In the mid-1960s, the man who would make “Star Wars”
entered the University of Southern California a humble anthropology
student with a love of photography. Today, he is a rock star.
George Lucas stands among Hollywood’s elite. His
multi-billion dollar worth punctuates his profound influence on the
movie industry over the past 30 years. In the late 1970s,
“Star Wars” helped effect a sea of change in Hollywood
as the big-budget blockbuster took over. Even today, the
“Star Wars” faithful will don their capes and wait in
line for hours ““ or even days ““ anytime they get
another chance to use “the force.” And the fans have
had several such chances recently. The “Star Wars”
trilogy was released last week on DVD and made a reported $115
million in its first day. The Best Buy store in Westwood was one of
only two stores in Southern California holding a midnight release
party for the DVD set. About 500 people came, some of whom started
lining up at 5 a.m. that morning and many dressed as characters
from the movies, said Chau Nguyen, a representative of the store.
“We had nine stormtroopers from the 501st legion of
stormtroopers,” Nguyen said, referring to a group of fans
dressed as the foot soldiers for “the Dark Side.” But
the trilogy has long overshadowed its less-popular distant cousin
“THX 1138,” Lucas’ first feature film.
“THX” was released on DVD one week prior to the trilogy
and the film is now on a 20-city theatrical tour. The movie was
shown at Lucas’ alma mater Saturday, where Lucas also showed
up to answer questions. Releasing these films has given Lucas the
opportunity to reflect on the events and people that got him where
he is. “My life has basically been a bunch of
opportunities,” Lucas told a crowd of about 350 students,
fans and admirers after the screening of “THX” at
USC’s Frank Sinatra Theater. To enter film school, to make a
feature film, to make “Star Wars” and ultimately to
“finish” his films 30 years later were each
opportunities that presented themselves to him ““ and ones he
refused to pass up. Lucas started at USC as an anthropology
student. With a penchant for photography, he made a fairly rapid
transition into the film department, deciding documentary
filmmaking was a reasonable fusion of his diverse interests ““
not to mention a prudent career choice. “In those days you
couldn’t get into the theatrical business anyway, so it was
about the only place I thought I could make a living making
movies,” Lucas said in an interview with The Bruin. But his
plans would face quite a detour. With his student film,
“Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138: 4EB,” Lucas sought to
combine his affinity for documentary filmmaking, science fiction
and abstract films into a single film. He crafted a 15-minute film
about a man trying to escape from an oppressive futuristic society,
a la “1984.” The film was shot on a shoe-string budget
and on makeshift locations. “Like all student films, there
was absolutely no money at all,” Lucas said. “Even when
I went on and did the feature I had no money at all. So I used the
same technique of shooting on existing locations ““ a UCLA
parking lot for one. We snuck over there and shot a lot of the film
at UCLA ““ we didn’t have parking lots (at USC). So, you
know, we just went wherever it looked ““ wherever the design
was unique enough to make it look like a futuristic society.”
The film blew away audiences of his film-school peers and won first
place at a student film festival. As his award-winning film was
generating buzz for Lucas, another L.A.-area film school whiz kid
began to take notice. UCLA alumnus and multiple Academy
Award-winner Francis Ford Coppola became a mentor of sorts to
Lucas. After Coppola met with some success on his own, he used his
clout to get Lucas the opportunity to make his first feature film.
Lucas decided to expand his student film. He attacked the film with
vigor, but the stunning look and ground-breaking sound of
“THX 1138″ were overshadowed by its unconventional
story. “”˜THX’ is an abstract film. It’s not
an easy film to get into,” Lucas admitted. “It’s
not your mainline popcorn picture. … So, for the normal audience,
it’s not the kind of film they’d want to go see.”
The movie, which won praise from such acclaimed filmmakers as
Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese, was largely ignored by
everyone else. “For people that understand cinema or are
interested in cinema ““ especially other directors ““ it
was quite an experience for them,” Lucas said. Today, with
the huge success of “Star Wars,” Lucas has had the
opportunity to return to his early films to restore and repair
them. When Lucas first re-released “Star Wars” in the
late 1990s, many fans were upset by the changes because they felt
he was making unnecessary alterations to the movies they had fallen
in love with. But Lucas maintains that his films are his own, and
he has the right as the artist and owner to do with them as he
pleases. And he has always believed the films were incomplete when
they were first released, he said, so as he sees it, he is now
making things right. Though his directing resume contains only five
films, Lucas is deeply immersed in the world of filmmaking. With
the release of “Star Wars” and “THX,” the
final episode of the “Star Wars” series being wrapped
up, a fourth “Indiana Jones” film in the works and a
slew of ideas in his head, Lucas still manages to keep his
priorities in focus. “My children are my legacy,” he
said. Despite his grounded priorities, he is making sure his
desires do not get lost in space.
