My dad had these interviews on the box set trilogy of tapes. Every time we would watch Star Wars we had to watch these before it started; I would ask him to fast forward, but he never would. Every time. My 5-10 year old self thought this was the most boring thing ever. And now here I am seeking it out, because I still love Star Wars and appreciate the "behind the scenes" now that I'm older. Feels good seeing this again.
wow same! me and my brothers would watch these interviews on the vhs box set and couldn't wait for the movies but endlessly conjecture about the prequels and talk about nothing else but Star Wars! was a great time....
Jesus. I remember watching this in 1995 and thinking “oh my god! New Star Wars movies! But 1999 is soo far away. I wonder what they’ll look like and who they’ll cast?” and now it’s 2021 and the prequels are not only done but so is a sequel trilogy. Crazy. It feels like yesterday. The hype for Episode 1 was crazy. And I don’t care what anyone says, I fucking love the prequels.
I remember hearing that for the first time the week after Christmas in 1995, I was 15 and thought “Oh man, 1999 is so far away, who knows if they’ll even make those movies.” My brother had read earlier that year that they were making new Star Wars movies but it just seemed like a rumor, even when it came from George Lucas.
I remember watching these interviews on the Star Wars original trilogy VHS tapes. As a kid, I didn't really care much about them, but after watching Star Wars a few times and as I got a little older, I kind of enjoyed watching the interviews with them as well. Then again, I was a kid, and I just wanted to watch Star Wars, so I'd often hit the Fast-forward button on the tape to hurry it up already.
I came here, to figure out, is there any one else, who had the same tape too. Mine was with hungarian voice-over and the only thing i remembered, it was hbo interview, so this is how i found it.
I did that too, but by the time I was actually into listening to interviews, I didn't have this set anymore. I don't know if the tapes wore out, or if my sister borrowed them, and never returned them, or maybe I had them, but then got rid of them when the originals were released on DVD (I sure hope Lucas, or in this case Disney, show some mercy, and give us the original versions on blu ray, since the DVD releases are in letterbox). I just heard a snippet a few minutes ago featured in a video on Revenge of the Sith, and I never knew that Lucas spoke about the prequels, hence, my surprise when episode one was released. Now that I hate the prequels, I am not too disappointed that I didn't know that they were in the works.
Seeing these interviews on my parents' Star Wars tapes were really the first time I really thought, as a young child, that maybe what I was seeing onscreen wasn't literally happening and the first I thought about the creative process behind Star Wars and movies in general.
@@HALLOWEIRDO He actually seems like a pretty decent dude. He gave a bonus to his employees after Star Wars became a huge success. Contributed enormously to movie making techniques and technology. Founded several successful businesses and helped make who knows how many careers. He's not a great writer/director on his own but when he actually collaborated with other talented people magic happened. Maybe he got a little full of himself in the '90s and 2000s but it could happen to anyone after a couple decades of universal praise.
@@VideosbyJohn2012 That's incorrect. Lucas announced that he'd be making more Star Wars films in 1993. Fans were very much aware of Episode I by 1995. He even mentions "the projects that I'm working on now" at 3:10. So while it's true that general audiences may not have known or cared at this point, anticipation was very high among the fan community by 1995.
I remember that time so well. I loved it. I loved the thrill and anticipation for TFA too, but it didn't quite reach the fever pitch of the hype for TPM.
@@VideosbyJohn2012 The anticipation started long before the teaser came out. The idea that new Star Wars films might be made was around ever since we knew Episodes 1-3 existed in the canon as a concept. Every hint in the '90s that Lucas was working on Episode 1 led to more anticipation.
These VHS tapes came our when I was 3. I distinctly remember the period of time where I had these tapes, before getting the Trilogy Box Set of the Special Editions in 1997. So these would absolutely be my first taste of "behind the scenes" of movie magic. This was the genesis for my love and interest in movie making, not just movies. I remember my dad telling me "That's George Lucas, he made Star Wars" and just being absolutely fascinated.
p.s I think Leonard Maltin is great... but his forced over the top expressions here are hilarious haha! A signifier for the sad state of media nowadays where everything and everyone has to be "EXCITING!", "DRAMATIC!", you can't just be real, and down to earth, true to yourself, as George is here, and has always been.
Well he is a bit megalomaniacal. He doesn't mention anyone else, like Gary Kurtz, that helped him get the studios to sign on. Gary Kurtz was huge in the first two of the original trilogy.
I believe that is because there were a lot of problems and disagreements/arguments with Gary Kurtz. Alan Ladd J.r was the main guy responsible for the original Star Wars being given the greenlight, and that was almost entirely off of the success of American Graffiti. After that George Lucas made enough money to self-finance pretty much all of his other films.
