George Lucas quotes of every kind

More quotes from the Episode II commentaries.

This whole aspect of the film, which is the mystery, is based, really, on a 1940s, you know, film noir mystery. You know, Maltese Falcon, all the great mystery movies of the '30s and '40s is the influence here. I wanted to have that kind of quality of one of those great Raymond Chandler mysteries. You gotta remember that this whole series of films is based on the '30s genre, on the serial. The acting style is very much from the '30s, conceptually it's using the influence and the inspiration of the '30s films as its basis. And the most central of which is obviously the Saturday matinee serial.


It's a bit of a mechanical scene, in that it's basically [Obi-Wan] getting permission to go after Jango Fett, and at the same time it allows us to establish that neither Yoda, nor Mace, nor the Jedi Council had any idea about this Clone Army. And the further idea that the Jedi, their ability to use the Force is diminishing. It's established very early on in the very first scene where Yoda says, ya know, "The dark side has clouded everything." But an idea that's that important and that complex really needs to be said a couple times. And the fact, as the dark side grows it clouds their vision. They're very concerned that if people find out that they're losing their abilities, that it wouldn't help the situation of the Separatist movement and all the other things that are going on. Because it's a very tense situation and the Jedi are completely outnumbered in terms of trying to keep control of the situation.

(To which I'd add this other quote. Source unknown)
It's not that they can't see the dark side coming, it's just that the dark side begins to envelop everything. It's like walking into a fog. The Jedi's ability to see lessens as the dark side grows.


This is one of the more, I think, boldly revealing scenes in terms of what is happening on the political front and the movement of Palpatine to total control and authority over everybody, which is leading toward the evolution of the Empire and the evolution of the Emperor. This crisis has been created and the only solution is to give him more power, and Jar Jar becomes the dupe making that proposal that allows him to have that power. And even the Jedi are there, but the Jedi aren't really allowed to be involved in the political process. They're there but they can't suddenly step in and say, "No, no, no, you can't do that" and stuff. They have to let the political process go.


This idea of a democracy being given up, and in many cases being given up in a time of crisis, you see it throughout history whether it's Julius Caesar, or Napoleon, or Adolf Hitler. You see these democracies under a lot of pressure in a crisis situation, who end up giving up a lot of the freedoms they have and a lot of the checks and balances to somebody with a strong authority to help get them through the crisis. You know, it's not the first time a politician has created a war just to try to stay in office.


So we don't say it's the beginning of the Empire, it's implied in the power that's been given to the Grand Chancellor Palpatine. And that is contrasted with the idyllic situation on Naboo where Anakin and Padmé are getting married in what will be a doomed relationship, which they have already stated earlier on is, its not gonna work. But they do love each other. I mean, they're truly in love with each other, and it's the issue of true love over duty. It's really the Romeo and Juliet aspect of it, of a doomed relationship, in more ways than one, really, ya know, she married the wrong guy. This marriage will end up with the birth of their children which go on into the next trilogy.

I see lots of people online debating whether or not Obi-Wan knew that Anakin survived the Mustafar duel. Clearly, by Episode IV, he knows that Anakin didn't die, but at the time of Episode III this commentary demonstrates that he thinks Anakin is dead. This is gonna be key for the Obi-Wan series. It's the perfect time for Obi-Wan to find out that Anakin survived.

Retrun of the Jedi commentaries

The Han Solo journey is a continuation of the motif of death and rebirth, which is the overall central theme of this whole series, in relationship to Darth Vader coming out of his evil hibernation and being reborn as Anakin Skywalker. He's put to sleep, which is a common device, ya know, especially in fairy tales, but it's also in mythological terms too, of going into a state of suspended animation, and then usually you come out rejuvenated. Sometimes it's the equivalent of going down to the netherworld and coming back enlightened. In this particular case he was just put to sleep.
(I called the frozen Han/Vader suit connection in the Leia/Anakin thread).


Another aspect of these films that sometimes gets lost is that these films are vaguely light-hearted in terms of the fact that they don't take themselves that seriously. You try to be very realistic and everything, but mostly it's, ya know, to have a rip-roaring adventure and a good time. Sometimes people, you know, try to put more into them than should be there, or write them off as of no consequence. But the reality, I think, is somewhere in the middle.


