Thank You Mr. Lucas

“All the heroes and legends I knew as a child have fallen to idols of clay.” – Styx

We all have heroes from our youth.  Ok, let me rephrase that.  We all categorize the people that helped to create who we are into some form of hierarchy.  We have the true heroes who put their lives on the line such as soldiers, astronauts, firemen and police officers.  We have more cerebral heroes who teach us to strive to become more than we are such as Jesus Christ, Lord Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, Captain Moroni and my son Royce.  And we have the heroes and legends from our youth such as friends who did legendary things (i.e. Benny “The Jet” Rodrigues), teachers who helped us grow, and movie makers that changed our perspective on life as they awed and wowed us with their movie magic.

A couple of days ago I mentioned during a Link-Friday post (see Vol. 11) that George Lucas was choosing to retire from making “blockbuster” films.  The article, “George Lucas Is Ready to Roll the Credits” by Bryan Curtis, was beautifully written about Mr. Lucas’ difficulties in making and marketing a movie that mainstream Hollywood didn’t want anything to do with (Red Tails).  In this article Mr. Lucas also states that because of the difficulties he no longer wishes to make mainstream movies but would still continue in making more “independent” movies.  Well, that’s all fine and dandy.  And in reality I believe that he really does deserve to retire and pursue whatever he wishes to do in retirement (he is about to turn 68 after all).  What I do take exception to is something that he said during the interview:

“Why would I make any more [Star Wars movies] when everybody yells at you all the time and says what a terrible person you are?”

Why should Mr. Lucas’ statement bother me?  Why do I care?  Because his statement really, REALLY, R-E-A-L-L-Y annoyed me…  Please let me explain.

When I was seven I choose to spend my hard-earned allowance to go see Star Wars over and over again.  This was a major shift from when I was six and my most favorite movie of all time was Snow White – I loved those dwarves, especially the antics of Dopey.  Think about that for a moment.  In the matter of one year I went from seeing my first ever motion picture, Snow White, to watching the most cutting-edge-state-of-the-art-mind-blowing-special-effects-filled motion picture ever released as of that time, Star Wars.  What a huge contrast.  I went from a world where good always overcomes evil to a place where the good have a chance to win but only due to their hard work and a spiritual “force” helping out; from mind numbing animation to battles being fought in outer space; from singing and dancing to light saber duels...  I could go on and on, but I think you get the picture.

What rubs me the wrong way with his statement is that he BLAMES the FANS for his decision to no longer make “major” motion pictures.  Us – the people who made his filmmaking possible – the people who gave him their hard-earned money time and time again to relive the magic one more time.  (Yet, ironically, the person who he chose to do the re-write on Red Tails was one of his most out-spoken critics of Jar-Jar Binks).

When Mr. Lucas came out with the prequels in the Star Wars saga, I gladly took my children to see them.  Did I have problems with them?  Not really and here’s why:  my children watched them with the same wonder and awe that I had watched the original trilogy with.  I saw in my children what I experienced at the theater.  Because of that, when my friends started to bag on the movies I actually defended them.  And they couldn’t argue with me because the point that I made was irrefutable:  our children felt the same way about the movies as we did.  We’ve all heard the saying “you can’t go home” and in this case I’m pretty sure that it applies.  We will never see things the same way we did when we were seven and if we are going to try we are sure to fail.

So, Mr. Lucas, thank you for the wonderful memories.  I forgive you for turning the Force from a mystic power into a parasitic infection.  I forgive you for trying to use Jar-Jar Binks as the comic relief in Episode I.  I forgive you that Hayden Christensen was wooden in his dialog delivery.  I even forgive the way Anakin did an instant cave-in to be christened Darth Vader.  But what is hard for me to forgive (and in reality I may never) is that you blame ME and fans like me for your retirement and discontinuation of making Star Wars movies – and that’s the real shame.

And, for what it’s worth, that’s my two cents.