The People vs. George Lucas

March. 14,2010      
Rating:
6.6
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Trailer Synopsis Cast

The passion the original Star Wars trilogy inspires in its fans is unparalleled; but when it comes to George Lucas himself, many have found their ardor has cooled into a complicated love-hate relationship. This hilarious, heartfelt documentary delves deep into Lucas’s cultural legacy, asking all the tough questions. Has Lucas betrayed his masterwork? Should he just have left the original trilogy alone? Is The Phantom Menace so bad it should carry a health warning? Utilizing interviews taken from over 600 hours of footage, and peppered with extraordinary Star Wars and Indiana Jones recreations lovingly immortalized in song, needlepoint, Lego, claymation, puppets and paper-mâché, above all this film asks the question: who truly owns that galaxy far, far away—the man who created it, or the fans who worship it?

George Lucas as  Self (archive footage)
Mark A. Altman as  Self
Ahmed Best as  Jar Jar Binks / Self (archive footage)
Matt Cohen as  Self
Michael Cornacchia as  Self
Neil Gaiman as  Self
Francis Ford Coppola as  Self (archive footage)
Gary Kurtz as  Self
Richard Sandling as  Self
Joe Nussbaum as  Self

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Reviews

VividSimon
2010/03/14

Simply Perfect

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Dynamixor
2010/03/15

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

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TrueHello
2010/03/16

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

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Jonah Abbott
2010/03/17

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

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Pierre Boulang Moreau
2010/03/18

This was a very interesting and kind of emotional doc to watch. As a big Star Wars fan, I like most other Star Wars fans, have felt at least a little burned by George Lucas on a few occasions. I can mostly forgive those things since he has also done so many great things via his stories. I don't hate the prequels, but they are certainly not as good as the originals. They have their fair share of problems, but I still find enjoyment in them and I'm still thankful for what he has give the world. I look forward to future films, now that it has been taken out of his hands and is being stewarded by Disney moving forward.

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RainDogJr
2010/03/19

It's possible that THE PEOPLE VS. GEORGE LUCAS (O. Phillippe, 2010) is thought as a work done by STAR WARS (Lucas, Kershner, Marquand, 1977-2005) fans for the satisfaction of other geeks of George Lucas' magnum opus. And yes, the debate of who shot first (in a scene of STAR WARS EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE), if Han Solo or Greedo, is in essence only relevant for hard core followers of the saga, however exploring its origin take us to other discussions that without a doubt are incumbent on anyone interested in cinema, its social relevance (and mercantile production), or in the preservation of the arts. THE PEOPLE VS. GEORGE LUCAS is presented in four episodes but the thematic is mostly divided in a couple of issues. Firstly you'll discover, or understand better for that matter, why STAR WARS is one of the most important films ever made. Authors like Neil Gaiman give us an idea of what was EPISODE IV back in 1977. Later, we examine why people now hates the mind behind the films that they still love. Even persons that worked in the original trilogy criticize Lucas, and it's certainly not gratuitous: thanks to Lucas and his necessity/stubbornness for actualizing/changing his work (even when he testified in 1988 against the colorization of black and white films), now is impossible to watch the original version of the 3 first movies on a home format extracted from the negative, unless you still own a LaserDisc. According to Lucasfilm the negative of the original was permanently altered to create the "special editions" of 1997. "The SOUTH PARK episode had more impact on Indiana Jones fans than INDY 4" – Brandon Kleyla, director of INDYFANSSOUTH PARK has helped to spread this generalized feeling of frustration and disenchantment that huge STAR WARS and/or INDIANA JONES (Spielberg, 1981-2008) fans has developed thanks to the decisions of the creator of both universes (those decisions certainly include Jar Jar Binks!). However, and even when he wrote episodes like "The China Probrem" (2008), in which Indiana Jones is literally raped by Lucas and Spielberg (in allusion to the childhoods that INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL "raped"), the creator of SOUTH PARK Trey Parker can be seen in the documentary 6 DAYS TO AIR (Bradford, 2011) showing off his lego STAR WARS toys. The love/hate feeling for Lucas is omnipresent in THE PEOPLE VS. GEORGE LUCAS. If SOUTH PARK has given voice to Lucas' fans, this documentary gives them full presence, and fanatics of all types express their opinions without reservations. Is really funny to watch the great compilation of fan works inspired by the saga (and some by Indy) – we get from parodies that combine the world of Luke Skywalker with SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (Donen, Kelly, 1952) to the classic stop-motion animations with the toys. Jean-Luc Godard said it: "In order to criticize a movie, you have to make another movie". And STAR WARS fans have done this over the years, creating their very own versions of editing the originals. Thanks to this, THE PEOPLE VS. GEORGE LUCAS becomes great as film criticism too.With an exceptional work, interviews made in Spain, France, Japan and other countries, and correct use of stock footage (the life of Lucas is perfectly told with previous interviews), O. Phillippe dedicates to the man from Modesto, California a love letter that's truly complicated, and to us a documentary that's just fascinating on all levels. *Watched it on 03 March, 2013