One of the advantages of being in the third Act is that you get to tie up all of the loose ends. But one of the problems you have in the third Act is that you have to tie up all the loose ends.


See, this film was written during the Vietnam War where a small group of ill-equipped people were able to overcome a mighty power. It's not a new idea. Attila the Hun was able to overrun the Roman Empire. The American Colonies were able to overrun the British. And that's always the same story. The Roman Empire had a huge mechanical advantage and training advantage over the Huns, but the Huns were still able to overwhelm them with, sort of, enthusiasm and their humanness and their belief in what they were doing. And that was the main theme for the overall downfall of the Empire. When it was basically overcome by humanity - in the form of cute little teddy bears.



So, there's a lot of work that goes into the design of these films that has to do with the actual design of the frame. Color plays an extremely important part in all these films. You know, red signifying evil, the red blood, the red devil, red as an accent color for the bad guys. The bad guys mostly exist in a black and white world. The good guys live in an organic world, which is either browns, light-browns, tans or greens, with the blue sky and stuff. But mostly it's the good guys are green and brown, the bad guys are black and white. Which has to do as much with anything, it really has to do with that feeling, a philosophical feeling of a world of absolutes, a mechanical world where things are rigid and absolute, they're black and white. As opposed to the organic world where it's more natural. And, ya know, right/wrong, black/white, these kinds of things don't exist, at least symbolically, in that world, things are more natural.



Part of this stuff, like this, where the window looks like a web, which it does in all of the Sith and Imperial stuff. Ya know, you'll see it in Darth Vader's- in Episode IV, the TIE-Fighters had that same motif, it's a motif we carry through for the bad guys. But I mean, it's designed really just to give you that feeling, again, it's a symbolic motif that goes through that allows- says "these are bad guys", these are the people you have to be afraid of. And yes, he is the spider luring the flies into his web. Because he's the plotter, he's the devious one.



The key issue in these movies is for a Jedi to not use anger when he's fighting. So the final confrontation here is primarily about trying to make Luke become angry. So that when he fights his father he's fighting in anger. Therefore he begins to use the dark side of the Force and therefore sorta succumbs to the dark side of the Force. In The Empire Strikes Back, we had them confront each other and fight together, but in this one Luke has become more mature, so that now he knows that he shouldn't be fighting him - that is the path to the dark side. So it's basically a confrontation between two people where one of them doesn't want to fight. And the other one keeps trying to push him into it. And in the end, when he gives up finally to really fight, and what's happening there, ultimately, is that Luke is turning to the dark side and all is going to be lost.

When you put mythological motifs into a film, it is inevitably going to inspire religious devotion and reverence in the audience. I've experienced that myself. But yes, Star Wars is something you can analyze and take seriously or turn your brain off and just enjoy as a piece of entertainment. Depending on my mood at any given time I will lean one way or the other. 

My own interest in Star Wars sometimes borders on religious fanaticism.   I think speaking of the material, Lucas' saga walked that tightrope between being something serious and something appropriately silly very well. They could be enjoyed by adults and kids for slightly different reasons.

A New Hope commentaries

My original inspiration on this film was, really, to use mythological motifs to create a whole new kind of myth that was very updated and contemporary. So I used the Saturday matinee serial as my vessel to put this barrel of mythological motifs together.


When I originally wrote the screenplay for this episode it was very much like it is now, which is that the story starts with Princess Leia and Darth Vader and sets up the premise of the movie, which is their stolen plans to a Death Star. But once we get past that little piece of exposition, we follow the two most insignificant characters, which are the droids. And this was an idea that I was enamored with that was used by Akira Kurosawa in the film Hidden Fortress. Where you take the least important characters and you follow their story, in amongst this gigantic intergalactic drama that's going on around them that they don't understand. And I really wanted to have the film be led by the droids.


My introduction to Kurosawa's films were very powerful because it happened in film school, and I knew very little about Japanese history at that point. And when I would get thrown into something like Seven Samurai or Yojimbo or Ikuru or any of the movies, it was like, I had NO idea what was going on! I mean, I could follow the human story, but the culture was completely complex and oblique. And I like that, I like that feeling of being thrown into another environment. You know, trying to get my bearings - and still be able to tell a story in that environment that made sense - that you weren't so confused that you just couldn't follow it. And in terms of fantasy films and everything, I can't stand it when you sit around and try to explain how a teleporter works or why. Ya know, it's just not what the movie needs to be about.


