The People vs. George Lucas (2010)

Strong and Moving!

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

This failed to capture the psychology of the fandom. It didn't specifically say what they disliked about the prequels just that "raped their childhood" like all the other thousands of online trollers out there. I could give more detail than what this had to offer. George Lucas initially wanted to do a remake of Flash Gordon, an old serial he watched when he was kid, but couldn't get the rights to it. So he set out to make his version obviously. He was inspired by the writings of Joseph Campbell. He was practically ripping off other movies such as The Hidden Fortress, Metroplis, and, oh yes, Flash Gordon. So you see I possess better nerd knowledge than what these losers (no offense) had to offer. This brings nothing new to the table and is just pathetic little rants. I will have to side with another user that reviewed this, go watch Red Letter Media. We will get so many more laughs than this. Hell, I'll even recommend a few others just to give them a bit more recognition. Confused Matthew offers a similar review through the films but doesn't have the crude humor that Red Letter Media has. Belated Media has a video called "What if Episode I Was Good?". And another called Auralnauts does a parody of the prequels where they dub over the character's voices and provide for hilarious interactions that are SO much more interesting than what the characters actually say. Check out any one of those four. They're all worth it if you're a Star Wars fan.

From the title, you'd expect The People vs. George Lucas (2010) to be a total hate-fest, but this documentary is actually more balanced than one would expect. It is a film which is honest in admitting its disdain for Lucas' choice to suppress the original theatrical versions of the original Star Wars trilogy in favor of the (mostly wretched) special editions which showcase his "true vision," but it also remembers that none of the Star Wars franchise would have existed without Lucas, even if he is not 100% responsible for the greatness of the older films.The director interviewed all sorts of folks, from those who were impacted by Star Wars in 1977, to hardcore fans who show their love via cosplay and fan films, to film industry experts, to young kids who were acquainted with the franchise through the prequel trilogy. The interviews are fascinating. My favorite sequence covered the anticipation and following disappointment attached to the release of The Phantom Menace (1999) as recollected by fans who waited hours in line to see it on opening night.However, the film's central flaw is that the final five minutes essentially say, "Yeah, George screwed up, but we can't hate him too much, right? We can't really blame him for anything!" This spits on all the points the director and the majority of his subjects made.Like I said before, this film was not a hate-fest and did admit gratitude for the good Lucas has done as a filmmaker; but as a film history buff and as a Star Wars fan, it is hard for me to just hand wave those special editions and Lucas' blatant contempt for his fan base in telling them they're wrong to enjoy or want the original cuts back. If we can live in a world where five versions of Blade Runner (1982) can coexist in the same set, then what's the big deal with wanting two versions of Star Wars? I can forgive the prequels and Crystal Skull (Lucas is not the first person to make a bad movie, let's face it), but it's hard to let go of what he has done to those earlier movies, which are among the most important in cinematic history.I think both Star Wars nerds and film buffs will enjoy this documentary. It's not terribly long and the interviews are fantastic.

I just watched PvGL, a film that I had been eagerly anticipating for the last several months. I'm a huge Star Wars fan, and like most fans, feel a deep loathing towards the prequels and the changes that Lucas has made to the original trilogy. Now, if you're reading this, chances are you already know the basic premise of this film (detailing the complex and dysfunctional relationship between Lucas and his fans), so I'm not going to reiterate the various intricacies, emotions, and reasoning that go along with that story. Sufficed to say, if you're a fan, you know what I mean. And to that end, the film does a decent enough job painting a picture of who the Star Wars fans are and what the film has meant to western culture as a whole. There are some good insights from a wide range of people, from hardcore Star Wars nerds to film critics to other producers and directors. Most of what they say is easily relatable, as Star Wars really has become a cultural touchstone that almost everyone has some kind of feelings towards. It is cathartic to hear so many other people verbalize the frustrations almost every fan has surely felt towards Lucas, the prequels and the special editions. With that having been said, there are a few flaws. The first being that the film is a bit too long. They could have easily cut about ten minutes out of the first act of the movie, which consisted almost entirely of fan parody and tribute films of varying quality. Yes, Star Wars inspires epic creativity on the part of it's fans, but that is a relatively easy point to make and didn't require quite so much screen time time to illustrate. The other flaw is the end of the film, which completely goes soft on Lucas and abdicates its responsibility to take a firm position on the subject matter that was detailed in the entire rest of the film. After watching a whole documentary which carefully explained all the ways Lucas was ruining his work, thumbing his nose at film history as a cultural artifact (in direct opposition to positions he himself took years earlier) and acting in deliberate contempt of his fans, the conclusion it reached amounted to little more than a shrug and a soft-pedaled declaration of loyalty to Lucas anyway. Disappointing. Any catharsis I felt very quickly melted away and once again turned to frustration. Why did the director feel the need to ultimately kiss up to Lucas? Wasn't that the fatal flaw which led to the prequels in the first place? That nobody challenged him? Let me be clear; I was not looking for a hit-piece here either; two hours of Lucas-bashing wouldn't have made for an interesting or informative film (which PvGL certainly is), but the entire premise of this documentary would have been far more credible had the last few minutes not completely undermined everything that was asserted throughout the entire rest of it.I would still recommend it to fans as there are very interesting points to be heard in this film, but for true geek catharsis (and brilliantly insightful critique), you still can't beat the Red Letter Media long-form reviews of the prequels. People vs. George Lucas is entertaining to be sure, but it still doesn't come close to those reviews.

"The People vs. George Lucas" is a film that sets out to examine the animosity shared by a great number of Star Wars fans over the changes made to the Original Trilogy (among other grievances). Included here are interviewers with every known type of Star Wars fan: the casual goer, the passionate geek, and the bitter extremist who took his/her passion too far. The film does raise some interesting questions at the heart of the matter:1. What, exactly, does Lucas owe his fans? 2. Are the more bitter of the fanbase blinded by passion (and therefore cannot evaluate the new movies on their own merits)? 3. Perhaps most importantly, *Who Owns Star Wars?*With a title like "The People vs. George Lucas", it's expected to see the man put on trial, so to speak. And to an extent, that's what we get here. But objectivity suffers when the film is anchored by fan interviews, and the only soundbites we get from Lucas himself are taken from talk show interviews and documentaries done years ago. And it's the preoccupation with the angry hordes that tends to bog down the film; a 90-minute movie tends to run long when things devolve into a fun and playful look at just how far these people take these movies. So nothing is really answered here, aside from the obvious "Wow, these people are crazy!" sentiment, which we already knew before going in. It's no different than watching "Trekkies" just to laugh at the nerds. You end up asking yourself, "What's the point?"5/10