Love people. That’s basically all Star Wars is.
George Lucas (via bastila-bae)
george lucas
gffa:
This is a really interesting read about George Lucas and you really sort of get the point of just how much shit he took over Star Wars and over just about everything and yet how settled in his own skin he seems to be, in a way that I don’t know that I could have managed.
re: Making the movies he wanted to make:
Most critics hated the first two episodes. But Lucas isn’t worried about their reaction. “They haven’t liked any of them, really, and they especially haven’t liked the last two,” says Lucas. “It’s like, hey, you know, it can’t get any worse.”
But doesn’t it hurt? “Oh, it always hurts. It hurts a great deal. But part of making movies is you get attacked, and sometimes in very personal ways,” says Lucas.
“The point is, like if you paint your house white and somebody comes over, ‘Well that should be a green house.’ Well, fine, but I wanted to paint it white. I don’t think there was anything wrong with painting it white. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with me for painting it white. Maybe it should be a green house, but I didn’t want it to be a green house. I wanted it to be a white house.”
re: Why wasn’t he married again?
And his love life? “What love life,” says Lucas, laughing. “It hasn’t changed much. … I’d love to get married again, but I’m not gonna get married unless it’s the right person.”
“Are you getting set in your ways,” asks Stahl.
“Oh, I’m very set in my ways,” says Lucas. “I am difficult. But you know, whomever I’d be interested in now is also the same way.”
Back in 1999, Lucas’ good friend, Francis Ford Coppola, told 60 Minutes what he thought the problem was: “He has very high standards. I mean, he wants Queen Noor or Grace Kelly or someone. She can’t be too tall, she has to be wonderful with her kids.”
Lucas’ response? “Everybody says the same thing about their friend that’s single, which is, ‘They’re too picky. If they just wouldn’t be so picky they’d be married by now,’” says Lucas.
Just imagine getting this much shit constantly. About absolutely everything! Because people always feel free to say whatever they want about him. Imagine having to be secure enough in yourself to not let that change you.
idk it’s interesting to actually listen to him talk, someone who has clearly given a lot of thought to himself and how he is and how he comes off, but has settled into his own skin and is like, yeah, I am who I am, but not in a mean, aggressive way. He’s open about his flaws and, like, I’m not going to feel sorry for someone who literally made billions from his movies, he’s doing fine, but sometimes it’s just sort of remarkable to step back from all of the criticism of him (deserved and undeserved alike) and really look at things.
Let’s face it, their dialogue in that scene is pretty corny. It is presented very honestly, it isn’t tongue-in-cheek at all, and it’s really played to the hilt. But it is consistent not only with the rest of the movie, but with the overall Star Wars style. Most people don’t understand the style of Star Wars. They don’t get that there is an underlying motif that is very much like a nineteen thirties western or Saturday matinee serial. It’s in that more romantic period of making movies and adventure films. And this film is even more melodrama than the others.
George Lucas discussing the fireplace place confession scene in Myth Making; Behind the Scenes of Attack of the Clones (via starhlings)
Back in the 80s and early 90s, fanzines and game boards got shut down for homosexual content related to SW, even just discussions. It hasn’t made a huge splash because fandom has eased up A LOT since then, but it was a legitimate thing that Bioware flat out described homosexuality as not existing in the GFFA in their game worlds. I’m sure Lucas’s position has evolved on it the same way everybody else’s has in the past thirty years.
gffa:
Yeah, I suspect there’s at least some homophobia there, if nothing else the lack of it in the prequels and just the general age of the guy are things that would lean me in that direction. And the truth is that LucasFilm did get after people for gay content in their fanzines! And that George could have stepped in to say, hey, it’s fine, let them do what they want.
But without reliable sources to tell us the actual details of how much George was or wasn’t involved (especially knowing his tendency to not get involved with even the commercial versions of the extended universe of his series!), I’m not really willing to speculate. (This fanlore article has a lot of the details, including the actual letters, for that whole thing!)
I feel like the problems with George Lucas are generally more in his lack of awareness on things, rather than outright hostility towards them. A lot of the more potentially fraught issues of his movies (the complicated use of Eastern cultural elements, the lack of more people of color in primary roles, the lack of textually queer relationships, etc.) seem to be of the sort that aren’t directly awful, but may show a lack of understanding.
But also that we’re dealing with something 35 years ago by this point and, yeah, it’s not an excuse but sometimes it is an explanation. And fandom was a different place, just as society was a different place back then. It doesn’t mean we should forget these things, but also let’s provide actual sources when we can. (I’d certainly be curious to know if he’s evolved over time and what his Star Wars would have looked like on a detail level!)
For what it’s worth, he did donate $50,000 to the campaign for gay marriage in 2008. And Lucasfilm the company, which he still owned then, gave the same amount. Which kinda strikes me as a deliberate decision in some sense?
Oh holy fucking shit George Lucas is included on this article, which includes child rapists (Polanski, Allen), literal Nazi sympathizers (Riefenstahl) and domestic abusers (Gibson). This is going to be awful, isn’t it. He’s one of my storytelling heroes and I’m going to have to recalibrate everything I think about Star Wars, everything I think about his politics –
Oh right.
Of course. I forgot that people genuinely consider the Star Wars prequels to be as bad as literally raping an actual person, the teen whom Polanski got his claws into. How could I have been foolish enough to not realize that a man whose later work was arguably not as good his earlier work is on the same moral level as a woman who served as Hitler’s propagandist? Nicely done, article. You’ve certainly opened my eyes.
I wonder why Hollywood seems to have a problem with rape and sexual assault. The view that “making a bad movie” is as terrible a crime as drugging and raping a girl, or creating literal Nazi propaganda, or sexually abusing your daughter, or sexually and physically abusing your lead actress into a breakdown (these are just some of the other things detailed in the ‘horrible acts’ sections for the other directors) surely has nothing to do with it.
How fucking dare this article pretend even for a second that it cares about victims.
