George Lucas: The Rolling Stone Interview of Lies

Devin seriously you should just have a running weekly column called:

"Star Wars Hate: Devin's Quest"

You post about this movie more than people who actually enjoyed it.

I'm still getting over the whole "Titanic in space" thing. ROTS much darker than the other films, eh George? So, not very dark at all then.

Oh no! George Lucas lied!

I thought lying by Georgie-boy was par for the course....

link a dink

Well, I guess not entirely, but it's a start.

Skimmed it at Virgin this afternoon. On the bright side, the words "Joseph Campbell" never appear in the text.

There's also the obligatory fellatio from Kevin Smith.

Wait, did Lucas say he knew Vader was Luke's father in '77? That's true. It's been awhile, but someone posted a newspaper article online from 1978, in which two possible sequels to Star Wars were apparently being considered: a prequel showing the early days of "Ben Kenobi" and Luke's father; and a sequel where we'd find out that Darth Vader was actually Luke's father.

But seriously Devin, let go of your hate. Why do you obsess over something you don't like?

Devin doesn't need anyone riding to his defense, but I have to chime in anyway.

At the risk of simply being labelled a 'hater' like everyone else who dares to express misgivings about the journey that is Star Wars, I have to say it's odd that the real hate seems to be coming mostly from Prequel loyalists. (Caveat: Y'all here on CHUD have been relatively mellow. It's the rabid baboons over on AICN that take the cake.)

My relationship with SW is a lot more complex than that, and I bet that's true of a lot of guys my age whose first major cinematic experience was seeing Star Wars in theatres in '77. That movie freaked me the fuck out. It was the most violent and jarring thing I had ever seen in my short sheltered life. Dude held up by his throat until his spine cracks? Check. Charred skeletons in disturbing poses? Check. Nice girl vs. hypodermic needle? Check. Bloody sliced-off arm? Check, please.

I didn't see the whole movie all the way through until almost a year later-- when school started up that fall, I had to fake it to keep up with the other kids. So I read all the books on Star Wars that I could find. I learned about the special effects, and the actors, and the earlier movies that had inspired Lucas. Bottom line? Star Wars made me a movie fanatic-- in spite of itself.

As much as I'm disappointed with the prequels (and Jedi , for that matter), I am a Star Wars fan and will be for life. The debt I owe is too great. So when I state, as my personal opinion, that Episode III doesn't suck -- IT BURNS, please respect where I and fans like myself are coming from.

It's not a matter of respect. It's a matter of every thread related to Star Wars being at least temporarily diverted by a snarky comment from, say, Devin.

And yeah, for somebody so 'enlightened', i think Devin spends an awful lot of time talking about something he hates so much.

I don't see what the problem is with that. It'd be an awfully dull thread if everybody here loved the hell out of everything. These boards are for opinion, he's stating his, you can state yours and I'll state mine. Then, we argue. And that, as the Solo man said, is "where the fun begins".

I personally really don't care about the thread getting off-topic, it's just what's the point to randomly jump into a thread and just make a snarky comment without any back-up or adding anything else. Sure it's a somewhat amusing distraction at times, but considering 90% of the time they're just snarky for the point of being snarky, it's annoying.

Uh, Devin, I went into The Empire Strikes Back having heard two years earlier that Vader might be Luke's father from a magazine article (I was a teenager then, unlike you kids today with yer blah blah). Clearly, that had to have come from somewhere, and I'm going to go out on a limb and say it came from Lucas.

Really, man, your Lucas-kicking is getting as bad as Knowles' Del Toro-kissing. Let it go, and move on with your life.

You mean, getting off-topic like you just did in that post by complaining about Devin? Oh, you meant you don't like it when people go off-topic only when it's about bad-mouthing Star Wars.

I could care less what Devin thinks about Star Wars. I DO care that he likes to pass himself off as some sort of arbiter of opinion and how to live life (see his fucking childish things thread) and then spends tons of his time doing the exact kind of childish bullshit that he gives everyone shit for.

Yes, Devin, by all means, tell me more about my childhood experiences. I couldn't possibly recollect correctly, if that's not what you remember. Do you ever need a tripod to hold up your enormous head?

Fighting snark with snark! Nigel St. Buggering...my new favorite poster circa 2005.

So the characters evolved and changed during the development phase! Holy shite that is some revelation! George Lucas must be a liar and a hack if he made changes to characters after he wrote initial drafts! Reaching a bit aren't we? That being said thanks for the link to the book I'm going to buy it.

PS. I always thought the Kenobi thing was a purposefully planted red herring?

If it is no big deal then why did Lucas lie about it?

I don't think it has ever been a secret that the characters changed and evolved during development. IE: Luke Starkiller, Han being an alien at one point.

You're right, Devin, Lucas is a worthless gimp, JK Rowling is a timeless genius, your opinions are actually objective facts, and anyone who disagrees with said opinions is clearly lying to themselves. Now go lie down before your neck buckles under the weight of your ponderous ego.

