Director: Alexandre O. Phillipe
Cast: George Lucas
Have I Seen It Before?: I thought I might have, but its entirely possible that I had spent the last twenty years intermittently agreeing with and refuting the arguments brought up by the film.
Did I like it?: When looking at most documentaries, there is usually room for two avenues of analysis. First, is it technically good? I find myself so embarrassed by any documentary that can’t keep a baseline competency as far as editing and quality of footage goes, that I often find myself not able to finish the film at all. This film looks like many other modern documentaries, especially on the subject of films. It’s nothing special, but it doesn’t distract.
The second criteria must decide whether or not I agree with the film, or if it could somehow change my mind on any given subject. Here, the results are a mixed bag. Ultimately, the title is misnomer. The film isn’t really organized as a trial against the writer-director of Star Wars (1977), more of a venue for various subsets of fans to vent their frustration.
No, George Lucas did not rape anyone’s childhood. To suggest otherwise is hyperbolic in a way that is willfully crass and ugly.
Yes, George Lucas does (or, at least, did before he sold the entirety of his IP to Disney) have the rights to revise his work.
Is the current version of Star Wars the same film that won the Academy Award for Best Editing? No, it’s not, and the original versions of the films should be preserved, somehow. And it is, kind of. There are Limited Editions that were available on DVD in the mid-2000s that included the unaltered versions of the films. They don’t support 5.1 sound, or a transfer that fits current, widescreen television sets, but it is there. Even though the Limited Editions are out of print, you can get them on Amazon for about $70.00. I wait a few more years and those babies will only appreciate further.
Now, when people complain that the original versions of the film deserve digital remastering, THX sound, and the other loving treatment that Lucasfilm would normally lavish on such films, I start to blanche. They did remaster them, and in the process changed them. We can’t have it both ways. Much of this documentary’s runtime is devoted to the debate as to whether or not Lucasfilm’s assertion that the original film sources of the trilogy are either destroyed or in such bad condition that it is a fool’s errand to try and release them in a modern format. I tend to actually believe the company line on this one, as in making digital versions of the films, Lucas’ famed distaste for shooting and exhibiting on film leads me to believe that the original sources of the first three films in the series are now indeed one with the Force.
Finally? Getting mad about Star Wars has never put anything good out in the galaxy. I love some of the movies George Lucas created, sort of like some of the others, and there are a few of his films I want to like, but don’t work for me at all. That’s okay. Lucas was allowed to make mistakes. Let’s not make a federal case out of it.