After Empire there were. I am referring to the first two, which are pretty much established the whole series.... Gary Kurtz helped him make American Graffiti, and was instrumental in getting Kerschner and Empire made. If you listen to Kerschner, Kurtz was the one who got him on board and also convinced Lucas that Empire needed to be rewritten. So we have Kerschner, Hamill, and Carrie Fisher saying how important Kurtz was, saying he was an equal part in the creation of the first two. And the quality shows, the first two, and especially Empire, were magnificent movies. The quality of the films, especially the dialog and the editing has dropped off ever since Kurtz left.
Sorry but to say that Kurtz was an equal part in the creation of the first two Star Wars films is just not true at all, George Lucas was the mastermind behind it all, his ideas and creations make up 80% of Star Wars in general. Get rid of George Lucas' input you have nothing but perhaps some forgettable generic sci-fi action flicks.
He wanted people to be excited for the return of Star Wars, but what they got were just films people weren't really expecting. But I still love George and respect him.
At this point George was at the absolute zenith of his career. He’d literally reinvented the movie industry, special effects, digital media and invented a new genre called Science Fantasy. He was beyond a rockstar. He was a legend. The problem, is that when you gain that much success who is going to pull you back from bad ideas? Who’s going to dare question you. George Lucas wasn’t just some guy at this point. He was very much in a different mindset than he was when he writhe the originals. Not only was he rich, successful and the voice of modern Hollywood, he was also older, had a family and was far more responsible for far more to lose. Add all of that up and what you have is a man that is very different than the man he was in the 1970’s. And thus we have a man that films in a controlled environment, faces no challenges to his creativity, is surrounded by yes men too enamored by the image of George Lucas to every question his choices in filming, and has a burning desire to advance CGI to turn it into a way of shooting entire films rather than to use it as a means of touching up scenes in film; and you get the prequels. George didn’t deserve the hate he got by any stretch of the imagination. But he did deserve criticism for his choices in how he filmed his scenes, how he structured the story and how he directed the acting as well as his push to have CGI so prominent when it needed to be used more sparingly. George is only guilty of a swollen ego, unchecked ambition and unchecked creative choices. These are not things that should ever be viewed as something worthy of hatred. If anything it’s commendable that George was still grounded enough as a human being to be so laid back in interviews and even towards fans. He wasn’t the money grubbing asshole people make him out to be. He just fell prey to the very human characteristic that anyone with that much success falls to. And I’d take that over Kathleen Kennedy any day because at least George made his mistakes in earnest. He wasn’t trying to destroy the series with his writing and he damn sure didn’t hate the character and try to write them so that they were shells of their former selves. In short George Lucas at the time of these interviews was Icarus flying high into the sun. And he didn’t deserve the hate he got. I dare anyone to achieve even 1/100th of what this man did and not fall victim to hubris. The man was, and is a legend who deserves his place in history as the man who reinvented Hollywood and movie making.
This is why the original movie became so legendary... He had more background material than could be used in a single movie, which I would argue is why that first movie was so successful and anything before or after, not so much. He told the whole story in the first movie. If he would have been able to tell it in three movies originally, we would not have gotten the epic original we did.
Yeah but 2 and 3 were an improvement over 1 because of that. 123 are one single movie with 3 acts even more than 456 are. Ep 1 is a great film but 2 is definitely an improvement over it because it took the childish elements presented first and made them into a real world. The descend into the Coruscant streets was a huge step for the SW universe, aswell as the implications in the more mature themes of cloning, abandonment, loss of parents, secret, lies, manipulation, and specially vulnerability. Episode 1 is a great movie but 2 was a much more risky move and it works surprinsingly well.
I love how George Lucas' career goes in this eccentric orbit of beloved, despised, beloved, despised, and now beloved again. He's a very human being who enjoys the worship as much as he hates the criticism. Here we see him in the second "Worshipped George" era. Look upon him at the height of his powers. Before the dark times. Before the prequels.
I remember our car had a vhs player and we would always watch A New Hope. The version we had, had this interview at the beginning. As young kids we would SCREAM at our to, “FAST FORWARD!”, “TOO FAR!”, “GO BACK!” while he was driving 80 mph on the highway
Always confuses me about when he wrote a backstory for the original trilogy. It always seemed to me that Vader wasn’t even considered as Luke’s father until the writing of empire.
As someone else has stated, this is correct. You can actually see what the original story was in a series of comics titled "The Star Wars" and published by Dark Horse Comics.