The interesting thing about this film was, when it was first released people felt it moved very, very, very fast. Ya know, "It was extremely fast paced." And part of that is because of the fact is that you're introduced to a world you've never seen before. And everybody was sort of fascinated with the environment. And one of the premises I had when I made the film was that I would not show the environment, I would just assume that this was a natural world for everybody and everybody was familiar with everything in it. So I wouldn't dwell on setting things up and, you know, trying to explain what a droid is, or trying to explain that this is the garage where they keep their Skyhopper, and about oil baths, or all the things that you would normally try to deal with. I just assumed that everybody knew about all of this stuff, and moved the film along as quickly as I could. As a result, when it first came out people were just- they couldn't take it all in fast enough. Now when you look at the movie it's not very fast at all. Everybody's familiar with these environments, so that they don't spend a lot of time trying to see what is going on in the backgrounds. They just basically watch the story and the story moves along at a rather leisurely pace by today's standard.


This is, you know, my next movie after American Graffiti and in a way the subject and everything is young people, and its a subject that is the very same subject that American Graffiti is about; it's about a young boy leaving his world, and going off into the unknown to a great adventure. American Graffiti focuses on that final night when that decision is made. Star Wars carries that story on to what happens after you leave, and in this particular case there's a slightly more classic edge to it in that the Fates are there to kind of help Luke realize that in certain cases you don't have choices. You know, if you choose not to fight evil, eventually it'll push you up into the wall and you just don't have a choice anymore. It's an inevitability that you can't escape from. And in this particular case, he's torn between what he really wants to do, which is go off and join the academy, and fight in the rebellion and have excitement. But then he's also committed to helping his uncle, and to help his uncle build his farm. And his uncle's raised him, he's like his father; he has his obligations to, ya know, try to put the homestead together.


One of the tricky things about telling the story this way is I'm intercutting between Princess Leia's story and Luke's story. And there's obviously more going on in Luke's story and the emphasis is on his side, even though she is the key to the whole movie. It's her battle with Darth Vader and with the Empire that is actually what the story is all about. If Luke had stayed put on Tatooine he wouldn't even know the Death Star existed! But I have to keep her story and her drama alive during this whole thing, even tough she's in the middle of something and Luke is on the road to discovery. She's pretty much in control of things, she's already a political leader, and a Senator, and a Rebel and a- you know, she's in the middle of her battle and her story. Her story is pretty simple: get the plans, try to destroy the Death Star somehow. Where, for Luke it's a whole rite of passage coming in to this big world which she already is a part of.



Han Solo is the foil to the idealistic Luke. He's the cynical mercenary and Luke is the idealist, the dreamer, the one who is trying to do things to make it a better world. Han Solo is somebody who's been beaten down by the world and you know, really only cares about himself. Luke symbolizes the compassionate hero, Han Solo symbolizes the passionate hero. One cares about others, the other only cares about himself. And obviously in the course of the movie, Han Solo's character arc is that he goes from being a self-centered, selfish, cynical character to a caring, compassionate, "try to make this a better place" kind of character. It's a fun part and it's a fun character. Good stories usually involve two people who are the opposite of each other. And it's a principle aspect of the story; is how those two characters beat up against each other, and how they interact with each other when they're as opposite as they are.


This scene was a fun scene for me. It was one of my favorite scenes in the movie. It's the one chance that Luke and Han get to actually play a scene together. I mean, everything else is in the middle of chaos and action. And then toward the end when they say goodbye they get to play a scene together. But this is the one time they get to actually interact in a fun way, and Harrison and Mark were so good in it together, I mean, they really were able to play off each other well and make it become real. Harrison had his character down so pat. You know, it's that clash between the idealist and the pragmatist. And this is the one scene I got to really have them bang into each other.



