Would the Prequels have been better with Directors other than GL?

Yes, I do believe another director could have done a better job. The Empire Strikes Back will always remain the best Star Wars movie, because Lucas didn't direct, and didn't write the script, and hence we didn't have the cheesy dialogue we have all come to loath in the PT.

 

I think if you listen to the commentary on ESB. It seems Kersh had his on take. He took the material and went with it. Made it perhaps darker than would have been betrayed. Because the darkness came from the charcters.

Also I think the actors benefited. I think it's very telling that Ford says "sometimes George can be impatient with the process of acting. He's like it's right there. I wrote it. It's on the page" and the famous scene in Bespin..the "I know" scene was shot over and over again. Because it didn't quite feel right. In the end they got a moment a kin to Indy shooting the guy in Raiders. I don't think George would have waited for that.

Also in AotC the Clone War (start of) would have really benefited from input by a Spielberg..since that type of camera angle and gritty feel was borrowed from Saving Private Ryan. I think the battle scenes would have benefited beyond the norm. I have still to see anything better than the Omagh beach landing in Ryan.

 

Yep. It's Georges vision all right. He has the right to do it the way he wants.

That's fine I accept that. Problem. Your playing to an audience. You must take that into account. He could easily have satisfied both wants and needs.

Problem. George has all the power, he can do it exaclty how he wants that's it. Guess what. You ended up far inferior movies.

Proof. AOC. Need a strong powerful love story. The acting was clumsy at best. Take Love story from Titanic and insert there then go back to watching.

Acting is far more compicated than saying reading lines. The sad truth is George should have done it. He didn't because of his ego.

George micro manages as a result becaus of his other repsonsibilities had very little time to get a performance. Look at his shooting schedual coupled with the training schedual of the actors for the great fights. Well something is going to suffer. And the acting along with story structure took the biggest hit. Odd when you think without those 2 very things the other stuff no longer matters. Proof - Star Tek 5. Even the most ardent of fans can't defend that movie.

 

Maybe, maybe not. ESB was good with a different director, ROTJ was not-so-good with a different director.

One thing I am PROFOUNDLY grateful for is that neither Peter Jackson nor Steven Spielberg directed the prequels. Jackson is the single most overrated director alive today, and perhaps of all time. I can't stand how manipulative he is, how he all but whacks you over the head with scenes: "This is TOUCHING! CRY, dammit!" I also hate his overuse of slo-mo.

Spielberg is a good director, but I don't like his style very much, and think it's inappropriate for SW. He is much too precious and sentimental.

Lucas isn't the greatest director, but he is much better than he gets credit for. I much prefer his straightforward approach to directing over Jackson's or Spielberg's.

 

Ford says "sometimes George can be impatient with the process of acting. He's like it's right there. I wrote it. It's on the page"

Where did Harrison say this?

 

Where did Harrison say this?

The Empire of Dreams documentary about the making of the original trilogy.

 

^^^^^ Many thanks!

 

Irvin Kershner is still alive and kicking, is he not? He should have done the prequels, especially AOTC and maybe ROTS.

Right, the same Irvin Kershner who directed such masterpieces like Never Say Never Again and RoboCop 2?

I've heard that before GL decided to direct all the PT films, he wanted Joe Johnston to direct TPM, Frank Darabont AOTC, and David Fincher for ROTS.

 

And I'm glad he changed his mind.

 

I've heard that before GL decided to direct all the PT films, he wanted Joe Johnston to direct TPM, Frank Darabont AOTC, and David Fincher for ROTS.

While I thought Lucas did a more than adequate job with ROTS, a part of me would have been salivating at the prospect of seeing Fincher?s take on the final installment. I?m not so sure about Johnston and Darabont helming the first two, but Fincher really could have nailed the chaotic sense of hopelessness that was integral to Anakin?s fall.

 

I disagree. He'd probably have made it pointlessly gory and nihilistic and ended the movie on the biggest down note possible, instead of the hope that Lucas ended it with. Because "dark" is "cool."

 

I think Spielberg's adventure film style (ala Raiders / E.T.) would have been perfect for TPM. He got over his oversentimentalizing everything phase twenty years ago (mostly). I would see TPM and AOTC being better with different directors. I would LOVE to see what Frank Darabont could have done with AOTC.

However, considering how ROTS turned out, I don't think anyone but George should have directed that one. He NAILED it.

 

He'd probably have made it pointlessly gory and nihilistic and ended the movie on the biggest down note possible, instead of the hope that Lucas ended it with.

