What's the best movie as of today that George Lucas has personally directed?

LOL, it just dawned on me, for all the criticism Stanley Kubrick got for making movies so rarely...the tortoise Kubrick actually directed more movies than Lucas between 1971 and 1999.

1971 A Clockwork Orange

1975 Barry Lyndon

1980 The Shining

1987 Full Metal Jacket

1999 Eyes Wide Shut

 

This is the easiest poll to vote on yet. The current results reflect that.

 

LOL, it's interesting he got the same amount of votes in favor of THX 1138, his first feature, made on $ 750,000 that was a financial flop by a novice director, as he did for a STAR WARS movie that cost $105,000,000 with the greatest special efx, greatest film composer and 16 years of expectations from the public and that earned 925 million dollars at the world-wide box office. But you know, I don't think he did any better of a job on Phantom Menace than he did on THX.

 

But you know, I don't think he did any better of a job on Phantom Menace than he did on THX.

I don't think he did either. For one thing, at least the characters in THX are supposed to act like they're repressing any emotion.

 

If you would have asked me as a child I would have probably told you Herbie: the lovebug. I adored that film and the sequels, it was so gret. Now it would definitely be ANH.

 

Oh please;

His best flick was "More American Graffiti"

*Runs off*

 

George Lucas did not direct "The Love Bug". He made a short film called "Herbie" that had nothing to do with Disney's thinking VW. And he did not direct "More American Graffitti". That film was made under a contractual obligation with the studio and all Lucas did was suggest the story and serve as one of the producers.

Lucas has not directed that many movies, but he has worked on other projects as a writer and producer, as well as managing a corporate empire. If you watched A & E's biography on Lucas you will realize why his output significantly slowed down in the mid 1980s and early 90s. His wife left him for another man and as part of the divorce settlement got half of everything he owned. Lucas had to restructure Lucasfilm to keep his business from going under. He also devoted a lot of time to raising his three kids. I think it is understandable, and in fact admirable, that he did not spend that time making movies.

By the way, the "Star Wars" films are fun, but I find Lucas' work on "THX-1138" and "American Graffitti" more intellectually stimulating. I hope he makes more films like them.

-Dubya Fett

 

A New Hope is by far his finest work.

 

It's hard to say. THX-1138, American Graffiti, and Star Wars are all fantastic, vastly different films, and really do show George's range and talent as a director, and it's a great shame he didn't carry on directing small scale stuff after he did Star Wars back in 1977. I think I'll vote for American Graffiti, because, as this is a Star Wars site, everybody will go for that one, and it's a bit predictable of me, anyhow.

 

Marcia left George for another guy? Man thats so not how I pictured it. I always thought it was billionaire mogul George that dropped his frumpy middle aged wife for a hot playmate. I am so disillusioned. Did she leave him for anybody famous or was it just Joe Blow-Nobody?

 

I think she ran off with the chap who was fitting a window in the Skywalker Ranch. That's according to the book I'm reading at the moment, anyhow!

 

She dropped a billionaire for a guy who makes 6.25 an hour? EEEESH! The armageddon is upon us!

 

Maybe he fitted the window really well. Maybe he was as a genius at fitting windows as George is at film. Stuff like that makes girls go weak at the knees, so I'm told.

 

She may have run off with a minimum wage carpenter ten years younger than George, but she also ran off with 100 million dollars of George's money. Her main complaint was George didn't spend enough time with her because he was so busy working. But she didn't mind getting half of the money that he was so busy making. Oh well...life goes on. George doesn't seem especially bitter about it. On 60 MINUTES in 1999 he talked about it as a classic situation: neglected wife runs off with younger man.

This is a directing thread, I just remembered! I think George had a strong "behind the scenes" directing role in all of the Emperor/Vader/Luke scenes in Return of the Jedi. Since those scenes figure so prominently in the tying together of the entire saga, I think he felt it important to be involved. There's a picture of him on the set with Richard Marquand and Ian McDiarmid.

 

I rank 'em like so: SW4ANH, AG, SW1TPM, THX-1138.