star wars: lucas  





Lucas has gotten a bum rap.

It is the nature of many artists, to wane, to stray. No one, in certain creative modes, can keep up that level of output forever. Many types, directors especially, who have enjoyed an early career full of bountiful creative output, find that in later years, their tone changes, their message changes, or even that "it" factor that drives their creative energy changes. They can't stay kids forever.

Much of what struck gold with Lucas on Star Wars was out of his control. He tapped into mythological elements, that were bigger than him. Star Wars took on a life of its own. He got extremely lucky with Empire and Jedi being helmed by two extremely talented people. And he released the reins from himself, which was a very smart thing to do. it was in keeping with the whole "this is bigger than him" element.

He got very lucky with Star Wars, and to some extent even he did not understand its appeal, especially in later years. This was evident when the prequels were made. He could not duplicate the artistic success of Star Wars, of what made Star Wars so magical: the passion, the excitement, the energy, the youthfulness, the fun, the naivete. He was not as aware of his own formula.

Fortunately for him, the momentum of the wave of Star Wars as a religion- sized phenomenon fueled enthusiasm for the prequels with a generation that simply responded to those movies' own curiosity and excitement, on those movies' own merits. He did not need to make a Jungian, archetypal, mythological story. He knew, or realized quickly after making Phantom Menace, that visual spectacle, ushered in by the age of console video games and high CGI, would fuel interest and enthusiasm.

It was, ironically, original fans coupled with the new wave, the new generation of fans, that elevated Star Wars to a religion and a worldwide phenomenon orders of magnitude greater than to the original movies, although the original movies were a religion unto themselves.

But what made Star Wars great was not pursued in the prequels. And the original fans knew this.

Lucas, it can be argued, did not understand his success with the mythology. This was evident because he did not understand fans' ragings at his mistakes, his changes, his more recent choices. His ability as a storyteller had faltered, stiltified. But this was not his fault. A storyteller has to be out there, out in the world, risking, taking chances, living life. Drawing *upon* life to tell his stories. Lucas had no such luxury, once he got successful. His seclusion and mogul- like existence was well-documented through much of his life, once Star Wars took off. It is no surprise he had no real raw visceral life to draw upon once he started writing the prequels.

What made Lucas successful with Star Wars was his youth, his energy, components that he could not have been consciously aware of. Which fits well into the mythology of the hero. The hero is not aware of what makes him the hero. Once he does, he ceases to be the hero.

He tried to recapture this with Red Tails, and to a large extent he succeeded -- he wanted to make a naive, romantic tale. And it worked. It felt like Star Wars in bits.

But concerning his original mythology, he had put his hands into it too much (i.e. the unnecessary tweaks and changes for the special editions) to understand the nature of what made it great. The art takes on a life of its own, and it becomes the people's creation. Art hands itself over to the people. Because they see a meaning in it that the creator, the artist himself, may not have intended or really never intended. When art takes on a mythological context, it is the people that create that essence -- it belongs to them now. This is precisely *why* it belongs to them. Because *they* have elevated it into something mythological.

And Lucas changing things about the original movies showed he did not understand this, about how the movies affected people and what it meant to people.

Lucas hit pay-dirt with the original trilogy, largely unbeknownst to him, and it was because of his youthful exuberance, that this occurred. He can't be blamed for having success and not fully understanding why it occurred (and not being able to consciously, methodically replicate it).

Lucas didn't realize what he did to make Star Wars such a success. He got a bum rap in being chastized, blamed, for making further movies so substandard compared to what he had. A lot of the prequels was circumstance, lack of being out in the world, a lack of living life. It was the results of *his* journey.

And the journey of the artist is as important as the journey of the artwork. Lucas' journey is part of the mythology.