Your overall argument seems to cover character issues beyond the Kenobi/father deal. But that is one of the reasons I am buying the bloody book, to see exactly what you are talking about. It has also been documented that it was a planned part of the story....do I discount the other documented items solely because they disagree with you? Unfortunately Lucas never seems to completely fess up on these issues, so we are left with varying sources of unknown validity. The book WAS published by Lucasfilm but I would like to see the context of the statement. Maybe find out exactly who said it. If you'd like to maybe share the quote that would be interesting as well.

I'm sure this one source will vindicate your point of view. Trying to prove a point with one source is a tenuous position at best. Seriously though someone needs to make a graphic of you with a lightsaber and put the Devin and the unhealthy obsession text on that.

Even if it's all true, and Lucas has lied, who gives a crap? You (and your ilk) keep going on about this as if it's a moral crime on par with Bush lying about weapons in Iraq. Why does this bunch up your panties so bad?

Right......

Uh...do I really need to say it?

I would like to know.

What's wrong with having a car-wreck style fascination for Lucas' incessant, insufferable revisionism? It's as plain as day.

Hmm. Yeah. But it doesn't strike me as an especially calculated or insidious lie. Seems like one of those half-accidental fibs we're all apt to tell when we start rambling about ourselves. Those spontaneous little confusions of chronology and context that are pseudointentional. Maybe it's less universal than I assume, but I sort of hesitate to jump on George's case simply because I've been known to commit the same sin, especially when talking up my own artistic pursuits. When people ask you about your work, it's awfully tempting to smooth out the rough edges and present yourself as someone cleverer than you really are.

Which is all obvious, obvious stuff, but it's worth bearing in mind when you talk about Lucas. I think he's a bit of a loser -- he wants to be seen as this masterful mythweaver -- but I doubt if he sits for hours at the computer poring over LiesThatWillMakeMeLookGood.doc.

"Goooooooooodddddddddd.... Your anger has made you powerful.... Now crush them..... Crush them.... all......."

actually, it seems terribly calculated. given that they've clearly been pushing vader from a marketing standpoint it serves lucas' purposes to try and spin it that everything in the whole saga revolved around anakin/vader. which is total bullshit from an OT pov.

Ya know...I heard the president lied once too.

(GASP!)

Despite the fact that, as of now, two posters have pretty decent memories of reading circa-1978 articles specifying Darth Vader as Luke's father in 'Star Wars 2.' But of course, as usual, we're mistaken. And Devin's right.

Because George Lucas is the devil. These threads are neither informative nor funny. So why keep creating them?

Thank you.

And Devin, how can you make the claim that I went into Empire having heard that as a baseless rumor, when quite clearly, it was in no way baseless, since that is in fact what ended up happening? How old were you in 1978? Because I can assure you that my memories of the time are quite clear; I was 14.

Circa - 1978? If that were the case, then nobody would have been surprised by the revelation in Empire. It may have been speculation from fan magazines or Starlog or Fantastic - but it didn't come from Lucas or anyone working on Empire...

Look what I found. From a 1978 issue of Future Magazine --

Where does your venom come from Devin? Who hurt you so bad?

Not directly, maybe. But even in 1978 there were people working on movies who would blab. The Internet didn't invent that.

And as for nobody being surprised, I really doubt that most of the filmgoing public read movie magazines. I'd be surprised if it were as high as 10%. Movie magazines were only for hardcore nerds at that time. Like me, for instance.

Carl and Mecha can probably provide sources for this MUCH better than I can, but im sure I remember reading that in the late 70's, Lucas said that he had written 9 films with a full backstory. Then he said he had only written 6 and that the other 3 were "an invention by the media".
AND im sure I read somewhere that he said during the ROTS publicity that he had only written the 3 OT films originally, and then came back to do another 3 due to the fans expectations!
I think that what Devin is saying is that the guy seems to make it up as he goes along, and has told numerous untruths about things along the way. But far be it from me to second guess ANYONE, let alone Devin.

Hey, how 'bout that Rolling Stone interview?

Guess what. I actually read it!

More interesting, to me, than the question of when "I-am-your-father" became canon is Lucas's new spin on the Vader we see in Star Wars: 1977 . He's got a whole new rap on why the generals dis Darth in the conference scene.

Said scene has always been an OT linchpin for me. It's the first time we hear Vader speak of the Force, and he's kinda preachy about it-- there's a mad-monk slant to him that isn't all that present in the other films. I hope it doesn't get re-written like the scene in EMPIRE.

Sorry to go off topic, but I need to point this out. I agree with everything you're saying devin, I believe you are right. However, referring to someone as "son" in a debate is not cool, unless you want to come across as a condescending prick. Personally I think that's worse than any insult you could level at someone, and to be honest if someone did that to my face I'd probably knock their fucking teeth in.

You've got the facts on your side so use them, if people don't want to listen to them then screw them, but don't come across as an arrogant dickhead (unless you are).

Cheers.