Do You Hate George Lucas?
21. Feb, 2009 
6 Comments
Matt from Enter the Octopus is featuring a promo for The People vs George Lucas – apparently a documentary about what the fans of the SW films think of him now.
I’m personally still intrigued over the fact that the ‘origin story’ of Star Wars morphed from – ‘they wouldn’t license me to do Flash Gordon, so I made blended everything sci-fi together, gave it a name and pretended I didn’t copy anything at all’ to ‘I wrote a fantasy film modelled on Joseph Campbell’s Hero With A Thousand Faces – aren’t I an intellectual? (sub-text, it’s not really sci fi, it’s literature)’
Regardless, any upset?I feel over the SW double-trilogy is due to the failure to pay homage to the visions and concepts that were lifted right out of the pages of classic science fiction.? Sure, EVERYONE does it – but very few SF authors hide it behind pseudo-literaryism. In fact, many of them sit around and talk about how they’re going to ’steal’ so-and-so’s concept/creatures/planet/space drive and twist it.
Most of us are familiar with the charge that Tattooine is really Arrakis, that the Ewoks are really Little Fuzzies and that the Republic’s capital world is really Trantor.? What other thefts can you all think of?
All three prequels concern the machinations of a mysterious figure called Darth Sidious who manipulates events to his advantage, only to be revealed as someone who was close to the protagonists all along.
One of the stories in Foundation and Empire concerns the machinations of a mysterious figure called the Mule who manipulates events to his advantage, only to be revealed . . . well, you get the drift.
If you’re feeling especially cranky about the prequels, I recommend Patton Oswalt’s CD Werewolves and Lollipops, in which he fantasizes about going back in time to kill George Lucas with a shovel before he can produce the prequels.
cool NOF – hadn’t considered that…
For fans of Vaughn Bode (like yourself Steve.)
You can see his ‘influence’ all over the place in all six movies.
People read into things what they want to see. Everyone says Eragon is Star Wars, regardless of the fact that the story isn’t actually the same, it just has similarities. But such folks refuse to acknowledge the differences and only notice the similarities.
I think it’s generally foolish for anyone to consider any work of fiction to be original. Original doesn’t exist in fiction (or film fiction). Uniqueness, yes, but not originality.
And I’m really curious about this People vs. Lucas thing. Sounds interesting…
whiny and annoying are a sort of characterization
Apparently living in a vacuum here, but I near thought I was the only one that caught the Trantor connection. Duh, on my silly azz.
I like counting the movie rip offs in The Matrix.
What I dislike more about George (second trilogy in mind) is his eternal love of making intricate toys for his characters, then leaving characterizations in pod racer dust.