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mjk280
2010/03/20

As a big Star Wars fan I had heard only a brief mention of this movie some months ago, so I was happy to stumble upon it in Netflix's instant library.What I liked about the film was that they got some hardcore (sometimes scary) fanboys but also some really reputable creative people to discuss the films. Mostly Star Wars fans but also some film industry types. I also enjoyed how they wove so many fan films into it. It will never cease to amaze me how much Star Wars content is out there, and as big a fan as I am I never knew so many people had taken time out to create such things. It's astounding, and again sometimes a little scary haha.I also enjoyed the opinions that were given. Mind you I am one of those people that has been very frustrated by Lucas in the last 15 years so take it for what it's worth, but I thought they were fair and that the filmmakers made sure to give some grounded perspective on the issues people take with the new films and the re-imagining of the old ones. Questions like "Can a film be altered years after it's been established?" and "Does a creator have the right to change his work after it's been installed as a cornerstone of so many people's lives?" are addressed as I was hoping they would be.A couple of complaints would be that though they did offer some counter-arguments to us whining fanboys, there could've been more or at least an expansion of those that were there. Also, I really go into it when they broke down the re-creation of the Jabba scene from A New Hope and was hoping they would break down each subsequent change from the original trilogy, however they did not. I suppose that would've been a bit too uniform an approach but I would've liked it and I still think there would've been time to work in all the rest that was presented. I also think that they could've gotten one or two more big names to contribute their opinions. Neil Gaiman and David Brin were by far the biggest but they are not shown often and only in short spurts. Either one alone could've pretty much anchored this entire documentary, so I would've liked to see more of them or one or two more personalities like them.As far as the ending, at the risk of sounding holier than thou, I think non-Star Wars fans just don't really understand what they were trying to get across. The fact is that though so many of us love/hate Lucas, half of that is still love. No matter what he's done and will do since Return of the Jedi was finalized he has still given us something that has greatly impacted our lives and has brought us countless hours of enjoyment. The bottom line is that we complain because we care, and Lucas is the one who made us care so much. That's what the end of the film was saying.

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Lasse Laitinen
2010/03/21

First of all, I think of myself as a star wars fan. I've seen the movies more times than any other (not competing with crazy people but still around 20+), I had the toys and collections as a kid. Then I did grew up. I don't have the toys anymore and I don't really hate the new movies as much I should.This documentary made me so angry for so many reasons, well maybe not the documentary but the people in it. By far best definitions of "1st world problems".You can argue about adding the new scenes with cgi on 97 editions, and the dancing monkey in rotj omg, but they also did release the original theatrical cut in 2006 as DVD, so what is the crying? I think that was the key element in this film that they should release original as DVD, which they have already done many years ago. OK its the laserdisc edition, but to be honest if that doesn't count as theatrical cut, you really are just being a dick."George Lucas has stolen my childhood" - actually Lucas gave you your childhood which seems to have stolen your adulthood. Even if you love a film so much to be counted as crazy, why are these people attacking the one man who created the whole thing? All in all, its always enjoyable to see crazy people doing their thing, agree here and there but in the end the whole thing collapses on itself.

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