There's another story going on here where Vader senses that Obi-Wan is on the Death Star. One of the fun things for me about this movie was that I was making it Episode IV, which is why I was so adamant about having that on the film. There's a lot of back story that just- ya know, it's interesting the film was as successful as it is, and I hardly told any of the story. But the other back story is they had this whole confrontation thing and Obi-Wan almost killed him and he put him in this suit and everything, and now they're confronting each other again after all these years. THX is very similar in a way to this film in that it's the idea of throwing you into a completely alien environment and not explaining anything about how it works. And I felt good about the way it worked out in that movie, and that gave me the confidence to go on and continue to do it. Sometimes I guess it works and sometimes it doesn't, but it needs to be more about the story and getting- say, it's like going through hyperspace, you're getting really from point A to point B, that's the real issue. And you're doing it because you don't want to waste time and you want to be able to get characters back and forth from halfway across the galaxy in a few minutes.


The story is ultimately about Princess Leia and her attempts to destroy the Death Star, as a Rebel leader. And the boys kind of just tag along on her adventure. In this particular film you don't really understand all the relationships between everybody and where everybody came from. But I was very keen on making a movie that was like watching a foreign film where you just didn't know the world you were in, you didn't know what was going on, you didn't know the politics, you didn't know anything and nothing was explained to you. So, you simply were thrown into this world and there's an adventure going on and you hafta kinda get with it. As opposed to a traditional fantasy film where they spend a lot of time sort of explaining everything. Unfortunately I'm now in the position of having to explain everything, but-


I had the scenes of Tarkin watching the battle, but the idea that they're clearing the moon and that they were in range, I came up with later. Those little graphs of it coming around, that it couldn't fire on them until it came around the- ya know, got into position. But in a way, it's a way you make movies, it's a way you write stories, it's a way you do any work of art actually; is you do it in layers. You can do it, you step back, look at it, come up with ideas about how to make it better, you can improve it, condense it and move it down. You know, you keep working with it. It's like modeling clay. It's not something where you lay out a blue print and just follow it religiously, and then you cut it religiously, and then you release it. You need to work with the material and with the story and what you have and kinda let the movie dictate a little bit of what's gonna happen. And the characters, let them sort of, you know- sometimes you get a situation where the character just doesn't ring true saying that, or doing that. And you have to say, "Well, what would they do in that situation? What would they say?" And then that takes you on another route. It may not be the one you intended, but it's basically more believable.


One of the fun things for me about this movie was that I was making it "Episode IV", which is why I was so adamant about having that on the film. It's ironic that I was wanting it on the film to explain why I haven't explained anything (laughs). And the studio was afraid to advertise it that way for fear that they would say, "Well, where are the other movies?" and, "I don't understand..." and they didn't know how to sell it. But the concept here was that all this stuff has happened! And you're never gonna know about it. That was like, two weeks ago, on Saturday. If you didn't come to that one, and your friends didn't see it, then you just wouldn't have any clue of what they're talking about. Ya know, "We meet again" and all that. "Well, that was in Episode III". And it never was intended that you'd ever know what that was. And it's fun now for me, in a way, to be able to do the first three stories so that you know some of the things that are going on here, but this was always intended to be a kinda, "What in the world is going on in this movie? I don't understand." you know. But in one way it all makes sense, you can sorta follow it. But in another way, most the information is not there at all! And that's a particular case in the confrontation between Obi-Wan and Darth Vader. You know there's something, some relationship they have to each other, because they talk about meeting again and the problems and "Now I'm gonna get you", and all this kind of stuff, so there's some kind of old battle going on here that we don't know anything about - that works amazingly well, considering that, ya know, all it is is ultimately this one scene between him and Tarkin where he says, "He's here. He's come for me and it's our destinies to meet up again. And I'm gonna handle this myself. I have to."

1997: "...my personal stake in the new films is very small. 98% of the income derived from the prequels will be re-invested in an ambitious expansion of Skywalker ranch, updating the workstations at ILM and just making every subsidiary at Lucasfilm more up-to-date and competitive with their competition."

More from the Episode I commentaries.

This scene begins to set up the relationship between the Gungans and the Queen, it's a set up for later on when she asks the Gungans for help. It's also moving along the plot of Palpatine becoming the Chancellor. And more importantly, it's the key scene where the Queen, rather than sitting passively by and watching all this stuff transpire, takes affirmative action and decides to go back to her planet and go back to her people. I've had this written several different ways, and at the same time I have several scenes that carry this idea further in terms of her- the conflicts she's having between being passive and aggressive in terms of, you know, fighting and being peaceful. Because for her it's a break of all of her principles to go back and fight. In this scene she doesn't really intend to go back and fight but she does intend to go back, which will lead to a fight and she knows that. But she's still hoping that she can resolve it in some way that she doesn't involve a war.


