Does George Lucas deserve all the criticism he gets?

@ d_arbley

You use a character who didn't even appear in any political scene as proof that Lucas didn't portray democracy badly? And Padmé? She is as dumb as it gets.

 

Do you judge all artist's works based on their political beliefs? Judge him on his ability as an artist and on your enjoyment of his artistic work, I say. His views are reflected in the work if you want to find them but many are certainly vague enough to be open to interpretation. Star Wars is very anti-dictatorship as well, remember, and never once speaks sympathetically about such a concept. However, it does blatantly illustrate the ideal that you can and should remove a power by force if you think it is corrupt/evil (not just the Jedi in ROTS but the Rebels in ANH and ROTJ). This can be construed as dangerous too ("good is a point of view"). I'm sure it doesn't detract from any enjoyment you have of watching the OT though. And nor should it.

He would have known precious people wouldn't find it funny. But then again, he was probably also aware that such people went around crying "Lucas raped my childhood" and thought it was fair game. No different to the T-Shirt he wore on the set of TPM quoting a scathing review of Star Wars back in 1977. It's just a bit of banter and also demonstrating a somewhat charming degree of self-deprication.

Well he did (along with many other strong-willed and dissatisfied senators). The scenes were just cut for the sake of running time. But he goes on to form the Rebellion. He is hardly weak. Anyway your point wasn't that democracy as a concept was portrayed badly. It was that the Senators were all weak and portrayed in weak fashion to make us think our own politicians must be the same by association. I don't believe this is the case. And I think it's less about portraying the concept of democracy badly and more about understanding how corruption can blossom and succeed under the guise of good will - warning the audience how easily it can happen (and has happened in our own world). It's an extremely useful message. It's a warning against complacency and belief that an accepted system can't be compromised.

Well you can accuse anyone of being anything you like. It'd more useful to the debate to reason why you believe she was dumb. For the record, I don't agree.

 

Just because I read HP Lovecraft doesn't mean I have to like the man and all that he represented and believed in.

Lucas beliefs do hamper my enjoyment of the PT. If it weren't a political story it would be less of an issue.

And he can and should be criticised on his political messages. They are part of his work after all.

If you think so. For me it is poking fun at those fans who wear Han shot first shirts, many of who have never said "Lucas raped my childhood". I would wear such a shirt but I don't say Lucas raped my childhood or any such nonsense.

If you think so. I think otherwise.

Lets just say I don't think this discussion would yield anything plus it would be off topic anyway.

 

If you're talking about the vile internet hate of people, then we agree. I post in alot of political message boards, and the vile things I hear about politicians is disquisting. When Margaret Thatcher died, there were people on the left actually cheering on the internet??? The same when Helen Thomas died last week, as many on the right were celebrating??? You have to ignore the vile stuff on the internet because its a product of people sitting behind their computer and don't have to show their face while they type ANYTHING they want. I was talking about the legit criticism of Lucas by fans, not the internet nerds who call him names all day.

 

Yet they wouldn't had you never read them in print? In that case, I assume (from what you've said elsewhere) we're merely one article away from you disliking the OT, should it reveal that Lucas thinks terrorism isn't necessarily a bad thing. That's a shame. Judge the art on it's value and what you interpret from it, independent of the artist's own beliefs, I say. Even then, a work itself doesn't have to reflect your views in order for you to find worth in it. I think JFK is littered with inaccuracy and propaganda, yet I appreciate that it's an incredibly well crafted film and enjoy it a great deal. I'm against the hunting of sharks, yet I enjoy Jaws immensely. I'm no fan of terrorism, yet I root for the Rebels in the OT. And I appreciate democracy, yet I have no problem with the PT pointing out that it's not perfect ("it's just the best thing we have" as someone once said). In none of these cases should the artist's own personal opinions justifiably alter my enjoyment of them. But I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on that one.

 

Again, this is like this for every movie franchise. Have you been on the Batman message boards after the release of 'The Dark Knight Rises'? There was utter hatred for that movie, and there was the same type of remarks that Nolan was now a hack and he ruined the series. I remember fans hate 'XMen: The Last Stand' and they were ripping Brett Ratner because they thought he ruined the trilogy after he took over for the third film. And the same went for Spiderman 3, as most people I saw on the internet hated that too.

The problem you may just venture onto SW websites, so you may just see the horrible comments about Lucas, but don't realize this goes on ALL over the internet (Movies, Sports, Politics, etc.) I am not disagreeing with what your saying about Lucas, I'm just saying this is a sympton of the internet and you will always get polarizing opinions as long as people don't have to show their faces to each other.

 

Rightly so. My god that film was bad

 

Absolutely, categorically NO. But. . . .

Being an SW collector and fan of 20+ years we get continually ^*&%$^* by LF etc, decisions made by GL in the Special Editions, talk of NO new movies EVER then selling to Disney, probable death of the EU in the coming years . . . . . there are MANY reasons to lay the smack down on George but I love the guy for what he's given me.

To quote a famous phrase, "You can't please all of the people all of the time."

 

I think the best way to sum it up:

Everyone deserves to be criticized fairly, but not in the manner that is seen on the Internet. There is, after all, a world of difference between "George seems to be losing his grip on Star Wars" and "George should **** himself for raping Star Wars".

 

We're the fans. We have every right to criticize George Lucas and talk about things in Star Wars we didn't like. It doesn't betray any kind of entitlement on the part of the fans. George Lucas owned Star Wars and could do whatever he wanted with it. That doesn't mean we have like every single thing he does because he created Star Wars.

 

For me, the PT doesn't contain much else of value, therefore Lucas political statements are just one further reason for me why I detest the PT.

 

I think many of the criticisms of Lucas are valid ones, though the way they are expressed often times are in ways that are uncalled for. That being said, Lucas himself is probably the reason why it has escalated to that level. He has repeatedly said he doesn't care what fans think and he is going to do what he wants to do, but then it is clear that he does care about what the fans thing because he complains about it a lot. That love/hate relationship over time seemed to build tensions between him and his fans, and it took two parties to create that relationship (Lucas and the fans).

Personally I don't really mind most of the changes, though I think most are unnecessary they really don't change the experience or make the films less enjoyable for me.

At the end of the day I guess I would say that he does deserve all the criticism he gets, just as he deserves all the praise and financial reward. Most of that criticism is coming from revisions 20 years after the original releases anyway, and some aren't just cosmetic changes but rather changes that in some cases alter a character.

He is a director, it comes with the territory.

 

I enjoy the movies. I'm grateful that he put in the decades of creativity and hard work he did to bring the saga to us. I'm saddened that he sold the franchise but hoping for the best. I'm not clear on his reasoning for selling. If it was to retire, then good for him. But if it was because he felt driven from his own world by some of the extreme negativity that has infiltrated the SW world, then it is sadly reflective of the theme of the saga.

 

I was not criticizing the movies or Lucas, I was praising the EU I only meant that SW has become such an amazing thing because Lucas laid down all the groundwork for it to evolve that way. I'm sorry that is the way you interpreted it.

 

there is a million miles between people whose lives were badly effected by the policies of a power mad politiciian posting messages of outrage at what her life stood for to nerds moaning that an invented world was not as they imagined