COLUMN: Finding Lucas' lack of faith disturbing
Art is a tough thing to define.
It’s even tougher to delineate what is good art and what is bad art, but one pretty decent measure is how much people take it into themselves.
George Lucas should feel like a massively successful artist after millions of people accepted “Star Wars” into their lives, celebrating it, interpreting it and sharing it with others.
It is disturbing, then, that he reportedly responded to a fan concerned by his efforts to remove the original versions of the first trilogy from circulation by saying, “Grow up. They’re my movies.”
Those reports are unverified, but even if that was not a direct statement, it certainly matches his actions.
The original versions of the films, without any of the computer graphic modifications and extra scenes added in the theatrical re-releases of the 1990s or DVDs of the 2000s, have not been printed since a limited-edition production in 2006.
But George Lucas is wrong. His films belong not only to him, but to the people who love them.
“Star Wars” would be nothing more than an Akira Kurosawa-loving “Flash Gordon” knock-off without the people who have loved and elevated it over its decades of existence.
Lucas is perfectly within his rights to update the movies to conform to his new continuity, make the ewoks blink, give Greedo a dastardly mustache and Jabba the Hutt digital liposuction or whatever other questionable modifications he desires. They are his products.
But he is not within his rights to rob the world of the original vision that inspired so many to embrace and expand the world of science fiction.
We can’t make Lucas put out a product of which he no longer approves, but why should he not? What’s the harm in allowing classic “Star Wars” to exist alongside the revised edition?
It’s not the first time he has tried to squash a part of the series’ history with some success, although his efforts to sweep the goofy “Star Wars Holiday Special” under the rug are a bit more understandable.
I fear Lucas has turned the same critical eye to the original trilogy and found it sophomoric.
It is not. Even its hokey effects and telegraphed fight choreography remain an essential part of cinematic history.
Search your feelings, Lucas. You know it to be true.