I disagree. For instance, he did an excellent job of ending Alien 3 with the transmission of Ripley ?signing off.? Here, despite the main character meeting her demise, the audience is left with a glimmer of finality and hope that the scourge has been stopped for good (at least until Alien Resurrection, but that is another story that would derail this thread.)

Because "dark" is "cool."

In that case Lucas is guilty of trying be a cool dude, as the Revenge of the Sith I saw was quite dark.

I think Spielberg's adventure film style (ala Raiders / E.T.) would have been perfect for TPM.

I concur. And let?s not forget the fact that Spielberg knows what he?s doing when it comes to making films with children in lead roles (Empire of the Sun, E.T.)

 

Fincher for a PT? That would have been interesting.

 

Here's something I just found that is quite timely to the discussion:


Movie fans have long salivated at the thought of Steven Spielberg taking up the reins on one of his friend George Lucas's "Star Wars" films, but as fate would have it, it was not to be a part of Spielberg's destiny. While Lucas and Spielberg would collaborate to great success on the "Indiana Jones" series, Spielberg would never sign a "Star Wars" picture as director. It wasn?t for want of trying on Spielberg?s behalf.

"I?ve asked him. He won?t let me do one," Spielberg said of Lucas to Empire magazine back in 2002.

"I wanted to do one 15 years ago and he didn?t want me to do it. I understand why?'Star Wars' is George?s baby?this is George?s franchise, it?s his cottage industry and it?s his fingerprints," said Spielberg. "He knows I?ve got 'Jurassic Park' and 'Raiders'. But George has 'Star Wars' and I don?t think he feels inclined to share any of it with me." (1)

In 2004, the Lucasfilm-produced "Star Wars" documentary "Empire of Dreams" contradicted Spielberg by plainly stating that Lucas had indeed tried to share his most famous saga. According to the documentary, Lucas offered Spielberg the job of directing "Return of the Jedi" in 1981. Since Lucas had previously quit the Director?s Guild in 1980 (due to a union disagreement over Irvin Kershner?s billing on "The Empire Strikes Back"), the 'Star Wars' creator was unable to hire Spielberg considering his union affiliation. (2)

Long dormant fantasies of the ultimate "Star Wars" movie with Spielberg directing and Lucas producing sprang to life anew following Spielberg?s comments in Empire. With many fans? discontent and disappointment with Lucas?s work as a director on the first two "Star Wars" prequels, "The Phantom Menace" and "Attack of the Clones," Internet forums and chat rooms lit up with excited wishful thinking asking "what if Spielberg directs the final "Star Wars" prequel?" It was again a fanciful notion fueled by Spielberg?s comments and the "Empire of Dreams" claim of Spielberg?s "Jedi" association, but it was not to be since Lucas was firmly committed to seeing his prequel trilogy through to the end as director. In early 2005, however, the interesting news that Spielberg did have somewhat of a hand in directing the final "Star Wars" film, "Revenge of the Sith," broke on the Web.

J.W. Rinzler, an employee of Lucasfilm and the author of the company?s tie-in "Making of Revenge of the Sith" book, revealed that Lucas had enlisted Spielberg to help conceptualize two key sequences in "Sith." During an online chat with starwars.com, Rinzler disclosed the exciting news that Spielberg had worked on pre-visualization for the long-awaited showdown between Obi-Wan Kenobi and his one-time apprentice Anakin Skywalker, as well as a climatic battle between Jedi Master Yoda and Sith Lord Emperor Palpatine (aka Lord Sidious).

As it turned out, Spielberg had been on the production since the summer of 2003. During that year, he?d work on his own film "The Terminal" along with pre-viz on Lucas? "Sith."

"Spielberg came to be involved in the animatics because we had new technology and I was talking to him about it," Lucas explains in "The Making of Sith."

"I said how great it was and I showed it to him. And his film [presumably the ?72 Olympics/Mossad project] had fallen out over the summer, so I said, ?We?ll give you a laptop and we?ll give you the program and I?ll give you some scenes?and you can direct the scenes while you?re just sitting by the pool.? He loves to do that stuff."

Dan Gregoire, pre-visualization supervisor at Lucasfilm, traveled south from San Francisco to Los Angeles to introduce Spielberg to Lucas?s new pre-viz software and work with him on his concepts for "Sith." Spielberg has since hired Gregoire to work with him on pre-visualization on his "War of the Worlds" adaptation. (3)

"The first time I went down [to L.A. to meet with Spielberg], I went with certain assets," Gregoire recalled. "I worked with Steven in the morning at his office at Amblin, and then

 

i don't think that lucas wanted to direct TPM and ATOC in the first place, but he did because no one would take the job, because it is start was and think lucas is the best man for the job

in saying that the work that he did with ROTS was great in face it was his best yet and i think that it turned out for the best the way the PT summed up..

