Who is the most underrated contributor to the Star Wars saga?

I started this thread in the old SW Misc., and naturally had it buried under the line by line and social threads. So let's try it again.

how about a vote on who we think the most underrated contributor to Star Wars is? Here are some choices:

Dennis Muren: An original employee of ILM, worked on special effects on all 5 films.

Ralph McQuarrie: Production artist on the original trilogy. If it weren't for some of his paintings, the movies might never have gotten made.

Doug Chiang: Design director for TPM and AOTC. Helped shape the new look of Star Wars in a pre-Empire universe.

John Williams: Musical composer of all 5 films. I don't know if he would quite qualify as being "underrated," because the music is one thing I think most of us love. But his touch adds so much to what we see on the screen. Steven Spielberg called him "the greatest composer who ever lived."

Ben Burtt: Sound designer of all 5 movies and editor of TPM and AOTC. The hum of a lightsaber, the blast of Han Solo's pistol, Jabba's laugh and the roar of the podracers all came from the creativity of Ben Burtt.

Joe Johnston: Designed the look of many of the ships in the original trilogy, and another early ILM employee.

Nilo Rodis-Jamero: Costume designer for ESB and ROJ. Designed the ultra-cool royal guard outfit, Luke's Jedi outfit and many other things that made up the look the characters had in Episodes 5 and 6.

Rob Coleman: Animation director for TPM and AOTC. His work helped raise the bar on creating an acting performance out of a CGI character to a new level of believability. Watto in TPM and Yoda in AOTC were groundbreaking to say the least.

John Knoll: ILM supervisor. He makes it all happen, and has been Lucas' right hand man in the prequel trilogy.

Feel free to add your own nominees, but this is a topic I wanted to start so we could give a little recognition to these people who have played a huge role in creating this universe we all love.

 

Irvin Kershner and Gary Kurtz
-these gentlemen are often forgotten in favor of "It's Lucas's vision!" hoopla

Bob Anderson
-The Swordmaster of OT (and now LOTR)

 

Ben Burtt: Sound designer of all 5 movies and editor of TPM and AOTC. The hum of a lightsaber, the blast of Han Solo's pistol, Jabba's laugh and the roar of the podracers all came from the creativity of Ben Burtt.

That guy is outstanding. He's my choice. The lightsaber sounds are my favorite sounds in the saga.

 

Tough question. Not that he's overlooked, but people often don't acknowledge just how powerful John Williams' score is in helping to propell this "universe" far above the rest of the "space-based" films. Sure these films had good FX, but without Williams' score, these films would've fallen on many more "deaf ears" IMO.

 

Lawernce Kasdan is another. He wrote ESB and ROTJ, with a clutz helping him ofcourse.

 

George Lucas. Its his story, and people won't let him tell it. WIthout him, we would know nothing of Star Wars, and for that he deserves all the praise in the world.

 

Yeah I have to agree with the George Lucas vote.

 

George Lucas. By far the most underrated contributor. He created it, and yet he is the most hated of all the poeple involved.

It's ridiculous.

-JDR.

 

George Lucas.

 

You never see any of those guys get bashed as much as Lucas, you must admit, so I'd vote for him.

But Nilo Rodis-Jamero is a personal favourite of mine. My first ever SW memory is of the fantastic Royal Guards, and the outfit Luke wears in ROTJ is just utterly cool.

 

I would have to say Dennis Muren. I had not heard of him until recently, and it wasnt until I read your post that I found out he worked ON ALL 5 FILMS. I figured he had only worked on the PT.

However, Billy bob and Jack the ripper have both made very good points. The Flanneled One has been unfairly and unjustly maligned.

 

My first ever SW memory is of the fantastic Royal Guards


You have good taste, my friend!!


Good points about Lucas. I have a hard time thinking of him being an "underrated" contributor. But in light of the unfair criticism he receives, I think his share of the credit for the success of the franchise is underrated.

My vote would prolly go to Ben Burtt. He invented all of the sounds and languages of the saga, a daunting task. He's managed to create new, original sounds that have their biggest impact where it's most important - in the movie theater.

 

I would have to go with John Williams, his musical scores throughout the saga have been so amazing and so different from conventinal movie scores. Not many film scores are as easily recognizable to the "average" filmgoing public, but yet the musical scores from Star Wars are so grand and well composed that once someone hears them, they are forever in their memory. I can't imagine Star Wars without John Williams wonderful assortment of music!