Throughout the film I had been playing with the fact earlier on that Qui-Gon knows that Padmé is the Queen. And he uses that, especially when they go on Tatooine. He taunts her a couple times and in the pod race he taunts her a couple times. Because he's just having fun with her because he knows she's the Queen but the others around them don't. So he's been waiting for her to step forward and reveal herself. Anakin is completely surprised, but Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon aren't.


Having grown up in the shadow of the Vietnam War, the issue of a primitive society confronting a technologically advanced society has fascinated me. Because that was the main event that was going on, really, during my college years. And the fact that human determination and the human spirit can overcome these vastly superior armies, actually, I found to be rather inspiring, as a human being. I think that is a theme- one of the main themes that's gone through all the Star Wars films. I like technology, I use technology, but at the same time I understand the failings of technology and that you can't rely on technology for everything. So I have this dual nature in the movies of the friendly, human, good technology of R2 and 3P0, and the evil technology of the Battle Droids and that sort of thing. You know, I'm constantly playing with those two ends of the dilemma, but never really saying that one is better than the other. I'm just simply trying to promote the human spirit, even if it exists in a droid.


...But there is a bit of an ecological motif going on here, that all the organisms depend on each other, and when one organism is pulled out of the chain or the circle it affects all the others. It's really told in the themes of what's actually going on here, which is whatever happens to the people of Naboo eventually will also happen to the Gungans. Which is part of what also brings them together, that realization that unless they unite they're all doomed.
That theme of biology vs. physics is a theme that recurs over and over again. Constantly having this advanced technological society trying to take on- in this case the Gungans aren't that primitive, but their technology is very different from the one that's based on physics. In most cases kind of making fun of the technology and the failings and the weaknesses of technology and how it can create absurd situations and absurd characters. Gungans have a very organic technology which has to do with some kind of plasma and the kinds of things that they find at the bottom of the lakes and stuff. I call it an electric eel technology. And then you have the droids which are very mechanical and everything is very technologically oriented. So it's really a battle between biology and physics.



Down towards the end here where everything is very bleak and everybody is at their lowest moment, I purposely started to intermesh the images in a way that would create greater tension, like in this sequence here where the droids are coming after Anakin. Anakin's trapped, he's about to be killed, immediately cut to a giant close-up of Darth Maul. I mean, he's almost looking at Anakin. And then you realize you're in the next scene and it's these things. But it's trying to almost confuse and meld together the various sequences that are at various different places. So that you get a sense that they're all in trouble and they're all very connected.


You can see a lot of the sequences here end with a close-up of a person looking, so that they're almost looking into the next sequence, so that it blends those sequences together, so there's a very, very soft transition.


Again, a kind of recurring theme of Obi-Wan; he falls over the ridge earlier, he falls over the ridge here. Copying kind of what happens in Empire Strikes Back with Luke in the same kind of sword fight with a Sith, falling, going over the edge before he gets his hand cut off. In this case, we twist it at the end, instead of the Sith cutting off the hand of the Jedi, the Jedi cuts the Sith in half.


I use the theme of over-confidence or hubris as a way of bringing the downfall of many people. And in this particular case because Anakin is such a young kid, his heroism is more an accident than it is- the fact that he can even fly one of these things is amazing. But, I didn't wanna make him, you know, be perfect and have the ability to do all kinds of things that an eight year old boy really can't do.
(If he's saying Anakin doesn't have hubris because he's too young, this may lend credence to my theory that Naboo elects young rulers to avoid corruption in their leadership).

My pleasure! I actually own the Blurays with the commentaries but only had the chance to listen to the RotS and AotC ones, once each, and that was five years ago. These days I don't have them with me or anything to play them on. Thanks also goes to whoever uploaded them to youtube and to Gen for alerting us to their presence.
I'm surprised nobody has uploaded them or transcribed them sooner, they are treasure troves of insight.


Here's some more from the Episode II commentaries.

