Why George Lucas is a pompous ass, and copied Star Trek..

[cmdrbolly]

He didn't direct EP V and Raiders. Good producer, amateurish director. Cannot direct actors to save his life.

Wow, some of you people really don't know film history.... hmmm let's see. Directed, THX-1138 and American Graffiti (both hailed by critics as two of the finest films of their era).

If you're going to blame him for Howard the Duck (which Lucas only came in at the last minute at the request of Universal Pictures due to problems with the production), then you have to give him equal credit for one of the finest films from the 1980s, Body Heat. For that film he came in at the request of director Lawrence Kasdan who was having troubles with the production and more importantly editing the film. Although he is uncredited, Lucas is generally regarded as having a huge hand in the film and essentially edited the film himself.

Yeah, he's sooooo amatuerish

PS Oh, and if you ever get a chance to see his early documentary, "Filmmaker," which chronicles the making of Francis Ford Coppola, "The Rain People," I would highly recommend it.

Yancy

Yes, people can't dismiss American Graffiti. The problem with the prequels is NOT that they were amateurishly directed. People like to use these high brow statements.

People just didn't like them. They didn't like his choices. I'd say this, it was like Lucas was stuck in 1977. Which he probably is----think about it.

The prequels started off with politically incorrect ideas and concepts. (someone not up to date on pc rules)

The voice of Jar-Jar; a choice that diverged in the woods made all the difference or could have IMO.

Jake Lloyd was directed like an actor from 1976; not a big deal back then; but in our post-modern world with "I see dead people" method acting for Haley Joel Osmond or whoever---it just didn't fly. But, it was really a style choice. Everything now a days is very stylized and dramatically filmed...a certain style that Lucas hasn't delved into. It's very emotional.

The "Noooooo" in Ep. 3 is a good example. You could find dozens of scenes like that in any "well-made" and "acclaimed" film prior to 1977.

Well said, and point taken. Perhaps 'amateurish' was a bit of an overstatement. Maybe 'clunky' was the word I was looking for.

But given that films like Jaws, Close Encounters were genre contemporaries (not to unfairly compare, but so were Taxi Driver, Annie Hall etc) it's not a stretch to see that Lucas was already behind the curve when it came to actors even at that time.

Nevertheless, I like your thesis regarding 'choices'. So Lucas was an adequate filmmaker then, and total shite now.

 

[btflash]

personally i dont think lucas has made a good star wars film since the empire strikes back.the new trek film is easily more enjoyable , better paced, and better story telling than the last four star wars films put together.

 

[pookha]

Hell, if the studios were so sold on the "massive" public influence that Trek had and thought there was money to be had then why did Paramount reject Lucas? Of all the studios out there surely they would know there was some untapped financial base to exploit, but they didn't.

but then it is sorta amusing that the studio who did american graffiti passed on star wars too so maybe it was the perception of lucas treatment that had nothing to do with trek.
if it wasnt for alan ladd jr at fox who had to continually fight for it we may never had a star wars.

the thing of it is i liked the first three star war films (empire the most, then star wars and to a lesser degree return) ( i can do without the prequels though) and dont understand this current star wars vs star trek thing.

really i say current because i dont think it was around that much back when in the late 70's.

i kinda find it

 

[Carpe Occasio]

Star Trek and Star Wars are nothing alike. Lucas certainly did not copy Star Trek. He was going more for Flash Gordon.

 

[Magickthise]

Anyone agree?

Not I.

TOS is basically a rip off of Forbidden Planet. You can see little hints of Star Wars in it, too. Seriously, watch this clip from the 1956 film, and tell me TOS didn't just remake it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y4crGU7dkg

 

[pookha]

star trek was inspired by forbidden planet.
this has been known for years.

just like forbidden planet was majorly inspired by a very old play.


heck levar burton even hosted a special presentation of forbidden planet
back in the early 1990's.

star wars was inspired by a whole slew of things..
from star trek to in a major way with han solo bogart.

it also heavily borrowed from kurosawa especially hidden fortress and the death star battle came from the movie dam busters.

so i would be real careful saying star trek ripped off something less that light be focused more on star wars.

the easiest is to say both got inspiration from what came before them.

 

[QuasarVM]

There's no such thing as a 100% original idea. We're all inspired or influenced by something we've seen before...

The question is: Can one create something that adds to it or modifies in a unique way?

 

[vedek loki]

Both Lucas and Roddenberry used time-travel to steal all their best ideas from Small Wonder.

 

[RandyS]

This helps make the point.

 

[M'Sharak]

There are many people talking about how the new Star Trek movie is very similar to the original Star Wars in terms of character motivations, plot devices, etc. <snip>

You know, I've just waded through sixty-some posts and, with the exception of the first sentence of the opening post, I'm having a hard time finding anything at all here which has to do with the Star Trek movie this forum is here to discuss. srombomb, if you'd like to continue a "George Lucas copied Star Trek" discussion, I think you should restart it in an appropriate forum. This one's closed.