It's complicated. Lucas very likely came up with the father twist in the summer of 1975 while writing the third draft of the screenplay for the first film. A few months previous McQuarrie designed the mask giving Vader a hidden identity. At the end of that script Vader says he thinks he knows Luke. In that version Luke knew his father before he died in the same battle where Vader became a Sith. Vader isn't said to be the killer in that version. The earlier rough draft from mid 1974 that he split into three parts ends with a Sith Lord switching his allegiances from the Empire to save the young Jedi hero. In the third draft Lucas combined that Sith named Valorum with Darth Vader. Before Vader didn't have any back story whatsoever. Now he's a good guy who went bad. That's a set up for his eventual redemption. When Lucas started ESB the father twist was already in mind as it was one of the first notes he made. However he got cold feet on it and when he sat down with Brackett he concocted an alternate father-son-redemption arc and transferred that onto Han Solo. Brackett turned in her draft where Vader isn't the father and Han Solo leaves at the end to try to get his Empire aligned father to join the Rebellion. Basically the same thing that happens in Return of the Jedi but with Luke and Vader. Brackett died and Lucas wrote the second draft reinstating his earlier idea of Luke having to redeem his father.
great classic interview even though their are problems between fans and often about the changes and prequel trilogy movies I appreciate all of the trilogies done by George as a Huge fan
I remember watching this all the time. Then the 97 speashal edition came along and I tossed these VHS tapes and got them. By 2004 I got the DVD set and now I got the Blu-ray and Disney +
Steven Spielberg: The guy you gotta talk to is John Williams. He did “Jaws”, I love him. He’s one of the greatest composers in the world. You gotta talk to him. Me: And because of George and Steven’s choice, they both made me a huge fan and follower of John Williams.
My favorite movie saga is Lord of the Rings, but Star Wars is definitely up there with it. Lord of the Rings and Star Wars are the two best sagas of all team, and both of them have a better love story than Twilight (but then again, anything’s a better love story than Twilight).
Do you know that the Star Wars movies (except for Last Jedi) are in reverse order from when the characters appear to how they behave? Also, the locations and consequences reverse order per episode. I realized this when Anakin arrived at 32 minutes of an indoor location in Episode 1 and I said to myself "Didn't Luke arrive at 16 minutes at an outdoor location in Episode 4?" 16X2= 32. Then I realized all the characters and scenarios were in reverse order which is why Jabba the Hut was in the directors cut of New Hope so he can arrive in Episode 1 and the creatures in the bleachers of the pod race are mostly the ones in the bars Obi-Wan and Luke go to in Episode 4. Darth Maul's death reverses Obi-Wan since he was killed by Darth Vader. I watched Episode 4 and realized I was right all along and the opening scene in Episode 1 reverses Episode 4. This is why Obi-Wan appears early in Episode 1 because he was late in 4. Vice versa with C-3PO. Han Solo has the first line of dialogue in Episode V because he was so late in the other two. Notice we hear his voice before seeing his face in V because the opposite happened in the other two. The inside of Darth Vader's spaceship doesn't open Episode V so the other two episodes bookend the trilogy. This is also why V ends inside a spaceship with the characters backs at the audience because the other two end in joy on a planet. The opening of Episode 4 starts with Storm Troopers blasting characters with guns leading to an explosion of black smoke in which the smoke contrasts the white interior of the spaceship and Darth Vader emerges from the smoke. C-3PO appears in the scene. Leia gives a message for help to Obi-Wan. Later, C-3PO and R2-D2 leave the spaceship. Episode 1 opens with four characters approaching the spaceship (including Obi-Wan) where a female version of C-3PO greets them. An explosion occurs where white smoke from another room emerges contrasting the dark interiors of the spaceship. The Jedi's emerge from the smoke and do battle with robots. Queen Amidala gives a message for help. Yoda is a reverse of Obi-Wan since he's also a mentor to Luke, but Yoda's short, non-human and talks backwards. Obi-Wan is tall, human and talks forwards. Notice that the ghost of Obi-Wan appears just after Yoda dies in Episode 6. Obi-Wan has a final lightsaber duel in Episode 4, but not 5 and 6 and Yoda has final lightsaber duels in 2 and 3, but not 1. The two lightsaber duels in Episode 3 towards the end symbolize one episode ends and another begins. Also, they are stalemates for being the middle of the series. The lightsaber duels in 2 and 5 are stalemates for being the middle of each trilogy. There are other layers: Luke is first seen at an outdoor location wearing white clothes in Episode 4, then leaving a cave and entering daylight wearing grey in Episode 5, then inside a cave wearing black in Episode 6. Episode 1 has the Gungan culture where the creatures are hairless tall, thin and speak English. The Wookies in Episode 3 are tall, muscular, hairy and don't speak English. The Ewoks in Episode VI are short, fat, furry and don't speak English either. This symbolizes a beginning, middle and end structure of the creatures in relevance to the 1st, 3rd and 6th Episodes in the series. Leia and Vader have the ability to sense things. They were also discovered by R2-D2 in different ways. R2-D2 shows Luke a hologram of Princess Leia which sends him from Tatooine to free Princess Leia on a spaceship, but brings a spaceship to Tatooine where Anakin appears when he saves the crew. Also, Leia is trying to escape her father Darth Vader without knowing they're related while Anakin is taken away from his mom. Anakin is a successful inventor who created C-3PO which mirrors what he will become: a talking robot. Yet, Luke is first seen trying to fix a robot that is still broken. His aunt and uncle did say after lunch, "He has a lot of his father in him." Anakin's father is mentioned after lunch, too. Anakin losing a dream to free the slaves after being separated from his mom reverses when Luke gained a dream of being a Jedi after his aunt and uncle died. Luke starts out unsure of the direction in his life, but gets better and more focused later on. Anakin has hopes, dreams and focus at first, but loses his way later on. Anakin accidentally blowing up the space console ending the war is a reverse of how Luke destroys the Death Star in Episode IV. Luke was trained and in control of his actions, but Anakin isn't. I discovered all these character reversals on my own and there's many more.
