the crimes of george lucas ('90s on)

All art is technology and it improves every year

Says it all really. What a cock.

xpost -- Not entirely:

http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=daily&id=redtails.htm

All art is technology and it improves every year

cadence of this is very Geir-esque

Insisting on calling Star Wars "Episode IV" is one of the things that most annoys me about him. It's your own film. Call it by its name.
The last time he was on the Daily Show I just couldn't watch it, because I couldn't watch Jonny Beefstew fawn over this wanker yet again.

Again, dude's in a place where no one can say no to him. He divorced the only person who could like 30 years ago.

Another one of the good points that Mike @ RLM made when reviewing the blu-ray changes is that there's a weird ownership thing going on where Lucas has gotten to the point where he's changing flicks that he didn't write or direct, and inserting things into them that fundamentally alter the characters for no reason. Han shooting first was just the tip, but also luke screaming when he fell(added and then removed) and the Vader "No".

We can safely wrap everything up by reminding ourselves that -> Dude things Empire is the worst of the three originals. Says it all.

I like Sean's take here:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/george-lucas-says-han-never-shot-first-you-were-ju,69159/

As it turns out, those who saw that controversial edit as a fundamental betrayal of the character—changing Han Solo from a shrewd, streetwise bad-ass to a guy who got really lucky that Greedo is such a lousy shot; rendering his evolution from amoral antihero to full-blown hero less meaningful, etc. —well, they were just confused all along, because Lucas now says Han never shot first

[...]

Indeed, it was only the audience’s own bloodlust that led them astray and left them so confused for so many years—a bloodlust that festered into their ravenous need to set jaws upon George Lucas every time he tries to make his work a little more innocent and magical. Fortunately, all it took was a wider shot and a grafted-on cartoon laser beam to save future generations from wandering down that same dark path, which leads only to anger, hatred, and in forthcoming editions, a nice periwinkle garden.

Spielberg was the coolest director in Hollywood after Jaws. But, that awesomness capital has obviously been spent.

― Frobisher (Viceroy), Thursday, February 9, 2012 9:59 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well, being cool for a 70s film director is pretty faint praise. It was nerd central.

"Jonny Beefstew"?

Spielberg wasn't cool after Jaws. He was "hot"

"Jonny Beefstew"?

It's what muppet Michael Steele used to call Jon Stewart.

All art is technology and it improves every year

we concur.

Spielberg was cool when he directed Joan Crawford when he was 22.

i think the prequels are sad and largely awful but i can't deny that there are some affecting sequences that i grudgingly admire. weirdly they are probably more affecting out of context since your brain hasn't been numbed and/or offended by the dreck surrounding them.

there's something similarly affecting about reading interviews w/ lucas between 1970 and 1975 or so; he's treated with respect by film comment and the like, and he muses almost modestly about wanting to make a film paying tribute to the serials he grew up watching. the interviewers often comment on his innovative use of camera technology in american graffiti and that film's innovative wall-to-wall sourced soundtrack. little did we know that the mythopoetics he was dreaming up would consume nearly his entire career and swallow his talent -- almost whole.

what do people think about american graffiti? i respect it, but i don't really enjoy it. two thoughts about that. one, i think it's hard for me to "see" clearly through all the dozens (or 100s) of films that have ripped it off to varying amounts. what read like impossibly worn clichés now obviously read differently in 1973. two, it seems a like a film that would benefit from seeing it in 35mm on a big screen. the cars and all that.

also it's a cliché but lucas was probably always better shooting cars and technology than people, in a way. i don't mean that solely as a "he doesn't care about people" slight. there's an inventiveness to the way he shoots cars in A.G. and spaceships in S.W. that isn't matched the pedestrian ways he blocks and shoots actors. this problem obviously intensifies with the prequels, where most dialogue sequences can properly be called "inept."

as someone who teaches film it's totally unforgivable that lucas has taken the original star wars out of circulation. it's a film of enormous historical importance, not least for its special effects, and showing the 1997 or later versions in a film history class would make no sense.

it's ironic that "star wars" was one of the first features chosen for the national film registry, since lucas has ensured in years since that even if the original film negative or projection prints are sitting in archives, nobody is going to show them to the public. i'd actually like to write a nice letter explaining how keeping the original version in circulation somehow would be a service to the study of film history, but i get a feeling he wouldn't reply or possibly would shit in a box and send it to me overnight.

