My wife had never seen any Star Wars movies. So we watched eps 4-6 and she loved them. (The laserdisc versions)
Then we tried to do ep 1 and she fell asleep halfway through. Hell, I fell asleep until I heard Duel of the Fates.
Watching them back to back shows how much Lucas had grown to like the smell of his own farts.
I think also, that with the first trilogy, he had a lot of other people around him contributing and building with him, he had some genuine inspiration and interesting ideas, but that team being on equal footing with him allowed the that all to be executed properly.
There is a cultural issue where people tend to ascribe success of projects to lone individuals who lead projects, even while acknowledging the contributions of others, there is still this underlying assumption that a director is responsible for the sum of the parts. That the director is the one slotting the contributions together in a way that makes it work.
I think much of the same inspiration and ideas that he brought to the table in the first trilogy were still there in the later films, but the team around him was less empowered to contribute and shape the final product. How much of that was him having developed an ego, and how much of that was a result of the projects being conceptualized as belonging to him, and thus everyone else just working to fulfill his vision, rather than constructing a collective vision. And how much of that ego was foisted upon him due to how the culture at large conceptualizes the role of the director as singular author.
I seem to recall the first cut from lucas of ep4 was so rough, it would had been a complete disaster if it was released as is. Like the opening scene was going to be Luke coming out of his tatooine hut and not the iconic rebel corvette out running an imperial destroyer. Lucas's wife and others worked tirelessly to reedit and move scenes around to fix the pacing and other issues that lucas had in his cut.
Totally agree. And I’d add that the first trilogy had no budget and was looking to prove that sci fi wasn’t kid stuff. They had to embrace constraints that didn’t exist when Lucas did episode 1
Wait, back to back? And you got tired after 6 and a half hours of nonstop star wars? I don't think this anecdote is that damning.
We managed 4-6 in one night, started episode 1 the following evening.
My wife had never seen any Star Wars movies. So we watched eps 4-6 and she loved them. (The laserdisc versions)
Then we tried to do ep 1 and she fell asleep halfway through. Hell, I fell asleep until I heard Duel of the Fates.
Watching them back to back shows how much Lucas had grown to like the smell of his own farts.
I think also, that with the first trilogy, he had a lot of other people around him contributing and building with him, he had some genuine inspiration and interesting ideas, but that team being on equal footing with him allowed the that all to be executed properly.
There is a cultural issue where people tend to ascribe success of projects to lone individuals who lead projects, even while acknowledging the contributions of others, there is still this underlying assumption that a director is responsible for the sum of the parts. That the director is the one slotting the contributions together in a way that makes it work.
I think much of the same inspiration and ideas that he brought to the table in the first trilogy were still there in the later films, but the team around him was less empowered to contribute and shape the final product. How much of that was him having developed an ego, and how much of that was a result of the projects being conceptualized as belonging to him, and thus everyone else just working to fulfill his vision, rather than constructing a collective vision. And how much of that ego was foisted upon him due to how the culture at large conceptualizes the role of the director as singular author.
I seem to recall the first cut from lucas of ep4 was so rough, it would had been a complete disaster if it was released as is. Like the opening scene was going to be Luke coming out of his tatooine hut and not the iconic rebel corvette out running an imperial destroyer. Lucas's wife and others worked tirelessly to reedit and move scenes around to fix the pacing and other issues that lucas had in his cut.
Totally agree. And I’d add that the first trilogy had no budget and was looking to prove that sci fi wasn’t kid stuff. They had to embrace constraints that didn’t exist when Lucas did episode 1
Wait, back to back? And you got tired after 6 and a half hours of nonstop star wars? I don't think this anecdote is that damning.
We managed 4-6 in one night, started episode 1 the following evening.