The People Vs. George Lucas – Film Reel Review

I’m pretty sure this movie was made for me. – Will

This documentary explores the filmmaking and fans of one of the biggest franchises in history.

Directed by – Alexandre O. Philippe

Starring – Ahmed Best, David Brin, Matt Cohen, Brian Comerford, Michael Cornacchia, Rafik Djoumi, Art Douglas, Jaylin Duffield, Frankie Frain, Boo Friedmann, Neil Gaiman, Chris Gore, Todd Hanson, Ray Harryhausen, Damian Hess, Phil Hill, Anthony Ingruber, Glenn Kenny, Brandon Kleyla, Ed Kramer, Gary Kurtz, Joe Leydon, Jonathan London, George Lucas, Joe Nussbaum, Tom Payne, Bill Plympton, Dale Pollock, David Prowse, Mark Reilly, Kevin Rubio, Andrew Semans, Ann Skinner, Steven Spielberg, Lou Tambone, John Venzon, Anthony Waye, Mike White, Nar Williams

Despite one of the most uncomfortable seats in the history of moviegoing experiences I really enjoyed this film. It pretty much boils down to a lot of Lucas bashing but I fall into the category of people that the film seems geared toward. I grew up on the original trilogy of Star Wars and absolutely hated the prequel trilogy. This flick basically splits its time between praising the originals and bashing the prequels. Sounds a lot like a Saturday night around here.

At least these guys aren’t out to just hate on the prequels for the fun of it. The film is full of die-hard Star Wars fans and by their own admission they all wanted to love the newer flicks. Much like me, they couldn’t. Some people like them, some people love them, I can’t stand them and neither can a lot of Star Wars fans, or at least the ones in this movie do. Let me start at the beginning though. The film looks at the love affair that people have with the original trilogy. Fan sites, conventions, toy collectors, cosplayers around the world. Star Wars is a lifestyle for some people. It’s all squishy love stories at the beginning.

Even in Tokyo people are obsessed with the Star Wars films.

We get a little peek into the marketing of the movies such as the action figures. When the film was first released they didn’t have any figures ready for shipment so they sent out an empty box to people. It had a space backdrop and pictures of the figures on it, like a diorama, and by buying this empty box you were assuring yourself that once the figures were ready for shipment, you would be getting one. Think of the kind of insanity that is. People bought an empty box! Yes, they would eventually get their figures but can you imagine buying an empty box with the promise that the figures are a coming! Just nuts.

From the love of the original films we move into the special editions that were released to theaters. This is where the love starts to go rotten. Questions over who shot first are raised, (it was Han by the way) corny scenes of people falling down or doing stupid things in the background are added and some terrible CG is introduced with a crappy looking Jabba the Hut talking to Han Solo. Most of the people in the film share the same feeling that I do. I was excited to get to see these films in the theater again. I thought they would only be cleaning them up and making them look and sound better than ever, I didn’t know they would be altering the film itself.

People start demanding the original versions be released to DVD after Lucas states that the special editions are his true vision and that the original negatives for the films have been destroyed in the process of making the new versions. Someone starts calling bull on that and nobody can figure out why they would destroy an original negative when it’s unneccessary. This leads into discussions on fan versions of the film both serious and funny and to some interesting topics on what right the viewers have to demand a director leave his own work alone. These films have become part of peoples lives and they don’t want anyone screwing around with them.

Probably the way a lot of people would like to see George Lucas.

The last part of the film deals with the prequel trilogy. This is where things turn ugly. Jar Jar Binks comes up a lot, as well as some Youtube video of absolutely irate fans voicing their displeasure with the films. They look at how these newer films are appealing to the younger generation but leaving us old diehard fans behind. Guess it comes with the territory of being an old timer! There is plenty of other stuff going on in this film though. Topics vary from fan fiction, homemade cuts of all the films, attempts to release some slightly illegal forms of the original trilogy before Lucas put them through the special edition ringer, the who shot first argument, the marketing, the worldwide impact of the series, comics, books, you name it and it’s probably at least talked about in some form in this film.

It was a great look at the building of what is probably the biggest franchise in history. arguments are made for both sides of the coin at least and it’s not all about hating George Lucas. It’s just that even his admirers are a little cold when it comes to the further adventures of their favorite characters. I don’t hate the guy for doing what he does best but that doesn’t mean that I have to like his films. What I did like is seeing the immense amount of information that is given in this documentary, despite having to sit in a chair that felt like the Emperor himself sent it to me.

Under the marquee – Will