The People vs. George Lucas

After seeing The People vs. George Lucas in June at the 2010 Edinburgh Film Festival, I must say that it was the most fun documentary I saw at the festival. And yes, my name is Shane Kester and I am a Star Wars fan, but unlike the others, I can quit any time I want.

The director Alexandre O. Philippe stated that the documentary took three years and was made up of 634 hours of fan films and interviews submitted from all over the globe. You may naturally conclude by the title or what you've heard through the rumor mill that this is simply a "Lucas Bashing" documentary, but it's got much more depth to it than that. The director listened to the impassioned Star Wars and Indiana Jones fan's complaints and rants but also took a very mature look at it from several less "emotional" points of view that gave balance to the force, making this documentary another significant brick in the monument built by fans to honor the cultural phenomenon that Lucas created. This documentary by no means puts an end to the debates as Alexandre Philippe stated in Edinbough, there is still footage being sent in by fans all over the world. And as one of the participants in the documentary stated, "When we're in retirement homes arguing about things, we'll be having conversations about what went wrong with Phantom Menace." The People vs. George Lucas had a surprising array of interviews from the avid Youtube fan to original producers and actors all the way up to Lucas's mentor and friend Francis Ford Coppala who expressed a heart felt lament that George never ventured beyond Star Wars with his story telling.

Even if you aren't an avid fan of Star Wars or Indiana Jones you must at least be aware of the massive cultural influence that George Lucas has had on our little planet. If you're not aware, you must be on the planet farthest from the center of the universe with your head buried in bantha fodder not to have noticed. To you this documentary will be of no interest. But for the rest of you who enjoy a good rant and like to laugh out loud at how seriously people take Star Wars, you really would enjoy this movie.

No, this film is not 93 minutes of giving George Lucas the finger. It plays out as a bizarre, but highly entertaining, mash-up of love letter, trial, intervention, and therapy session, culminating in a general feeling of hope.

I won't go into details, you're likely either going to really want to see this movie, or you won't. If you loved the original Star Wars trilogy and hated the prequels, you're going to want to see this. If you don't care about the Star Wars movies (and therefore, filmmaking in general) then I can't imagine you'd enjoy this movie.

Personally, I really enjoyed the original Star Wars trilogy, and pretty much hated the prequels. However, I don't enjoy Star Wars enough to want to go out and try to make my own fan film, nor did I enjoy watching the bulk of the fan film footage included in TPvsGL. I think these amateur attempts to recreate Star Wars only serve to trivialize and dilute the magic of the original trilogy, in much the same manner as George Lucas' tampering, and subsequent self-destruction of the series. Actually, one of the most interesting things about TPvsGL is that the fans are guilty of most of the "crimes" they accuse Lucas of. It's a very dysfunctional relationship.

The interviews make this movie. Almost all of the interviewees are excellent. They're, for the most part, keen, poignant, and funny. Sometimes hilarious. I laughed out loud a few times.

A must see for Star Wars fans, of all types.

Whether or not you'll appreciate this documentary has a lot to do with what you think about George Lucas and his tinkering with his original Star Wars franchise. If you really couldn't care less or if you dislike Star Wars, then you shouldn't bother with the film. Or, if you are such a devoted fan that any criticism seems wrong, then you shouldn't bother with the film. But, if you think that Lucas fundamentally violated his contract with his fans, then this is your film!! That's because although some of the folks interviewed defended Lucas, most folks interviewed were mad, VERY MAD, at the man who created the franchise--making it a serious love-hate relationship.

Let me explain some of the complaints in the film. First, George Lucas has chosen to re-edit and change his original three films--adding scenes, changing scenes and putting in all new special effects. Second, the final three films in the series (oddly, episodes 1, 2 and 3) weren't up to the quality standards of the first films. And third, Jar Jar Binks is a character who so annoys fans (mostly adults) that people wonder why he insisted not only in putting him in these three most recent films (mentioned in the film) but adding him to the DVDs of the original films (oddly, never mentioned in the documentary). It all boils down to who owns the films--are they Lucas' or does he owe more to his devoted (and sometimes rabid) fans?