 

I also vote for George Lucas. Simply for the bad rap he has gotten for these last two films. Heck he has now been nominted for the razzie for Worst Director for both TPM and AOTC.

Now, anytime you hear media commentary on the man, it is negative. Yet, TPM and AOTC are actually great movies.

He is definetly the most underrated.

I don't personally see how anyone could mention any of the technical guys. NOt taking anything away from the great jobs they have done, but they are actually the only ones who have gotten credit for the prequels. I mean Ben Burtt and the ILM guys have all been nominated for Oscars for the prequels so far (both of Burtt's were for TPM). George has been the one that has gotten a bad rap.

 

My votes go to John Knoll and Ben Burtt - I have no idea where Star Wars would be without the amazing visuals and audio.

Lucas isn't exactly underrated - more like under-respected. He is a very talented storyteller; he is truly the one who brings it all alive.

-Bjork.

 

George Lucas.

 

The costume designers!!!

 

I ran a poll about this ages ago, I asked who besides GL, and the far and away winner was John Williams.

 

[image=http://www.bobafettfanclub.com/MANUAL/quotes/people-johnston.jpg]

 

Wow. This is a really tough decision.

Ralph McQuarrie was awesome...his pictures help expand the Star Wars universe visually. But then, all the little sounds and stuff that makes Star Wars sound unique is Ben Burtt's doing. I love John William's Star Wars music-it totally immerses me into my own Star Wars realm in my head...and of course, George Lucas created Star Wars and gave us a whole universe to love!!!

Aiyi!

In the end, I think I'll go with George Lucas. If it wasn't for him, where would us Star Wars fans be?! Trekkies?!

 

Here are the vote totals so far:

George Lucas: 7
Ben Burtt: 3
John Williams: 2
Joe Johnston: 1
Dennis Muren: 1
John Knoll: 1
Gary Kurtz: 1
Irvin Kershner: 1
Bob Anderson: 1
Lawrence Kasdan: 1
Ternian's costume designers: 1

 

Ben Burtt - sounds of R2D2, lightsabers, all of the starships, alien languages, make the SW universe valid and very believable.

John Dykstra - created the DykstraFlex camera which made the aerial battles in SW look like real ships flying around.

John Knoll - he is involved with the PT films beginning to end both on set and in post production to make everything looks seamless and atmospheric.

George Lucas - everybody has won awards and got recognition except him. The only time he is mentioned is when they nitpick and bash. The other people mentioned would not egt their props without his vision. Ralph McQuarrie made have done the artwork, John Williams may have scored some of the best film soundtracks ever, et al but without George's vision and direction where would this all be?

 

John Williams.



I don't get how GL is even being considered as a possible canidate for most underrated contributer. Whether people like the movies or not, he is commonly given credit for being the lone creator of a saga in which he has only written one of the five released episodes by himself.
He's conceptualized the story and overseen the execution, sometimes more closely than others, but still get's/takes almost all the credit for the creative processes of dozens (at least) of people.




*He was credited as writing ANH by himself, but according to The Annotated Screenplays, that wasn't the case.

 

I will also say George Lucas. He is one of the most underrated directors ever.

I wouldn't say he takes all the credit. He always talks about he could not create Star Wars without all the creative people around him.

When he like the painting for the droid factory so much he decided to put a whole new segment about it in the film. He always tells John Williams what he wants with the music in the film. But he let's Mr. Williams come up with the music himself and Mr.Lucas rarely has to make changes to it.

But he deserves the credit for coming up with the whole basic idea for Star Wars and the films he makes.He has the ideas in his head but sometimes he can not translate them into reality like he would like. That is where all of the other designers come in. To help Lucas makes his ideas a relity.

He inspires the people around him to be the best they could possible be at their jobs. Much like Walt Disney who whould act out the entire movie he wanted to make. He whould have the idea in his head and he whould get the animators and artist to draw and paint pictures until it looked like the images in his head. Disney is the genuis behide all of his films and George Lucas is the genuis behind his films, as he inspires and leads his team of artist into making his dreams a reailty.

So George Lucas and the creative people all around him deserves all the praise that they recive.

 

Muren