 

The more I see ROTS the more I think. Lucas did a good a job as possible. I think there are plenty of plot twists and subtle things going on. Very much along his lines of Poetic directing.

But even though they sit more easily now Ep3 is complete. I still think the first two would have benefited from other directors.

Even if it only meant Lucas had more time to work on the ground work and not worry about the directing.

Even now in such a short space of time. The difference in the work ILM is doing between TPM and ROTS is amazing. That's not withstanding the pioonering work he did with Digital film making. Considering the amount of effects shots was almost 3x the size of a normal film of this type. If he had been free to concentrate on that (and from the makings of..he spends alot of time) then maybe the principal photography eg the Actors would have had more time and space to work on their performance. Rather than Lucas rush them through. Thinking in the back of his mind I still have two years work with ILM after I shoot this.

 

Yeah, I now really wish he'd gotten others to direct them .
TPM showed just how rusty he'd gotten as a director.
Lucas is great as an Exec producer, the overall plot was good, but it needed fresh eyes to shape it better in dramatic terms/character arcs/dialogue etc.

I think Spielberg would've been great for tpm, he's so good with kids, this film felt like it wanted to be seen through the innocent eyes of a child, and he's so good at that.

Cameron or Ridley Scott would've been great for aotc, a romance with a backdrop of huge armies, something big but romantic.

Fincher would've been great for ROTS - dark, intimate, tragic .

g

 

@Clieggs_Missing_Leg

100% AGREED!

The editing is questionable and definately should have been better! Especially AOTC as you say! ROTS is also in need!

 

Peter Jackson and Steven Speilburg are exellent directors.

 

Lucus shouldn't have wrote or directed the prequels. They each had some good parts that were outweighed by the bad parts. ROTS was the best of all three for me, but it too had some truly bad dialogue(Grievous gets into the escape pod and says "Time to abandon ship!").
Come on. He should have wrote it with someone else.

Anybody else think that the prequels would have been better if Darth Maul and Jango Fett would have lasted until ROTS? I thought that they were both really good characters that had way too little screen time and could have died better deaths than what they got...

 

In the prequels, characters deaths are anticlimactic and new characters are inserted to imply importance then are yanked completely from the story. I think this is where the writing and directing assistance could have been usefull.

 

Yeah, I think GL should've let someone else direct TPM and AOTC, but I'm reasonably happy with the way he did ROTS.

 

In a sense what makes George Lucas such a genius, because he is so talented, is his greatest flaw.

George is a great story teller. Every Star Wars movie, whether you like the dialogue or characters, are very interesting stories. He is also a great editor and producer, as he is great at the macro end of the movies. And when it comes to leading the charge on special effects, every director should just bow before Lucas.

But his greatest flaw is his dialogue and direction of individual scenes in the prequels. If he would have done the prequels this way, they would have been better:

1. Write out the overall outline of the story, and what happens to each character in much more detail.

2. Have someone write the script, along with Lucas. In the prequels, Lucas wrote them with some help on dialogue from other writers.

3. Let someone else direct it. Lucas can worry about the digital technology, the new planet settings, and the ground breaking special effects, and the director can get great performances from Portman, Christenson, and McGregor.

4. Have a second in command, like a Gary Kurtz, who can tell Lucas that this is too kiddy or this is too cheesy. I don't fault Lucas, everyone isn't perfect, sometimes you need a friend to tell you you're going about it the wrong way.

I think ESB is the best, and that was the perfect situation for Lucas.

-Irvin Kershner directed, got great performances out of Ford & Fisher, and even got a great performance out of a puppet!

-Gary Kurtz produced, and wasn't a yes-men to Lucas. If you notice there is not one kiddy thing in that movie.

-Lucas had the story in his notes, and he got Lawrence Kasdan & Leigh Brackett to write the screenplay. There aren't that many cringe-worthy moments in that movie compared to other Star Wars movies.

-Finally, Lucas was still there to oversee everything. He is the glue that makes Star Wars great, though everyone buries him, I just think he does too much. Spielberg never writes his screenplays, he just directs. I think if Lucas, had swallowed a little pride, and delegated a little more in the prequels, they could of have been so much better!

Oh well, I'll still enjoy them.

 

It was best that GL directed them. He set the stage for ROTS.