A few interesting parts of the film include: the fascinatingly hypocritical fact that Lucas led fight AGAINST colorization--

Testifying before Congress that films should be kept as they originally were made and changing them was wrong! A discussion of the Star Wars Christmas Special--a show considered by many to be among the WORST TV shows ever made.

The use of the word 'rape' which was used quite inappropriately towards the end of the film. Sure, I am one who definitely think it's terrible Lucas has changed his original films and WON'T allow the original films to be sold, but to use the R-word?! This belittles rape and is a bit disturbing.

Overall, a film that will appeal to some--and they will love it. Others might just wonder what all the fuss is about anyway!

As a big Star Wars fan I had heard only a brief mention of this movie some months ago, so I was happy to stumble upon it in Netflix's instant library.

What I liked about the film was that they got some hardcore (sometimes scary) fanboys but also some really reputable creative people to discuss the films. Mostly Star Wars fans but also some film industry types. I also enjoyed how they wove so many fan films into it. It will never cease to amaze me how much Star Wars content is out there, and as big a fan as I am I never knew so many people had taken time out to create such things. It's astounding, and again sometimes a little scary haha.

I also enjoyed the opinions that were given. Mind you I am one of those people that has been very frustrated by Lucas in the last 15 years so take it for what it's worth, but I thought they were fair and that the filmmakers made sure to give some grounded perspective on the issues people take with the new films and the re-imagining of the old ones. Questions like "Can a film be altered years after it's been established?" and "Does a creator have the right to change his work after it's been installed as a cornerstone of so many people's lives?" are addressed as I was hoping they would be.

A couple of complaints would be that though they did offer some counter-arguments to us whining fanboys, there could've been more or at least an expansion of those that were there. Also, I really go into it when they broke down the re-creation of the Jabba scene from A New Hope and was hoping they would break down each subsequent change from the original trilogy, however they did not. I suppose that would've been a bit too uniform an approach but I would've liked it and I still think there would've been time to work in all the rest that was presented. I also think that they could've gotten one or two more big names to contribute their opinions. Neil Gaiman and David Brin were by far the biggest but they are not shown often and only in short spurts. Either one alone could've pretty much anchored this entire documentary, so I would've liked to see more of them or one or two more personalities like them.

As far as the ending, at the risk of sounding holier than thou, I think non-Star Wars fans just don't really understand what they were trying to get across. The fact is that though so many of us love/hate Lucas, half of that is still love. No matter what he's done and will do since Return of the Jedi was finalized he has still given us something that has greatly impacted our lives and has brought us countless hours of enjoyment. The bottom line is that we complain because we care, and Lucas is the one who made us care so much. That's what the end of the film was saying.

When it comes to George Lucas, there is a love/hate relationship between him and his fans. This documentary explores that relationship from a number of different angles, including Lucas's constant tinkering with the original films & the prequels that (to many fans) just didn't quite seem right.

The strength of this documentary is that the fans "against" Mr. Lucas make some compelling cases as to why the Star Wars creator has come under such scrutiny as of late. For example, they bring up the point that Lucas vehemently opposed the Ted Turner notion of colorizing old black-and-white films, yet then himself will NOT release his original Star Wars movies (IV-VI) in their original theatrical versions on DVD. The fans here bring up some good points that paint Lucas as a sort of "creative obsessive", bent on changing little facets of each of his Star Wars films each time they are re-released (whether for profit or for creative reasons is also a large part of the debate.

The only problem with this doc? There is practically no perspective given to the "other side" of the issue, or those who actually enjoyed the prequels and don't mind a bit of tinkering. By viewing this documentary, one would think that there is no "other side" to the issue whatsoever, because the fans doing 99% of the talking are those who viewed the original Star Wars in 1977. Those who took the opposite approach-growing up with the prequels & discovering the older films later--are given no shrift whatsoever in this discussion, a forum in which I believe they should firmly have a place.

Either way, "The People vs. George Lucas" is an interesting documentary that will make you think a little bit about Lucas's antics regarding certain aspects of the Star Wars saga both on and off the screen. As long as you can recognize the group of fans for what they are (essentially die- hard "New Hope" loyalists whose seminal moment in life was at the theater in 1977), there is no harm in this fun little romp.