After watching the Prequels, I dont believe Lucas has anything mapped out about the backstory other than the broad notes. Many people believed he had the entirety of EP I - EP III written and I dont believe that for a second.
He kept saying I'm still interested in directing. I want to make other films. George if you actually kept on directing tge prequels may have been better films.
Be more explicit! Support your point of view. Exactly why are they feces. A statement is just idle wind without support. I bet you grew up with a smart phone stuck in you ears and eyes! Have a happy Halloween if you notice! Best regards!
I agree with The Police guitarrist. $tar War$ sucks all the way: stupid characters in nonsensical battles. George Lickass only made one tolerable movie, which is THX.
Because somebody has to tell the truth about this horrible franchise. New Hollywood used to be a good thing before those two major idiots (George Lickass and Steven Is Pig) ruined everything in 1977, with Starless Whores and Close Encounters of the Third Reich. You know what? Even Lickass himself knows he sucks. No wonder why after the original Scum Wars he only directed 3 movies - te totally horrible ''in between'' $tar War$ trilogy. These movies deserve to be boycotted. Stupid big budget FX movies to sell all kinds of products, and without any value whatsoever. If Hollywood could really call the shots and do it their way, there would be no more relevant movies in the world anymore. There would only be FX-filled disgraces offering bad acting, poor conflicts and weak story. Fuck Star Wars and fuck their fans. This is the cancer of cinema.
@@HALLOWEIRDO shut up you pretentious film school reject. How's it feel to be a total loser with no friends? Popcorn movies have always been around from the Blob to Attack of the 50 foot Woman. Don't pretend Hollywood was all independent arthouse films before star wars. Get a life
![George Lucas Interview (2012) - [24 mins]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/wlM3x0EQbUo/mqdefault.jpg)
My dad had these interviews on the box set trilogy of tapes. Every time we would watch Star Wars we had to watch these before it started; I would ask him to fast forward, but he never would. Every time. My 5-10 year old self thought this was the most boring thing ever. And now here I am seeking it out, because I still love Star Wars and appreciate the "behind the scenes" now that I'm older. Feels good seeing this again.
wow same! me and my brothers would watch these interviews on the vhs box set and couldn't wait for the movies but endlessly conjecture about the prequels and talk about nothing else but Star Wars! was a great time....
Same here.
Same here!
Yeah I had those too- the digitally remastered set in (NeeeeEEEUUUU…!) THX
Awesome
Jesus. I remember watching this in 1995 and thinking “oh my god! New Star Wars movies! But 1999 is soo far away. I wonder what they’ll look like and who they’ll cast?” and now it’s 2021 and the prequels are not only done but so is a sequel trilogy. Crazy. It feels like yesterday. The hype for Episode 1 was crazy. And I don’t care what anyone says, I fucking love the prequels.
Far more people loved them than didn't. But the internet distorts this sort of thing.
I remember hearing that for the first time the week after Christmas in 1995, I was 15 and thought “Oh man, 1999 is so far away, who knows if they’ll even make those movies.” My brother had read earlier that year that they were making new Star Wars movies but it just seemed like a rumor, even when it came from George Lucas.
Lol i use to fast forward my vhs tape passed these interviews as a kid.
Now I enjoy them greatly!
I remember watching these interviews on the Star Wars original trilogy VHS tapes. As a kid, I didn't really care much about them, but after watching Star Wars a few times and as I got a little older, I kind of enjoyed watching the interviews with them as well. Then again, I was a kid, and I just wanted to watch Star Wars, so I'd often hit the Fast-forward button on the tape to hurry it up already.
