POP-CULTURE COLUMN: The Myth of George Lucas Grows
By Dan Brown George Lucas is at it again. No, not making movies. He’s at it again – mythologizing himself as the lone brave wolf who always defies the odds and the petty bureaucrats to pull off amazing feats, in this instance founding the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles. The filmmaker and his wife, Mellody Hobson, appeared at a press conference last week to announce the impending opening on Sept. 22. Lucas being Lucas, he couldn’t help portraying himself in his comments to the press as a David heroically battling Goliath to find a site for the museum and have the building constructed. Except, if Bible stories are to be believed, David had only a sling and some rocks. He didn’t have billions of dollars at his disposal and connections among the world’s wealthy power brokers, as the Star Wars creator does. He’s come a long way from his humble beginnings in Modesto, Calif. "I'm used to doing the impossible,” Lucas told the assembled reporters. “This one almost broke my will." It’s entirely true that everyone makes themselves the hero of their own story. Lucas is not alone in that. It’s also true it did take him 17 years to see the museum through to completion. But it’s not like he was wasting away in the wilderness somewhere while the nasty bureaucrats tried to screw him. To borrow a line from The Simpsons, during that span Lucas had enough money to cry himself to sleep at night with his head resting on a pillow stuffed with thousand-dollar bills, if he chose. And yeah, bureaucracy is evil. No argument there. But without it, the sometime director wouldn’t have the imaginary enemy he’s always railing against. After getting “kicked out” of cities like San Francisco and Chicago, Lucas settled on Los Angeles as the location for his “temple to the people’s art.” “We still had to deal with bureaucracies and people who have contrary thinking. But we managed to make our way through all that,” he noted. Oh, no, contrary thinkers! How George must have suffered! “Part of the problem is I’m a contrarian. I don’t like to do things that people think can be done. I’m fascinated by doing things that people say can’t be done. And even when you do it, they say, ‘Well, that’s not any good. You can’t do that,’” he added. All of this self-mythologizing will sound familiar to anyone who has followed his film career. He’s never been short on stories about studio functionaries who have tried to squelch his creativity, the implication being we are all better off when George gets to do exactly what he wants. Yet the record says otherwise. As he got rich, and then even richer, and then ultra-rich, and then impossibly rich, he wrested away more control over his film projects. But the truth is he does his best work when strict limits are placed on his ambitions and ideas, when he’s boxed in. Go back and take a look at his filmography – he did his best work when he was under the thumb of the studio bosses and had strong collaborators including producer Gary Kurtz, illustrator Ralph McQuarrie, and actor Harrison Ford. At a certain point, the man gained enough power to have total control of how he makes motion pictures. And what was the end result of him amassing that power? Jar Jar Binks. At least Lucas didn’t tell the press-conference attendees he’d like to retire to his garage to make experimental films. He’s been saying that for decades, too, yet despite all of the resources he has at his disposal, they have never materialized. Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 34 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly Graphic-Novel Group book club.
Wither Star Wars?
By Dan Brown As you may have heard, Star Wars is at a crossroads. Lucasfilm, the company that produces the venerable franchise, recently got a new boss. Or rather bosses. Kathleen Kennedy is stepping down as president of the Disney subsidiary, and a two-headed monster is taking her place. Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan, two old hands at Lucasfilm, were announced last month as the venture’s new co-presidents – which sounds like a recipe for disaster to me. More on that in a moment. Depending on which social-media posts you read, Kennedy was either the very best or very worst thing that ever happened to the space-fantasy franchise. She was promoted to president in 2012, when Disney bought Lucasfilm and all its properties from namesake founder George Lucas. Since then, her record as leader has been . . . mixed at best. There have been high points, like the two seasons of Tony Gilroy’s Andor streaming series, as well as low points, like 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker, a movie even diehard fans admit is a chaotic mess. How bad is the sequel trilogy-concluding film? One line from Rise of Skywalker – “Somehow, Palpatine returned” – has since become shorthand for lazy moviemaking. Meanwhile, Andor has been lauded as a prescient fictional roadmap to the current political situation in the U.S. Kennedy wisely decided to let Gilroy have free reign to bring his vision to the small screen. She has greenlit other projects, including Rogue One, The Mandalorian, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Solo: A Star Wars Story (which I will defend to the death!). She has been blamed, unfairly in my eyes, for every misstep Lucasfilm has made along the way, and rarely gets any credit for keeping Star Wars alive in the public imagination. But I think we can all agree we’re happy she tried. Let’s face it, Star Wars has never been more ubiquitous. Lucas himself was not exactly a prolific filmmaker, seeming hesitant to exploit the storytelling possibilities of the universe he invented. In the seven years between 2005’s Revenge of the Sith and the Disney purchase, Lucas focused on the Clone Wars and didn’t put out enough other Star Wars product to satisfy fans. He had run out of gas. Now, about the management structure that’s taking Kennedy’s place. I don’t see how it can work. My firm belief is that committees can’t provide vision or leadership. And at this uncertain moment Lucasfilm needs more of both. Having two presidents, even if one is responsible for creative decisions and the other is in charge of operations, can lead only to heartache. My prediction is that, within a few short years, one of them will be forced out. It’s just not a sustainable model that can lead to success over a long period. I think what corporate history teaches us is that executives have an innate desire to build and protect their own empires. But at least it will give the fanboys something to complain about online! Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 32 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly graphic-novel group.
