Get out of here Agent Smith. This board is turning into tf.n for christs sake.
I really wanted to start a new thread basically in response to the sentiments in MVerta's going away message. He is a much more popular poster than I'll ever be, and I'll admit to thinking he is a cool guy and all, but not only was that post the most self righteous piece of shit I've ever seen on the internet, it was one of the more asinine. I want to talk about this notion that GL has changed as a filmmaker. Sure, he's grown, of course he's changed, but is he really all that different? Has he really raped our childhood in some way? Was revising the OT really such a bad thing? Was creating a PT so awful?
"You taught me to set my ego aside, and listen to my audience. " - MVerta.
Um, Lucas from day one has been an auteur concerned only with his vision. Since when has he listened to his audience? And why should he? He's an artist, and artists make art for their own sake, and if what they express happens to touch other people, good, if not, so be it. But if an artist tries to please people and listen to an audience, then they will be a fucking failure. He has collaborators he trusts, friends, colleagues, but he doesn't care what Star Wars fans or a general audience really want in his films.
GL's style of filmmaking has never really changed. As a writer, he struggles with clunky dialogue. As a director, he is able to combine the objective, pragmatic eye of a documentarian with the understanding of how expressive, implicit means of manipulating composition, lighting and color affect the viewer, an understanding that comes only in being a master of imagery, mythology, and a student of art. As an editor, he beautifully juxtaposes images and has an inate ability of knowing just how a shot affects its predecessor; he also can take his own themes and characters for granted, and cut out necessary scenes.
He has his strengths and his weaknesses, and they have always been there. I could go on and on, but really in MVerta's post I see what has hurt the reaction to the PT so much. A kid who saw the OT without the ability to objectively analyze the films, and become cognizant of what they were, and who the director was. And a kid who grew up to become someone who was able to imagine what he envisioned the PT to be like, get hellbent on seeing that vision, and get pissed off when his vision wasn't put on screen. Someone who would come to recognize the flaws in Lucas' style of filmmaking, filled with a disillusionment which prevents them from seeing the overriding positives GL has.
These movies work so well for kids because kids react to images. They don't give a rats ass about dialogue, and they can probably watch a silent movie and follow the story better than adults. At the end of the day, these movies are as close to silent movies as any modern film is. The story, the characters, the themes, they are all told through the use of manipulation of the image and of edititing. George Lucas is an incredibly intelligent intellectual, who is very concerend with mythology and themes of human nature. He took those themes, put his own spin on it, and delivered it to us in the form of popcorn B movie serial style flicks. And with that vehicle for his delivery comes the cheesy nature of that style genre, and with him at the helm came a tin ear for dialogue and a love for cheesy moments. Personally, I always dug the cheese. Sure, the PT might have some miscues and fuckups, and if Lucas had handed over some of the control of the films to outside screenwriters or directors, they might not be there. But why shoudl he? It's his fucking vision and his fucking movies, he shouldn't give a shit what people think. Like any good artist, he's making these for himself, expressing something deep within him that no one else can understand or try to comprehend. I won't defend every aspect of the PT, I don't think TPM or AOTC are as good as ESB and ANH, but I do think that despite some errors, the PT holds its own with the OT, and in a lot of ways, exceeds its predecessor. Without a doubt, it makes the Star Wars saga incredibly more interesting. I feel bad for the nitpickers who are too fucking self righetous to let themselves enjoy these films.
End massive rant. I know no one probly read it and if they do I'll just get shat on for calling out a poster who isn't even going to post here again but I feel it had to be done.
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