try it my way, George, please step aside.”

          1999’s The Phantom Menace was the result of so many younger people who got into the movie business because they were inspired by Star Wars itself in the first place, deferring to George Lucas The Cinema Demigod, and operating on his strange combination of weirdly specific and vague instructions, sometimes at the same time, while enthusiastically trying to make sense of it in blind faith: “He must know what he’s talking about, he’s a genius”.

          Well… once again George had bitten more than he could chew in his peculiar workflow. But this time, he had surrounded himself with people who did not dare question him at any step of the way.

          • Ben Hur Horse Race
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            7 months ago

            yeah that’s how I understand it as well.

            what I don’t understand is the millions upon millions of people that think it’s high quality stuff after the original trilogy to the point where they’re getting tattoos