the Lucas & Spielberg friendship - Page 2

Like I've said before on these boards, the prequels are the prequels and not the true beginning of the story. If Lucas had opened up to collaboration as he did with Empire and Jedi, I really do think it could've turned out differently. That's something for whoever ends up in charge of the franchise to keep in mind if and when 7, 8 and 9 get made, but I digress.

While I don't particularly mind the SE's, and while I think Lucas would have to do a whole helluva lot more to the original trilogy in order to ruin it, that's exactly what my problem with the changes are: they're needless. It's also the principle behind the whole thing. He really needs to let it go, this whole "it's my movie" thing. Yes, at least they actually acknowledge the real history of how the movie was made instead of saying "we did all of this on the computer just yesterday," but Nick's point about how they might as well just remake it still stands up.

The fact that Revenge of the Sith used a good deal of both models and cgi doesn't matter much to me when those were both done in 2005, but if I'm going to watch '97/'04 effects slapped onto a movie with opticals from the late 70's and early 80's, I will indeed ask why they bothered releasing it in theaters way back then.

An observation about Lucas in regards to comparing him to Spielberg: Lucas is big into animation. Maybe that explains his burning desire to fill the Star Wars movies with cgi, but it also helps explain what many of you have said is a visual imagination.

This actually helped to focus my thoughts.

No, the praise for Lucas' hard work on Star Wars is not undeserved, but it's gotten to the point now where enough is enough. He's made that Empire of Dreams documentary, finished the prequels, and even dumped 1993 laserdisc transfers onto dvd just to get off the hook on a technicality. It's time to move on, and while his first step is another Indiana Jones movie, it's at least finally - after more than a decade - something that isn't Star Wars.

I'm starting to get the impression, based on all the rumors, that the next time the Star Wars movies hit video they'll actually be given the Blade Runner treatment. Better late than never. Lucas will finally be able to stop worrying about his finances and go crazy making his low budget art films, if he so desires.

George Lucas: Legend Of The Force

I shall remember that legendary quote
Do you guys know how these 2 filmmakers got to meet each other? And does Lucas believe in the Force (Authentic, read you 1984 TIMES Magazine)


Link: LUCAS & SPIELBERG, THE CLOSE ENCOUNTER

Link: LUCAS & SPIELBERG, BEHIND THE SCENES

Enjoy !

I always just thought they got along so well because they looked so much alike?

I've always been vocal about my enjoyment of the prequels, and Lucas' work as a whole. I've never called myself an apologist because that would imply that I somehow knew I was wrong to like them from a critical standpoint, when in fact I think even at its worst, Lucas' stuff has more weight and merit than 75% of the other stuff that's out there. He dreams big, and nobody can really argue that he isn't a business or technical genius (of course it helps that he benefits from gifted designers and effects guys, but that's true of any director). The personal hatred for the man is undeserved and hyperbolic, but it's understandable. Star Wars isn't even a series of movies anymore. It's a brand and it's a cult that's grown far beyond the actual 6 films or any human beings who have been involved. And people deal with that in a lot of strange ways.

To me, Spielberg always seemed like a textbook case of the pupil who outgrew the master. He buddied up and collaberated with Lucas during the early stages of his career, when they were both on similar career paths. They were genre directors with a lot of old-fashioned sensibilities. But the old ways of doing things couldn't contain their ideas, so they had to basically rewrite a lot of filmmaking rules. Easy Riders, Raging Bulls also went into their connection a little bit, pointing out that though they were friends and contemporaries of many of the other, "edgier" directors Vietnam era, they were always a bit more bookish and conservative in their lifestyles. This made them better businessmen and allowed them to avoid the meltdowns that stalled some other promising careers.

At some point in the early 80's they split off from one another artistically, with Lucas turning away from productiom to focus on other things, while Spielberg continued throwing himself into more "adult" projects that challenged him and forced him out of his action/adventure/sci-fi shell. He had his share of misfires, but this extra time behind the camera eventually paid off. By the time he had his Oscar, Spielberg made lots of friends and had developed the ability to be any kind of filmmaker he wanted. He could do intimate drama or summer spectacle, and everybody liked/respected him. Meanwhile, Lucas got rusty and out of touch, which has been said countless times over the last decade. Of course Spielberg is the better director, because he stuck with it.