Same, and now here we all are looking for it on UA-cam
Bro
Nostalgia right there.
I came here, to figure out, is there any one else, who had the same tape too. Mine was with hungarian voice-over and the only thing i remembered, it was hbo interview, so this is how i found it.
I did that too, but by the time I was actually into listening to interviews, I didn't have this set anymore. I don't know if the tapes wore out, or if my sister borrowed them, and never returned them, or maybe I had them, but then got rid of them when the originals were released on DVD (I sure hope Lucas, or in this case Disney, show some mercy, and give us the original versions on blu ray, since the DVD releases are in letterbox). I just heard a snippet a few minutes ago featured in a video on Revenge of the Sith, and I never knew that Lucas spoke about the prequels, hence, my surprise when episode one was released. Now that I hate the prequels, I am not too disappointed that I didn't know that they were in the works.
“George, as you know, people are nuts for these movies!”
Why do I get the feeling, Leonard, that you are one of them.
Seeing these interviews on my parents' Star Wars tapes were really the first time I really thought, as a young child, that maybe what I was seeing onscreen wasn't literally happening and the first I thought about the creative process behind Star Wars and movies in general.
Same here! :)
George Lucas is awesome.
He is actually the very opposite of awesome. And, deep down inside, he knows it.
HALLOWEIRDO no. No he’s awesome. I also doubt he thinks very low of himself like you seem to suggest, even on a subconscious level.
@@HALLOWEIRDO He actually seems like a pretty decent dude. He gave a bonus to his employees after Star Wars became a huge success. Contributed enormously to movie making techniques and technology. Founded several successful businesses and helped make who knows how many careers. He's not a great writer/director on his own but when he actually collaborated with other talented people magic happened. Maybe he got a little full of himself in the '90s and 2000s but it could happen to anyone after a couple decades of universal praise.
The anticipation for Episode 1 among Star Wars fans at this period of time was absolutely insane and intense.
Ittuugh
Those poor souls.
@@VideosbyJohn2012 That's incorrect. Lucas announced that he'd be making more Star Wars films in 1993. Fans were very much aware of Episode I by 1995. He even mentions "the projects that I'm working on now" at 3:10. So while it's true that general audiences may not have known or cared at this point, anticipation was very high among the fan community by 1995.
I remember that time so well. I loved it. I loved the thrill and anticipation for TFA too, but it didn't quite reach the fever pitch of the hype for TPM.
@@VideosbyJohn2012 The anticipation started long before the teaser came out. The idea that new Star Wars films might be made was around ever since we knew Episodes 1-3 existed in the canon as a concept. Every hint in the '90s that Lucas was working on Episode 1 led to more anticipation.
I still respect you greatly George!
✊
These VHS tapes came our when I was 3. I distinctly remember the period of time where I had these tapes, before getting the Trilogy Box Set of the Special Editions in 1997.
So these would absolutely be my first taste of "behind the scenes" of movie magic. This was the genesis for my love and interest in movie making, not just movies.
I remember my dad telling me "That's George Lucas, he made Star Wars" and just being absolutely fascinated.
George Lucas is a global treasure. Pity there are so many small minded, soulless sheep who bad mouthed and spite him over the decades.
p.s I think Leonard Maltin is great... but his forced over the top expressions here are hilarious haha! A signifier for the sad state of media nowadays where everything and everyone has to be "EXCITING!", "DRAMATIC!", you can't just be real, and down to earth, true to yourself, as George is here, and has always been.
Well he is a bit megalomaniacal. He doesn't mention anyone else, like Gary Kurtz, that helped him get the studios to sign on. Gary Kurtz was huge in the first two of the original trilogy.
I believe that is because there were a lot of problems and disagreements/arguments with Gary Kurtz. Alan Ladd J.r was the main guy responsible for the original Star Wars being given the greenlight, and that was almost entirely off of the success of American Graffiti. After that George Lucas made enough money to self-finance pretty much all of his other films.
After Empire there were. I am referring to the first two, which are pretty much established the whole series.... Gary Kurtz helped him make American Graffiti, and was instrumental in getting Kerschner and Empire made. If you listen to Kerschner, Kurtz was the one who got him on board and also convinced Lucas that Empire needed to be rewritten.
So we have Kerschner, Hamill, and Carrie Fisher saying how important Kurtz was, saying he was an equal part in the creation of the first two.
And the quality shows, the first two, and especially Empire, were magnificent movies. The quality of the films, especially the dialog and the editing has dropped off ever since Kurtz left.
