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Topic:
Total Film's 100 Greatest Directors Ever: 38. Roman Polanski
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
10/17/07 2:10pm
Subject:
RE: Total Film's 100 Greatest Directors Ever - 95. George Lucas
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As a director, Lucas has some drawbacks, but he also has some real strengths, too. He almost singlehandedly rescued scifi adventure from joke status, so this ranking seems low.
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General_Dodonna
Registered:
Feb '05
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Date Posted:
10/17/07 8:25pm
Subject:
RE: Total Film's 100 Greatest Directors Ever - 95. George Lucas
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"As a director, Lucas has some drawbacks, but he also has some real strengths, too. He almost singlehandedly rescued scifi adventure from joke status, so this ranking seems low."
Given the source, I'm downright shocked he's as low as 95. If this were, say, Sight and Sound, a 95 ranking (or not at all) makes a lot of sense. He made two masterpieces (or 1 1/2 depending on how you look at it), two (interesting) failures, and one somewhere in the middle. Again, I haven't seen THX, but it seems to follow into the 1/2 masterpiece or middle category.
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Wilderness_Comedian
Registered:
Feb '05
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Date Posted:
10/17/07 10:34pm
Subject:
RE: Total Film's 100 Greatest Directors Ever - 95. George Lucas
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Lucas and Spielberg changed the movie industry forever. People forget Spielberg has his share of stinkers too (Always, anyone?).
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JohnWesleyDowney
Registered:
Jan '04
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Date Posted:
10/17/07 10:37pm
Subject:
RE: Total Film's 100 Greatest Directors Ever - 95. George Lucas
- Date Edited:
10/17/07 10:41pm (3 edits total)
Edited By:
JohnWesleyDowney
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I can't recommend THX 1138 enough for anyone interested in Lucas's work. Especially the brush up he did on it a couple of years ago. He had ILM fix and add some things and while a lot of people hated it when he did that with Star Wars, it really benefited THX because it was made for a paltry $ 700,000 in 1971 and the changes really enhanced it.
It is an awesome movie when you consider what he was trying to accomplish with a tiny budget
and keeping in mind he was very limited in experience at this time, it was his first movie. It's an amazing achievement. And by the way, you can see it in some ways as a dress rehearsal for Star Wars, minus the giddy optimism.
You can see many of the issues in his work such as "most people live in cages with the doors wide open" are present in this low budget film. Get the director's cut, watch the film and then go back and watch it with the commentary on where you can hear Lucas and his friend and partner on THX, Walter Murch talk about the movie. Anyone who thinks Lucas is only interested in kiddie movies will be surprised.
Another thing that struck me about the commentary was that THX 1138 is incredibly relevant to 2007. There are aspects of THX which foreshadow the Matrix (people drugged into sleeping as a culture), so there were statements in it where Lucas thought he was commenting on the early 70s, through a film set in 2525, but he addressed issues that afflict every time. It's about an individual hero expressing his individuality and waking up from the nightmare existence which society sometimes imposes on us.
I think when a lot of people take Lucas's career as a whole and include the perspective of THX and American Graffiti, you get a much fairer and clearer picture of him as an artist, a director and a thinker.
All the hate aimed at the prequels aside, he's a very talented guy. I think he's forgotten a lot more about directing than most people will ever know, after all, his mentor was Francis Ford Coppola. Does he have weaknesses? Of course he does. Everyone does. But his strengths far, far outweigh his weaknesses.
I think the last hour of Revenge of the Sith is some of the best filmmaking I've seen in years. # 95? Way, way too low. And outside of his directing, his contribution to the work of other directors via ILM has been nothing less than breathtaking. Thank god he started that company and kept it going!
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How many movies do you think Industrial Light and Magic has worked on? WRONG. http://www.ilm.com/ilm_services.html "Films fulfill an unconscious spiritual desire that human beings have to share a common memory." - Martin Scorcese
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Wilderness_Comedian
Registered:
Feb '05
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Date Posted:
10/18/07 12:36am
Subject:
RE: Total Film's 100 Greatest Directors Ever - 95. George Lucas
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Lucas is an awesome writer and idea maker. He created Indiana Jones and Luke Skywalker, and he came up with the story for Apocalypse Now.
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Jedi_Keiran_Halcyon
Registered:
Dec '00
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Date Posted:
10/18/07 8:51am
Subject:
RE: Total Film's 100 Greatest Directors Ever - 95. George Lucas
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Zaz posted:
As a director, Lucas has some drawbacks, but he also has some real strengths, too. He almost singlehandedly rescued scifi adventure from joke status
And 20 years later he put it right back there.