I'd say that at different times they've needed each other for different reasons (Lucas has provided Spielberg with some important ideas and resources, Spielberg seems to be the friend that keeps Lucas part of the human race and sticks with him while other filmmakers from that famous generation have constantly slung shit Lucas' way over the years), and that's why their friendship has outlasted most Hollywood marriages. They were so similar in the beginning that they were either going to be best friends or bitter rivals. I just think it's incredibly cool that two of my childhood heroes are so close and even find the time to work together.

This thread reads so much like a film/net geek caricature that Im wondering if it's for real or some elaborate Kaufmanesque netscapade.

How so?

EDIT: apologies for the long post, I've been busy for a couple months. Did this place get more or less cynical and soul crushing in the meantime?

I though this was a thread about the Lucas/Spielberg friendship/relationship. Instead, it looks like its another "Lucas is a hack and Prequels are shit" thread??

Misunderstandings like that tend to happen if you don't actually READ the thread.

The odd thing though we have not covered is how the third member of the west coast Trifecta broke of the deeper connection but apparently has made his amends recently with the two.


Also if you have never seen THX 1138, go ahead and get the DC cause that bloody brilliant documentary on Zoetrope is one of the most rewatchable and fascinating that I have seen, and is the most real I have ever seen Lucas in interview.

So basically they make films like my friends and I did in high school. I was Lucas, and my friends we're Spielberg. (Guess you can't have Ninjas in everything.)

Seriously though. Even though I dislike the prequels, I think I'm really upset at Lucas for not branching out. It's like he's wasting his time on Star Wars even though plenty of people are dying to see what else he is capable of. It's borderline frustrating.

People wanted (and probably still want on some level) more Star Wars. They weren't clamoring for more American Graffiti or anything else Lucas might have done. It's the nature of the beast he created I suppose. It literally consumed him.

I'd like to see what Lucas could do with something else more personal or even something he didn't have a hand in with the creative process. The man knows how to shoot a movie (and Rath is right. Graffiti is really, really great. I'd make the argument that it's his most complete film as a Director. Disregarding, like some seem to, because you don't identify with the subject matter is frighteningly small minded) and people not acknowledging that is disturbing to me.

This thread is probably one of the few I have read that isn't just everyone hating Lucas and I like that.

I really think the problem behind Lucas' output since Jedi is that he became the biggest Star Wars fanboy out there. So many people dislike the prequels because they were not the story they wanted or because the films themselves are not exactly great. It seems to me like Lucas wanted to tell the story the way it popped into his head and everything else be damned. I completely believe he has talent and ability but Star Wars turned into an obsession he only wanted one way.

I've always imagined him working on Phantom Menace and someone bringing up the idea that the kid who played young Anakin was horrible or that the midichlorian idea was bad and Lucas just mumbling about making the Queens ship more shiny or Darth Maul's make-up exactly perfect.

Edit: I also wanted this thread front and center for some more idiocy from Isildur.

20 bucks says the second Isildur finds this thread we'll get to hear about how his friendship with Lucas inspired Spielberg to copy his Photoshopping of the Revenge of the Sith poster for Indy 4.

Takers?

Or grew up with anything resembling a somewhat normal high school existence. There's a part in the movie for everyone.

I think it was said better before, but Lucas was developing into one hell of a director, and got detracted by other interests/avenues. ILM consumed (still does) lots of his time, and when they were first developing the FX for Star Wars it was more than likely his entire life.

While his contemporaries were working on smaller, more emotional or personal films he was working on these new technologies. So he missed out on the ability to hone his craft as a storyteller. It's obvious he WANTED to evoke emotion and add personal touches to the prequels, he was just rusty as shit.

If he had made a couple warm up flicks and then the prequels, we could judge his ability to make important, touching, films post-New Hope. All we have is the prequels though. Completely discounting a man's film making abilities after such a lay off isn't fair. I'm sure some of us that haven't rode a bike in years, or decades, would be a bit wobbly until we got the hang of it again...and film making is a slightly more difficult process.

Malick made The Thin Red Line twenty years after Days of Heaven.

Spielberg's the one with an actual chin.