Sorry but to say that Kurtz was an equal part in the creation of the first two Star Wars films is just not true at all, George Lucas was the mastermind behind it all, his ideas and creations make up 80% of Star Wars in general. Get rid of George Lucas' input you have nothing but perhaps some forgettable generic sci-fi action flicks.
George seems so much happier here in this interview before he started recieving hate.
He wanted people to be excited for the return of Star Wars, but what they got were just films people weren't really expecting. But I still love George and respect him.
At this point George was at the absolute zenith of his career. He’d literally reinvented the movie industry, special effects, digital media and invented a new genre called Science Fantasy. He was beyond a rockstar. He was a legend. The problem, is that when you gain that much success who is going to pull you back from bad ideas? Who’s going to dare question you. George Lucas wasn’t just some guy at this point. He was very much in a different mindset than he was when he writhe the originals. Not only was he rich, successful and the voice of modern Hollywood, he was also older, had a family and was far more responsible for far more to lose. Add all of that up and what you have is a man that is very different than the man he was in the 1970’s. And thus we have a man that films in a controlled environment, faces no challenges to his creativity, is surrounded by yes men too enamored by the image of George Lucas to every question his choices in filming, and has a burning desire to advance CGI to turn it into a way of shooting entire films rather than to use it as a means of touching up scenes in film; and you get the prequels. George didn’t deserve the hate he got by any stretch of the imagination. But he did deserve criticism for his choices in how he filmed his scenes, how he structured the story and how he directed the acting as well as his push to have CGI so prominent when it needed to be used more sparingly. George is only guilty of a swollen ego, unchecked ambition and unchecked creative choices. These are not things that should ever be viewed as something worthy of hatred. If anything it’s commendable that George was still grounded enough as a human being to be so laid back in interviews and even towards fans. He wasn’t the money grubbing asshole people make him out to be. He just fell prey to the very human characteristic that anyone with that much success falls to. And I’d take that over Kathleen Kennedy any day because at least George made his mistakes in earnest. He wasn’t trying to destroy the series with his writing and he damn sure didn’t hate the character and try to write them so that they were shells of their former selves.
In short George Lucas at the time of these interviews was Icarus flying high into the sun. And he didn’t deserve the hate he got. I dare anyone to achieve even 1/100th of what this man did and not fall victim to hubris. The man was, and is a legend who deserves his place in history as the man who reinvented Hollywood and movie making.
the final version of orginal versions man I love these the most
I remember skipping these as a 8yo when the 1995 VHS tapes came out. Now, here I am as an adult seeking them out and watching them.
This is why the original movie became so legendary...
He had more background material than could be used in a single movie, which I would argue is why that first movie was so successful and anything before or after, not so much.
He told the whole story in the first movie. If he would have been able to tell it in three movies originally, we would not have gotten the epic original we did.
Its like poetry it rhymes...
I love George Lucas.
I love his Star Wars movies, American Graffiti as well.
Really wished he did the tradition where he did Episode 1 as a director, then handed them off to other directors for 2 and 3. Damn.
Yeah but 2 and 3 were an improvement over 1 because of that.
123 are one single movie with 3 acts even more than 456 are.
Ep 1 is a great film but
2 is definitely an improvement over it because it took the childish elements presented first and made them into a real world. The descend into the Coruscant streets was a huge step for the SW universe, aswell as the implications in the more mature themes of cloning, abandonment, loss of parents, secret, lies, manipulation, and specially vulnerability. Episode 1 is a great movie but 2 was a much more risky move and it works surprinsingly well.
I love how George Lucas' career goes in this eccentric orbit of beloved, despised, beloved, despised, and now beloved again.
He's a very human being who enjoys the worship as much as he hates the criticism. Here we see him in the second "Worshipped George" era. Look upon him at the height of his powers. Before the dark times. Before the prequels.
Thank you for posting! ❤
I still remember you George Lucas
I remember our car had a vhs player and we would always watch A New Hope. The version we had, had this interview at the beginning. As young kids we would SCREAM at our to, “FAST FORWARD!”, “TOO FAR!”, “GO BACK!” while he was driving 80 mph on the highway
Well I'll repost.
I use to fast forward past this....
Now i love this...
I was 10 when i got this 1995 trilogy release.
I wish I could find more reviews like this. About the process.
I remember watching the trilogy on vhs so many times and saw George Lucas being interviewed that just makes me feel amazing
Always confuses me about when he wrote a backstory for the original trilogy. It always seemed to me that Vader wasn’t even considered as Luke’s father until the writing of empire.
That is true. It was rewritten for Empire.
As someone else has stated, this is correct. You can actually see what the original story was in a series of comics titled "The Star Wars" and published by Dark Horse Comics.