^he already did that. it's called Star Wars on blu-ray.

lol

also:

http://www.mwctoys.com/REVIEW_100705b.htm

i mean i didn't really care much until i started teaching.

i've ONLY ever seen the original version. in theaters during its 82-83 revival in advance of return of the jedi, and then frequently on BETA and VHS in subsequent years. probably the last time would've been in the early '90s. i've never seen the various "revisions" and have no interest in seeing them.

so it's kind of o_O for me to read above that other folks have never seen the original and/or didn't realize the "episode iv" thing was tagged on after the fact.

kids these days IIRC.

Lookee that, just in time:

http://redlettermedia.com/plinkett/star-wars-the-phantom-menace-3d/

it's ironic that "star wars" was one of the first features chosen for the national film registry, since lucas has ensured in years since that even if the original film negative or projection prints are sitting in archives, nobody is going to show them to the public. i'd actually like to write a nice letter explaining how keeping the original version in circulation somehow would be a service to the study of film history, but i get a feeling he wouldn't reply or possibly would shit in a box and send it to me overnight.

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Thursday, February 9, 2012 11:35 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

apparently the version in the registry is the 1997 or whatever "special edition." its kind of a disgrace.

It had been done in all close-ups and it was confusing about who did what to whom. I put a little wider shot in there that made it clear that Greedo is the one who shot first, but everyone wanted to think that Han shot first, because they wanted to think that he actually just gunned him down.

i cannot believe he's trying to gaslight the hundreds of millions of people who saw han shoot first.

A billion dollars will feed any particular delusion you care to nurture or randomly devolve into.

i cannot believe he's trying to gaslight the hundreds of millions of people who saw han shoot first.

I know, it's like someone needs to tap him on the shoulder and say "um, actually, these are the droids we're looking for, thanks." But, as has been pointed out above, he has maneuvered himself into a position where this will never happen.

i've never seen the various "revisions" and have no interest in seeing them.

I've watched each of the revised versions of Star Wars once, on television, because I will never give him any more of my money.

The first time I saw American Graffiti I was too young to know it was made by the Man Who Made Star Wars, and was mostly concentrating on the fact that the bloke from Close Encounters AND the bloke from Happy Days were in it (how could such a thing be?). Maybe those people helped make it better? Or maybe it was just better for the same tired reason: because there were people around him then who would curb his worst excesses and keep him focused on the thing he originally said he wanted to do.

A good line in Peter Bradshaw's Guardian review of the re-release:

Watched again now, Phantom Menace seems flat rather than actually objectionable: there is something almost exotic in its intricate dullness, and characters like Jar-Jar are now too boring to be offensive.

apparently the version in the registry is the 1997 or whatever "special edition." its kind of a disgrace.

― the jazz zinger (s1ocki), Friday, February 10, 2012 12:22 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well there isn't really a "registry" that holds actual copies of films, as far as i understand. it's just a way of establishing preservation priorities and to highlight the importance of film preservation and restoration in general. and since star was "inducted" in 1989, before any of the revisions, i think we can assume it's the original version that they had in mind.

star WARS i mean

am you should write an op-ed and subit it to the times or something

im serious -- i never really thought about star wars' "historical importance" but i think youre totally right

Yeah you could say the historical important mostly lies in the special effects, which were hand-crafted in-house and started a number of companies that have dominated the industry for decades. And yeah it's shitty to say "ah, that was no good" and go in and replace it w computers.

