George Lucas: To feel the true force of ‘Star Wars,’ he had to learn to let it go
George Lucas: To feel the true force of ‘Star Wars,’ he had to learn to let it go
If only he had let go years ago.
But this is new:
[Lucas] also went back to some scenes that had always bothered him, particularly in the 1977 film: When Han Solo (Harrison Ford) is threatened by Greedo, a bounty hunter working for the sluglike gangster Jabba the Hutt, Han reaches for his blaster and shoots Greedo by surprise underneath a cantina table.
In the new version, it is Greedo who shoots first, by a split second. Deeply offended fans saw it as sacrilege; Lucas will probably go to his grave defending it. When Han shot first, he says, it ran counter to “Star Wars’ ” principles.
If the reporting is accurate, Lucas appears to be admitting now that he actually did change what was in the original movie. Which, of course, was already obvious to everyone; but until today (as far as I know), Lucas was still somehow insisting that it had always been that way.
“Han Solo was going to marry Leia, and you look back and say, ‘Should he be a cold-blooded killer?’ ”
It stands out to me that Lucas has used this specific phrase—cold-blooded killer—almost every time he has spoken about this issue. It goes back to the ‘good people’ vs. ‘bad people’ aspect that I wrote about yesterday, which I think is fundamentally wrong. But, if that’s the movie he wanted to make—with unrealistic, one-dimensional characters—then fine. You can make a movie like that! That’s okay!
The problem isn’t that he made a bad movie. If he had, no-one would have cared. The problem is that he made a good movie, then changed it to be worse 20 years later. And then did it again, and again.
Regret is a fundamental part of the human experience. I regret things I’ve done in my life, just as Han Solo might regret some of his prior actions as he later considered the notions of marriage, and potentially fatherhood. (Or he might not! I don’t know, I’m not him.)
I think Lucas, too, looked at the movie he made, and regretted the choice of having Han shoot first. That’s okay. You should look back at your earlier work with a critical eye. But his error is in thinking he could go back and undo that choice (and so many other choices), after millions of people had already accepted these works into their lives.
Sometimes a thing gets broke, can’t be fixed.
Partly so he doesn’t have to read the worst about himself and his movies, Lucas says he has assiduously avoided the Internet since 2000 — no Facebook, no Twitter, no e-mail even …
The Phantom Menace came out in 1999. Attack of the Clones was next, in 2002. So, after hearing the backlash about Jar-Jar, Lucas’s reaction was to decide not to listen to anyone else’s opinions about his work ever again. Explains a lot.