It's complicated. Lucas very likely came up with the father twist in the summer of 1975 while writing the third draft of the screenplay for the first film. A few months previous McQuarrie designed the mask giving Vader a hidden identity. At the end of that script Vader says he thinks he knows Luke. In that version Luke knew his father before he died in the same battle where Vader became a Sith. Vader isn't said to be the killer in that version.
The earlier rough draft from mid 1974 that he split into three parts ends with a Sith Lord switching his allegiances from the Empire to save the young Jedi hero. In the third draft Lucas combined that Sith named Valorum with Darth Vader. Before Vader didn't have any back story whatsoever. Now he's a good guy who went bad. That's a set up for his eventual redemption.
When Lucas started ESB the father twist was already in mind as it was one of the first notes he made. However he got cold feet on it and when he sat down with Brackett he concocted an alternate father-son-redemption arc and transferred that onto Han Solo. Brackett turned in her draft where Vader isn't the father and Han Solo leaves at the end to try to get his Empire aligned father to join the Rebellion. Basically the same thing that happens in Return of the Jedi but with Luke and Vader.
Brackett died and Lucas wrote the second draft reinstating his earlier idea of Luke having to redeem his father.
Leonard Maltin looks like General Madine from Return of the Jedi lol
George Lucas looks very “George Lucas” here
great classic interview even though their are problems between fans and often about the changes and prequel trilogy movies I appreciate all of the trilogies done by George as a Huge fan
I remember watching this all the time. Then the 97 speashal edition came along and I tossed these VHS tapes and got them. By 2004 I got the DVD set and now I got the Blu-ray and Disney +
I think it is interesting originally George Lucas was going to end the prequel with a Ten year old Luke. He also was going to have a teenage Han Solo.
I have the 1995 box set vhs release in basically perfect condition plus inserts.
.....I was 10 in 95 lol
True genius. One of my heroes.
How long did ILM work on Leonard Maltin’s hair?
Steven Spielberg: The guy you gotta talk to is John Williams. He did “Jaws”, I love him. He’s one of the greatest composers in the world. You gotta talk to him.
Me: And because of George and Steven’s choice, they both made me a huge fan and follower of John Williams.
2:54 and thus the prequels were born
I have the VHS set that has these interviews still in original wrapping.
My favorite movie saga is Lord of the Rings, but Star Wars is definitely up there with it. Lord of the Rings and Star Wars are the two best sagas of all team, and both of them have a better love story than Twilight (but then again, anything’s a better love story than Twilight).
The are dressed very much the same way:) Looks like a mirror match, or Eric Clapton interviewing George Lucas either way. George is a Genius
Star Wars The Phantom menace is my fave Star Wars movie 🎥. George Lucas a movie god
Do you know that the Star Wars movies (except for Last Jedi) are in reverse order from when the characters appear to how they behave? Also, the locations and consequences reverse order per episode.
I realized this when Anakin arrived at 32 minutes of an indoor location in Episode 1 and I said to myself "Didn't Luke arrive at 16 minutes at an outdoor location in Episode 4?" 16X2= 32. Then I realized all the characters and scenarios were in reverse order which is why Jabba the Hut was in the directors cut of New Hope so he can arrive in Episode 1 and the creatures in the bleachers of the pod race are mostly the ones in the bars Obi-Wan and Luke go to in Episode 4. Darth Maul's death reverses Obi-Wan since he was killed by Darth Vader. I watched Episode 4 and realized I was right all along and the opening scene in Episode 1 reverses Episode 4. This is why Obi-Wan appears early in Episode 1 because he was late in 4. Vice versa with C-3PO. Han Solo has the first line of dialogue in Episode V because he was so late in the other two. Notice we hear his voice before seeing his face in V because the opposite happened in the other two. The inside of Darth Vader's spaceship doesn't open Episode V so the other two episodes bookend the trilogy. This is also why V ends inside a spaceship with the characters backs at the audience because the other two end in joy on a planet.
The opening of Episode 4 starts with Storm Troopers blasting characters with guns leading to an explosion of black smoke in which the smoke contrasts the white interior of the spaceship and Darth Vader emerges from the smoke. C-3PO appears in the scene. Leia gives a message for help to Obi-Wan. Later, C-3PO and R2-D2 leave the spaceship. Episode 1 opens with four characters approaching the spaceship (including Obi-Wan) where a female version of C-3PO greets them. An explosion occurs where white smoke from another room emerges contrasting the dark interiors of the spaceship. The Jedi's emerge from the smoke and do battle with robots. Queen Amidala gives a message for help.
