With the blu-ray release of Star Wars, it was a perfect time to see a little documentary that screened at Sundance called The People vs. George Lucas.  It was just playing at The Broadway Theatre in Saskatoon, and it’s on Sasktel Max across the province.

People all over the world are passionate about Star Wars, especially the original trilogy that launched with Star Wars in 1977.  But the love that nerds and beyond had for Lucas during the 70s and 80s has cooled significantly, with the poor film decisions of his later career.  Remember Indiana Jones living through a nuclear blast by hiding in an everyday fridge?  How about the endless tweaks that have ruined Star Wars, like Greedo shooting first?  The People vs. George Lucas is a documentary that delves into Lucas’ cultural legacy and the love-hate relationship that fanboys have developed with him in recent years.

To give you some set up --- a lot of studio suits didn’t “get” Lucas in the 70s.  He felt marginalized and became sort of a maverick filmmaker, realizing that the only way he was going to get his visions up on screen was to do it himself; produce, finance, market, the whole shebang.  

However, now that technology has caught up to his imagination, he feels it necessary to tinker with the original creations that we all fell in love with, often times to the extreme detriment of the movies themselves.  And the more control he has, the worse his new movies get.  He’s always been an idea man --- he comes up with this brilliant universe, but a director like Irving Kirshner or a writer like Lawrence Kasdan are usually better suited to figure out the nuts and bolts of the thing, as they did with The Empire Strikes Back, arguably the best Lucas film ever made (if you’d rather choose Raiders of the Lost Ark as his best, then credit Spielberg as director and Kasdan as writer).  Anyway, now he’s surrounded by an army of Yes-men, who can only fall all over themselves to tell him that Jar Jar Binks is awesome and that people should swing from the trees like Tarzan in an Indiana Jones movie.  He’s lost his edge.

The documentary itself is an examination of this phenomenon, mostly seen through the eyes of the fans, using fan film footage, animation, and interviews.  It may seem like a trivial exploration, but as the movie posits, realize this:  Star Wars was itself partially based on the mythical theory writings of Joseph Campbell, and thusly, it contains elements and archetypes that we respond to as people.  It’s the same thing they use to make up religions, which fulfill people spiritually.  Add to this the fact that it was all-encompassing in popular culture when a lot of us were children.  When they released the Star Wars universe toys, that was an important cultural moment --- because it meant we could fully interact with this far away universe.  It pervaded our collective psyches, if you will.  So when Greedo shoots first instead of Han, the way you remember it as a child, it really doesn’t sit right.  It changes the character and the meaning on a fundamental level.  For example, what if you went back and said that Jesus was never crucified?  Imagine how much that would change Christian universe?

This leads the documentary to some of its more interesting questions.  Who “owns” Star Wars as an intellectual property?  Does Lucas own it because he created it?  Or by releasing it into the world, do we, the fans own it?  Do we share it?  By the way, the film reminds us, in 1988 Lucas himself campaigned against Ted Turner for wanting to colourize old movies permanently, as that would change our cultural heritage, he argued.

Though it was a treat to watch for a Star Wars fan like myself, as a movie, the film tends to get a bit cluttered.  All the right ideas and subject tangents are there, like theories of intellectual property, and other topics like merchandising and consumerism (how many times have you purchased the trilogy, haha).  However, I would have preferred to really delve into these topics instead of cutting in a lot of the fan footage.  It would have also been really cool to actually be the first to get Lucas to really address all this stuff.  I realize that may be near impossible, but if he’s really defending himself against the people in the court of public opinion as the title suggests, he should have his day in court.  

As it stands, the movie feels more like a group therapy session than a day in court.  In fact, there is a funny bit where fans discuss the moment they realized that The Phantom Menace sucked, and yet, they were compelled to go back and see it again and again.  There are some good points, and some funny moments, but it’s probably only required watching for Star Wars fans.

As for my thoughts on Lucas, he seems to have developed a complex around having control of his properties.  He earned the right to do it his way, damn right he did --- but now he’s gotten so far away from collaboration and feedback.  He thinks he can do no wrong as long as he brings his vision to the screen, but we all need feedback and criticism to thrive.  Lucas is at the top of a giant mountain where he can’t hear the cries of the people below.  Even Darth Vader becomes the very thing he wanted to protect against.  Maybe Lucas can turn back to the good side?

3 Dorks out of 5 on the Geek-o-Meter.