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Wilderness_Comedian
Registered:
Feb '05
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Date Posted:
10/18/07 11:39am
Subject:
RE: Total Film's 100 Greatest Directors Ever - 95. George Lucas
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Jedi_Keiran_Halcyon posted:
Zaz posted:
As a director, Lucas has some drawbacks, but he also has some real strengths, too. He almost singlehandedly rescued scifi adventure from joke status
And 20 years later he put it right back there.
Yeah, the EU sucks.
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Jango10
Registered:
Sep '02
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Date Posted:
10/18/07 1:54pm
Subject:
RE: Total Film's 100 Greatest Directors Ever - 95. George Lucas
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Is George Lucas the greatest director ever? No.
Is he the most successful director ever? Yes.
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McCain/Palin '08
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
10/19/07 12:43pm
Subject:
RE: Total Film's 100 Greatest Directors Ever - 95. George Lucas
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He's by no means worse than some of the directors that came ahead of him. This is list that does not include Murnau and Minelli, after all. 
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Erk
Registered:
Aug '01
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Date Posted:
10/19/07 2:58pm
Subject:
RE: Total Film's 100 Greatest Directors Ever - 95. George Lucas
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Shyamalan is a joke on a list like this. The sixth sense was one alright movie but if a couple of alright movies is enough to put you on a list like this I feel bad for "film".
I would propose we make our own but I'm too afraid it will stink; Hitchcook gold, spielberg silver, horrible thought.
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
10/19/07 3:00pm
Subject:
RE: Total Film's 100 Greatest Directors Ever - 95. George Lucas
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We could do our own list, yes. I like that idea.
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Rogue1-and-a-half
Title: Manager: Amphitheatre
Registered:
Nov '00
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Date Posted:
10/30/07 11:04am
Subject:
RE: Total Film's 100 Greatest Directors Ever - 95. George Lucas
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Lucas has great strengths, but most of them don't lie in the arena of directing. As a producer, he's incredibly brilliant. The best Star Wars film, after all, he didn't direct. But he did direct the second best and American Graffiti which is a masterpiece as well.
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Without having ever felt sorry for itself.
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dizfactor
Registered:
Aug '02
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Date Posted:
10/30/07 12:02pm
Subject:
RE: Total Film's 100 Greatest Directors Ever - 95. George Lucas
- Date Edited:
10/30/07 12:13pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
dizfactor
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Wilderness_Comedian posted:
People forget Spielberg has his share of stinkers too (Always, Schindler's List, Amistad, Minority Report, AI, anyone?).
Fixed. Spielberg is without doubt the most overrated director in the history of cinema.
My commentary on the directors so far:
100) Abel Ferrara: Bad Lieutenant is indeed a great movie, but it's all I've seen of his.
99) Sofia Coppola is troubling. Lost in Translation is an outstanding movie, and it's a three-way-dance between two incredibly strong performances and perfect directing. However, The Virgin Suicides was pretty terrible and highly overrated. I haven't seen Marie Antoinette, but I haven't heard good things. Still early on this one. LiT could be a fluke.
98) Sadly, I have yet to see any Sturges.
97) Baz Luhrman: I think Romeo + Juliet is underrated, but it's not a great movie by any standard, and Moulin Rouge, for all its ambition and fantastic core concept, is ultimately a big steaming turd. My girlfriend really likes Strictly Ballroom, but I haven't seen it yet. Based on what I've seen, he doesn't belong here.
96) I've avoided M. Night Shymalan entirely. I should probably see The Sixth Sense at some point, but it's low on my list of priorities.
95) George Lucas: American Graffiti and THX 1138 are great. Star Wars - it's hard to see it objectively, but you can't deny its impact. Everything else he's directed since has run the gamut from putrid to mediocre. Still, those are three great movies.
Oh, and this list, like all lists of this sort, is awful, but arguably the most mind-numbingly bad is the placing of David Fincher and Peter Jackson at 9 and 10 respectively. Seriously? Those two belong in the top fifty, let alone the top ten? Seriously?
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Hammurabi
Registered:
Jan '07
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Date Posted:
10/30/07 1:03pm
Subject:
RE: Total Film's 100 Greatest Directors Ever - 95. George Lucas
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dizfactor posted:
Oh, and this list, like all lists of this sort, is awful, but arguably the most mind-numbingly bad is the placing of David Fincher and Peter Jackson at 9 and 10 respectively. Seriously? Those two belong in the top fifty, let alone the top ten? Seriously?
Right above Kurosawa. 
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
10/30/07 1:20pm
Subject:
RE: Total Film's 100 Greatest Directors Ever - 95. George Lucas
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You. Are. Kidding. Me.
We very seriously have to do our own list. This is just plain ridiculous.
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