Everyone goes on and on about how George Lucas has ruined the Star Wars
Movies by making the three prequels. That they veer so far from the original
story lines that it changes the very fabric of what some people have come to
own over thirty plus years. After watching ThePeople Versus George Lucas, I have come to a fundamental understanding of
what the problem is. The six moves were made by two different men. You don’t
understand what I mean? Ask yourself this, who was the main character of the
movies? Darth Vader. Even when he is not there his presence is. Every story is
about him or revolves around him.
Previously I have examined who exactly were the bad guys in this movie.
It depends on your point of view, but I tend to believe the rightfully elected
government is more legitimate and deserved to be in power more than a band of
religious zealots who represented antiquated monarchy’s who were desperate to
maintain control. Keep this in mind, it will come up again.
The first set of movies was made by George Lucas, a bitter,
slighted, struggling film maker. The tone and tenor of the movies reflected his
rebel attitude and the spirituality of the hippie mindset of the film
maker. Lucas had fought the Hollywood
system and wanted to make movies his way. This attitude made millions of
disenchanted youth fans of his movies which reflected that attitude. He even
let the so called bad guy win in the second movie, and in the third he made the
bad guy the hero. Darth killed the emperor and saved his son at the cost of his
own life; rebel story telling if there ever was. Lucas embraced the
spiritualism of the Jedi and the force. He made it clear that regardless of the
circumstances that the spirit could overcome.
The second set of movies was made by George Lucas, a one of
the most powerful, influential Hollywood producers alive. He is the very person that George Lucas
Despised and worked against in making the first set of movies. AS is common
with all-powerful Hollywood producers they didn’t make a movie to make a
statement but made them to make money.
In this respect the movies were perfect. It appealed to the broadest
audience as possible only excluding the most hardcore Star Wars purist. George
Lucas made them near perfect. Ignoring facts that were set in stone by wiki
editors and changed the things we found inconvenient. The spiritualism was
replaced with alien parasites. The force was no longer a spiritual journey that
any believer could attain to an elite tool that only people infected with the
right amount of midichlorians. This is the
single most devastating change in the franchise. Not the time lines, not Jar
Jar, not the NNNNNOOOOOOOOOO. It took away form all the fans the idea that they
could become Jedi. That was stolen from them. Since there is no spiritualism
there is no good and bad, no light and dark sides of the force.
George Lucas was a spiritual rebel and turned to a corporate
bigwig atheist. Anakin Skywalker turned to Darth Vader. The six Star Wars
movies are the story of George Lucas Jedi and Sith lord. The first movies
portrayed the Jedi as pure good and there was no ambiguity as who was right and
wrong. The revisionist prequels showed ambiguity. The Jedi made the storm
troopers and they were fine with exploiting clones. Let me say this again, The
Jedi took engineered Humans to be used as cannon fodder against a robot army.
They help create an army of people for the sole purpose of dying. It was only
after they tried to overthrow the Empire that they became “EVIL”. The Jedi kill without remorse or regret
thanks to their moral clarity. Only the SIth focus on the emotions of their
actions. Only the Sith acknowledge the individual.
Although I am not sure Lucas’s intent was to make the Empire
and Sith sympathetic with the prequels that is what happened. The Emperor manipulated
and schemed to gain power over others, the Jedi just wave their hand and make
people do as they say. What really is the difference? Anakin was not seduced by
the dark side, he was enticed with power as much as the ambiguity of right and
wrong made him loose track of where the line is. Even Obi Wan said it, “…you're going to find that many of the
truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.”
I think If George Lucas (young) could say something to
George Lucas (now) it would be this:
You anger and your lust for power have already done that.
You have allowed this Dark Lord to twist your mind, until now…untill now you
have become the very thing you swore to destroy.
Though I don’t hate or despise what George Lucas has become;
I understand how it makes people feel who believed in the vision of the young
George Lucas only to be betrayed by him. You should thank George Lucas the
elder, really. In effect, he has made
you more a part of the Star Wars mythos than you could have ever hoped to be
before. You, the fan, are now part of the story. You understand the betrayal
Obi Wan felt and tried to describe to Luke, you understand better than you
could have ever hoped. Without the
prequels you would just be a fan, a viewer of cinema. Now you own a part of the
movies from the pain and the hurt you experienced. The newest fans who loved the
prequels, the young fans, don’t understand it and they are just another set of
movies to them. So next time you hate on Lucas, you cry for your lost youth,
give Lucas a little love.