*** Daily Bruin: “Star Wars” was finally
released on DVD and the films have retained many of the changes
from when they were first re-released in the late 1990s, much to
the dismay of some longtime “Star Wars” fans who fell
in love with the original versions.
George Lucas: Well, the original version was never finished. It
was always very annoying to me and at the time, if you read any of
the articles of the time, people would say the film’s so
great and everything and (ask) how do you like it? I said,
“˜Well, I’m very unhappy with it and it turned out to be
about 25 percent of what I wanted it to be.’ I don’t
know what the big fuss is about because (people never thought the
movie) wasn’t done right and nobody understood what I was
talking about.
DB: Why make the changes now?
GL: When I came to a point to get a chance to clean it up and
reissue it again, I decided I would finish it. I would do it the
way it was originally intended to be and the way I wanted it to be,
so I didn’t have to sit there and suffer through it anymore.
So, for me, it was just getting the film finished, which is
something usually you don’t get to do when you’re a
filmmaker.
DB: You’ve had a well-publicized aversion to the
studio system ““ even going so far as to have the original
copy of “THX” taken out from the screening room of
Warner Bros. and driven to San Francisco before the studio could
recut it. Do you feel like “finishing” the movies when
you re-release them is, in a way, a triumph of the filmmaker over
the studio system?
GL: Usually (a film) just gets ripped out of your hands and then
(the studio will) put it in a theater and that’s all you have
to say about it. You never get a chance to go back. With DVDs, now
you get a chance to sometimes get your “director’s
cut,” which adds stuff back in that the studio cut out. But
very rarely is somebody going to put their money back into it
““ to say I want to fix it, I want to get these shots done the
way they were meant to be.
DB: You’ve said the last time you would issue the
original versions was on VHS several years ago. But with VHS
potentially becoming obsolete one day, will you release them on
DVD?
GL: I don’t know. I mean, when VHS becomes obsolete it
will probably get released on DVD, I imagine. But I’m not
going to spend the effort to restore them (to) what I consider to
be the real film.
DB: Throughout your films, there is the constant theme of an
individual or a small group rising up against a larger and more
powerful entity. What is it about this theme that resonates so
strongly with you?
GL: Well, “Star Wars” came out when I was a very
young person and I was still sort of fighting the system. I was an
independent filmmaker from San Francisco that was, sort of,
battling the establishment as it was at that time. And so I still
have very strong feelings in that way.
DB: You’ve said “Episode III” is going to
be darker than the other “Star Wars” movies. What do
you mean by that?
GL: Well, everybody dies. (Laughs.)
DB: Everybody?
GL: Well, not everybody, but most everybody.
DB: And what can you say about “Indiana Jones
4″?
GL: We’re working on a script. Of course, we’ve been
working on a script for about six years. You know, we’re not
going to do it unless we get something that’s worth doing.
And hopefully we’ll be able to start as soon as we get the
script finished.
DB: So, how many more do you have in you? Or, for that
matter, how many more do Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg have in
them?
GL: I don’t know ““ we just go one at a time. I have
to come up with the idea of how it works, and it’s pretty
hard to come up with the supernatural part of the story and have it
make sense. And so I wasn’t sure we were ever going to do any
more than just the three, but then I came up with an idea that I
thought was good. So we’ve been working with that for a
while.
DB: Want to reveal?
GL: No. (Laughs.)
DB: OK, now be honest, have you ever tried on the Chewbacca
costume just for fun?
GL: (Laughs.) No, I’m way too short for that. (Laughs.) I
did try on the (C-)3PO suit once.
DB: How’d it fit?
GL: It was very tight and I didn’t really fit in it. But I
had to show (C-3PO actor) Tony Daniels that he wasn’t the
only one who would suffer through it.