Yoda is a reverse of Obi-Wan since he's also a mentor to Luke, but Yoda's short, non-human and talks backwards. Obi-Wan is tall, human and talks forwards. Notice that the ghost of Obi-Wan appears just after Yoda dies in Episode 6. Obi-Wan has a final lightsaber duel in Episode 4, but not 5 and 6 and Yoda has final lightsaber duels in 2 and 3, but not 1. The two lightsaber duels in Episode 3 towards the end symbolize one episode ends and another begins. Also, they are stalemates for being the middle of the series. The lightsaber duels in 2 and 5 are stalemates for being the middle of each trilogy.
There are other layers: Luke is first seen at an outdoor location wearing white clothes in Episode 4, then leaving a cave and entering daylight wearing grey in Episode 5, then inside a cave wearing black in Episode 6. Episode 1 has the Gungan culture where the creatures are hairless tall, thin and speak English. The Wookies in Episode 3 are tall, muscular, hairy and don't speak English. The Ewoks in Episode VI are short, fat, furry and don't speak English either. This symbolizes a beginning, middle and end structure of the creatures in relevance to the 1st, 3rd and 6th Episodes in the series.
Leia and Vader have the ability to sense things. They were also discovered by R2-D2 in different ways. R2-D2 shows Luke a hologram of Princess Leia which sends him from Tatooine to free Princess Leia on a spaceship, but brings a spaceship to Tatooine where Anakin appears when he saves the crew. Also, Leia is trying to escape her father Darth Vader without knowing they're related while Anakin is taken away from his mom.
Anakin is a successful inventor who created C-3PO which mirrors what he will become: a talking robot. Yet, Luke is first seen trying to fix a robot that is still broken. His aunt and uncle did say after lunch, "He has a lot of his father in him." Anakin's father is mentioned after lunch, too. Anakin losing a dream to free the slaves after being separated from his mom reverses when Luke gained a dream of being a Jedi after his aunt and uncle died. Luke starts out unsure of the direction in his life, but gets better and more focused later on. Anakin has hopes, dreams and focus at first, but loses his way later on. Anakin accidentally blowing up the space console ending the war is a reverse of how Luke destroys the Death Star in Episode IV. Luke was trained and in control of his actions, but Anakin isn't. I discovered all these character reversals on my own and there's many more.
This is the most schizophrenic thing I’ve ever read and the worst part is that some of it makes sense
You are Schitzo
@harrisonb9911 no I really noticed.
I wonder what the Star Wars series would be like if United Artists or Universal said yes?
It’s a shame how Lucas treated these versions of the OT. They are certainly superior to the Special Editions.
What a ridiculous set!
Battle of the Beards
After watching the Prequels, I dont believe Lucas has anything mapped out about the backstory other than the broad notes. Many people believed he had the entirety of EP I - EP III written and I dont believe that for a second.
Maybe not the entirety, but the basic story is already there as the preface to the novelization of A New Hope in like 1977 or 78.
you are absolutely correct
@@Munedawg that was 2 pages
Why is Chewbacca wearing a grey suit and a turtle neck in this video?
"You don't have an exuberant happy second act." Which, to me, explains, Attack of the Clowns -- I mean, Clones.
Not funny
If only he would’ve kept the rights lol
He kept saying I'm still interested in directing. I want to make other films. George if you actually kept on directing tge prequels may have been better films.
Hey... Where is Charles Manson?
Leonard wow most boring inverter ever
what is an "inverter"?
star wars movies 1 to 9 are crap
Be more explicit! Support your point of view. Exactly why are they feces. A statement is just idle wind without support.
I bet you grew up with a smart phone stuck in you ears and eyes!
Have a happy Halloween if you notice!
Best regards!
I agree with The Police guitarrist. $tar War$ sucks all the way: stupid characters in nonsensical battles. George Lickass only made one tolerable movie, which is THX.
Because somebody has to tell the truth about this horrible franchise.
New Hollywood used to be a good thing before those two major idiots (George Lickass and Steven Is Pig) ruined everything in 1977, with Starless Whores and Close Encounters of the Third Reich.
You know what? Even Lickass himself knows he sucks. No wonder why after the original Scum Wars he only directed 3 movies - te totally horrible ''in between'' $tar War$ trilogy.
These movies deserve to be boycotted. Stupid big budget FX movies to sell all kinds of products, and without any value whatsoever.
If Hollywood could really call the shots and do it their way, there would be no more relevant movies in the world anymore. There would only be FX-filled disgraces offering bad acting, poor conflicts and weak story.
Fuck Star Wars and fuck their fans. This is the cancer of cinema.
@@HALLOWEIRDO shut up you pretentious film school reject. How's it feel to be a total loser with no friends? Popcorn movies have always been around from the Blob to Attack of the 50 foot Woman. Don't pretend Hollywood was all independent arthouse films before star wars. Get a life
@@HALLOWEIRDO You seem like a very fun and pleasant person.