Doug Benson interviews Lucas, sort of:
DOUG BENSON: Why the fuck did you have to go and add a bunch of useless crap to the original trilogy?GEORGE LUCAS: When STAR WARS came out, I said it didn’t turn out the way I wanted—it’s 25 percent of what I wanted it to be.
DOUG BENSON: 75 percent of the movie wasn’t there? Funny, it seemed pretty complete to me.
GL: So the choice came down to, do I please myself and [finally] make the movie I wanted, or do I allow the audience to see the half-finished version that they fell in love with?
DB: Half-finished? That’s only 50 percent.
GL: If you really look at it, there’s hardly any changes at all.
DB: First you say 75 percent, then 50 percent, then hardly any changes…are you retarded?
RTR, etc. If we lived in a just universe, Entertainment Weekly or somebody would ask Lucas these questions to his face. He is going to fiddle around with this crap until they put him in the ground, and then his glowing ghost will rise up and instruct his disciples on further meddling with a movie made back when Carter was president. This guy's got more money than God's boss, he could do absolutely anything he wanted with his life, and this is how he wants to be remembered. "I Fucked Around With My Own Movies Until Everybody Hated Me." But who am I kidding, I'll be downloading waiting in line for the next one just like everybody else.
If I could control Lucas's brain, he'd take the mountain of cash he's sitting on and the infrastructure he's built (which is making another Everest of boodle*) and start bankrolling some Hollywood newcomers. Kind of like those business incubators some High-Tech venture-capital firms are running.
Sure, 90% of the movies are going to be crap, but then 90% of movies now are crap. You make your return on the 10%. Don't try to make the next Bruckhiemer blockbuster--make the next "Momento," or "To Kill a Mockingbird."
* Or as George W. Bush says: "Moo-lahs"
Posted by: Beryl Gray at October 22, 2004 04:29 PMSpeaking of which, did anybody else erupt in laughter when Gerorge W. Bush kept saying "Moo-lahs" in the debates?
I thought, "He's GOT to be trying to crack Kerry up! It's a frat-boy trick on television! Pretty soon John's gonna get the giggles and loose it on multi-network primetime."
But no, both these guys kept straight faces and just kept soldering on like the troopers they were.
Credits, both of them to the Navy and the TexANG.
Posted by: Beryl Gray at October 22, 2004 04:34 PMHeck, L. Ron Hubbard, Mr. Dianetics, wrote many a book while in a vegetative state, hooked up to life support.
Walt Disney has spent the last five years trying to unscrew the cap on his cryo-tube to strangle the life out of Eisner for that sweetheart deal with Ovitz, loosing Katzenberg, and booting the Pixar contract.
What will George do? Float around as a glowing presence yelling, "Faster!"
Posted by: Beryl Gray at October 22, 2004 04:39 PMAnd yet, with all the changes, he couldn't see fit to add some titties.
George Lucas is destroying my adulthood!
Posted by: Kevin Parrott at October 22, 2004 04:45 PM"If we lived in a just universe, Entertainment Weekly or somebody would ask Lucas these questions to his face."
Enterainment Weekly! They're as bad as FOX (FAUX) NEWS and SPINSANITY. They're Lucas apologists, you big dumb boob! I'd like to post a huge article from someone who thinks the world is flat, but obviously you fear the conversation.
Posted by: Sortelli at October 22, 2004 06:37 PMIt's a good thing you brought politics to the table in a blog post about Star Wars. I was thinking I was the only one who saw the conection. Good job, Trooper. If there's one thing blogs are missing, it's discussion about politics every single minute of the day.
Posted by: Kevin Parrott at October 22, 2004 06:51 PMLet's just hope destroying Star Wars keeps him too busy to tamper with his masterwork, the Indiana Jones trilogy (although I wouldn't mind if he digitally edited out Kate Capshaw from ToD).
Posted by: Sarah Brabazon-Biggar at October 22, 2004 11:35 PMI did it for the Moo-Lahs.
Posted by: Sortelli at October 23, 2004 12:50 AMThe pre-emptive war against Alderan was a distraction from the war on terror against the rebels. Darth Vader lied, people died. Obviously Star Wars was meant as a biting satire against Bush. How can you seperate the politics?
Posted by: G. Bob at October 23, 2004 06:22 AMHe just better not start screwing with Howard the Duck.
Posted by: dorkafork at October 23, 2004 06:39 AMAs far as I am concerned not only do the last two movies not exist, but the fiddled-with versions of the first movies don't exist. The Force is strong in me!
Well, except for the Yoda fight. That can exist.
Posted by: Andrea Harris at October 23, 2004 04:17 PMThat should be a stand alone movie.
In fact, if Lucas just crapped out and made a cheesy Dirty Harry clone starring Yoda instead of episode three, I'd be happy.
"Make it my day, go ahead."
Posted by: Sortelli at October 23, 2004 06:15 PMWhat really hit me, after discovering that Lucas actually cut Sebastian Shaw out of the final scene, was that people's kids and grandkids will watch the movies in their current state and wonder what the heck any of us ever liked about them.
Hold out for thirty years, when one of Lucas' inner circle will acquire rights to the movies, cut them back to original cuts, and release them on the contemporary mass medium. Or less, if senility comes into play.
Posted by: Michael Ubaldi at October 24, 2004 08:43 PMLucas created these special editions for one reason, to make money. I was working with Fox when they announced that it was the last chance to buy the original star wars trilogy on vhs. So after all the poor suckers ran out and bought them, he releases the new versions that of course go on sale for all the suckers to buy yet again.
Same with the decision to hold out on the DVD releases. Lucas bled the vhs market before going dvd simply because he knew the same suckers that were sitting on multiple copies of the vhs formats would immediately run out and snap up the DVDs when they finally showed up. He's been screwing his most loyal fans for years.
I can't explain the last two horrors that were called Star wars films except that Lucas has gone completely bonkers and nobody has the guts to tell him to let somebody with a minimum amount of talent to write and direct these things.
But the 3rd Star wars film pretty much showed that the well was dry way back then.