The funny thing is, every time I see any of the SW there are a bunch of things that are still wrong that they could easily fix rather than doing stupid stuff like the rock in front of R2. For instance there's a bit in SW where Darth Vader is talking to one of his men and after he is done talking the actor is still gesturing. That seems like a pretty simple fix. There's plenty of little bits here and there where the voice overdub is just a little too long for the reaction shot that follows it, etc.

Looking forward to this RLM stuff.

I recommend http://secrethistoryofstarwars.com/ if you dare to take the geekiest plunge of your life. Really gets into GL's headspace.

the saddest thing for me personally is that while i grew up with & used to love these films, i now kinda fucking hate them and everything about them.

part of that is prob the geek culture over-embracing of SW (helvetica minimalist fan posters etc), part of it is the fact that you can't even see the original films now.

Ok that 3D review is just the old one with a fake 3D filter and a very few extra cheesy 3D bits thrown in.

that's the joke

Yeah you could say the historical important mostly lies in the special effects, which were hand-crafted in-house and started a number of companies that have dominated the industry for decades. And yeah it's shitty to say "ah, that was no good" and go in and replace it w computers.

exactly! if you're teaching a history of the past several decades of american cinema and wanted to talk about special effects--or dolby sound for that matter-- well star wars is a key film, the key film in some ways. but of course you won't understand the nature of its contribution if you see the revised versions.

indeed the extent to which the effects are "flawed" or obvious is itself an important part of the history. teachers have to able to explain the processes by which they were made and how that is and isn't revealed on screen.

sometimes i think we should have some kind of patrimony laws that allow for the preservation and availability (at least to researchers/teachers) of stuff -- a legal "right" that trumps the rights of the author. but that will never happen.

man i wonder how much vintage 35mm prints of star wars go for these days.

most of 'em are probably pretty beat up.

stalinist lol from that interview ned linked:

If you look at Blade Runner, it’s been cut sixteen ways from Sunday and there are all kinds of different versions of it. Star Wars, there’s basically one version — it just keeps getting improved a little bit as we move forward.

"improved"

RLM has put out an actual new thing - commentary track for Episode 1. Might be worth saving for the next time I'm home for the holidays and stuck on the couch and cable is showing the marathon of all these goddamn movies.

Lucas' late 70s plans for a Bondesque franchise are actually all kinds of awesome. Can't be bothered to dig up the quote, but I would love to see the minimal dialogue droids only film he proposed.

And you can sense his excitement in those early interviews for being the creator of a fun, quirky, unexpectedly mega-popular new thing, as opposed to the later burdened beard-faced Keeper of the New Western Myth.

it's great that he uses the Blade Runner example. For the blu-ray release, we got 6 (I think) versions of the movie: original, director's cut, restored with new effects, workprint etc. And Scott was appreciative of how fans could have their different favorites and no one was "definitive."

yeah that's a great counterpoint to the way lucas has handled star wars. in fact i know folks who have compared the different versions of blade runner in class -- so the fact that they are all easily available (and on blu-ray, no less) is a godsend.

i don't think any of the versions of B.R. have new effects though? there was the original workprint, the original scott cut that went unreleased, the version released in 1982, an edit scott made for a 1990s release which is a reworking of his original cut, and finally the so-called "definitive" version that scott put together a few years back. i'm not aware that any of these have new effects work. i thought it was different edits, essentially--and a revised soundtrack.

the bluray has new effects, but it's very subtle. Sprucing up the lighting in the cityscapes and stuff.

there's not like, little monkey shaped aliens running around in the background or anything.

ah, i see.

they didn't add a fat funny-accented replicant sidekick for comic relief?

he added in a whole new scene of Deckard wearing a negligee jerking off over a photo of his maybe-mom...changes EVERYTHING

that does make sense of the final scene where edward james olmos

spoiler

leaves an origami version of deckard's mom in the hallway. i always wondered what was up with that.