TAKEAWAYS FROM GEORGE LUCAS: A LIFE
The creator of Star Wars needs no introduction, especially since we’ll be reintroduced to the franchise every year until a time far, far away. But Brian Jay Jones’s biography of the director-turned-mogul is a fascinating look at how a phenomenon we take for granted came together. Here are your takeaways:
1Lucas was influenced by the French side of the National Film Board, notably Arthur Lipsett’s 2187, a film that inspired “The Force.” Multiple homages to Lipsett exist in Lucas’s work, including Princess Leia’s imprisonment in cell 2187 on the Death Star, and a date that flashes past in Lucas’s THX 1138 ( meanwhile in Star Wars, Mark Hamill adlibbed Chewbacca’s own cell block as 1138).
2After poor reviews of THX 1138, Lucas declared that “Critics are the vandals of our time, like spray painters who mess up walls.” Curiously his next film would be American Graffiti, which was critically acclaimed, and whose musicality resulted in offers for Lucas to direct both The Who’s Tommy and an adaptation of Hair.
3Lucas was supposed to make Apocalypse Now, a story of his that Francis Ford Coppola sold out from under him in a package deal when the two were business partners. Before making Star Wars, which incorporated some of his Vietnam- inspired themes, Lucas had his producer Gary Kurtz ( no relation) scouting locations for Apocalypse Now, ultimately directed by Coppola. Side note: only two people have gotten Lucas to shave his iconic “director’s” beard: Coppola and Linda Ronstadt.
4Take a deep breath. Star Wars’ original main character was “Annakin Starkiller,” who trains to become a Jedi under an old Luke Skywalker instead of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Annakin then became Luke Starkiller and finally Luke Skywalker, because Lucas worried that “Starkiller” sounded like a serial killer af t er t he Manson murders. ( Also, Luke had to destroy the Death Star – it would have been like sending Frodo into Frodor.) Annakin, of course, became Darth Vader, whose garb was originally a spacesuit designed by artist Ralph McQuarrie, not Vader’s “everyday wear.” McQuarrie also painted a castle in a volcano world for Vader that was cut from the original trilogy. The volcano world appeared later in Revenge of the Sith and the castle itself in Rogue One. Finally, “Starkiller” returned in the form of the Starkiller Base, t he “Death Star” of The Force Awakens. Now exhale.