I wanted to also vary the types of danger. We start with a kind of depth charge that is different from lasers and anything else we've ever used. Which gives an exciting piece as it crunches through the asteroids. And I think it's also a nice visual sequence. Then eventually we get into our normal dogfight. In order to do that I had to figure out a way of getting Jango behind Obi-Wan, so I had to get them to switch places, which the little sequence inside the asteroid allowed me to do. And then I was able to get to the traditional dogfight. And then play a little bit of the joke of the fact that Obi-Wan doesn't like to fly. And use a different kind of laser that's, you know, much more rapid-fire than anything we've seen before. And then ultimately, the third part of this we used a rocket.




This is one of the pivotal scenes in their relationship, where he reveals the pain and suffering that he's been going through this whole time, ever since the first time he laid eyes on her again. But obviously even before that, as he's dreamed about her over the years. He lets himself go here. It's intended to be overly-dramatic, sort of almost even overly-operatic in its emotional intensity on his part; he's young, and he's kinda spilling his guts out to her. She doesn't quite know how to deal with this and it's putting her kind of on the spot, but she ultimately will refuse here to go along with him, which again is a pivotal moment for the rest of the film.
In relationship to their emotional maturity, he is much more impetuous and much more immature. She is obviously older and in a professional thing- a Queen and a Senator and a leader, so that she's much more reality-based on all of this, and can look forward and see what the consequences are of their actions, she's just not gonna let her emotions run rampant. Even he realizes that if they did have a relationship it would lead to doom, there's no way it could work. When she reminds him of where this would lead and what the consequences of it would be, he does accept it.


A lot of these action set pieces, and everything, I break them down into two or three little pieces. Each one has its own story and each one is sort of different and varied from the other. Whether it's the fight on the Kamino landing platform or whether it's this. All of them have little beginning, middles and ends.


Soap operas do things like this where you have stories that go and intermingle and go on and on, but they don't do it backwards! You're making a film that you're supposed to see in order, but you've made it backwards (laughs). I don't think anybody's done that before. I don't know why anybody would (laughs).


I tried in this particular set of sequences to kind of merge the two stories together visually. So that you get a sense that they're both going on searches and trying to resolve mysteries. And it has to do a lot with, in Anakin's case, a pending flaw in his character. And Obi-Wan, what you can only describe I guess as a flaw in the system, which is Count Dooku.


This is how we introduce Count Dooku. I do it very vaguely, very off-handed and very bits and pieces. And I really save the real scene with Count Dooku for later on in the prison where he confronts Obi-Wan. So I tried to be reasonably coy about it here, even though I do show him, I do need to establish who he is, I do need to establish this situation with the treaties and that sort of thing in order to move the plot along. But I've tried to be as circumspect about it as possible.
(which is what I was getting at in the Dooku thread).



So now we're at night, and again it's the same kind of stalking on a desert planet, only now it's Anakin stalking the Tusken Raider camp, instead of Obi-Wan stalking the Geonosian termite hill. But I played these so that they'd be sort of visually reminiscent of each other.


[The last section] is broken up with this little love theme, or, this little moment where Padmé finally gives in and reveals that she actually does love Anakin. And in the face of death and in the face of the fact that this is all gonna be over, she does succumb to her emotions, she does let down the sort of social barriers that have been put up, and you know, practical reality of what would happen to them in the future if they were to let their emotions run wild. And so feeling that fate is going to finish them off anyway, she lets herself go and they fall in love. Which brings a lot of consequences later. But at this point they have no idea they're gonna actually be rescued, so this is sort of their last words, so to speak.


We could never really contemplate a sequence this complex before. And it really is a function of using digital editing, using videomatics, and great advances in ILM in terms of their animation capabilities. The complexity of some of these shots, and the fact that there's so many of them, there's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of 'em, ya know, was just not possible. We were learning on the last film - Phantom Menace was a large exercise in learning how to use this new digital technology on the scale that we were contemplating it. And this is really the result of that experiment of The Phantom Menace. We're still learning even on this movie - we keep pushing the envelope, but it's not the same learning curve that we had to accomplish on Phantom Menace. You know, Phantom Menace really went from 0 to 80, this one goes from 80 to 90.


In Episode IV, we have the situation where everything builds up to the point where Luke's just about to be taken out by Vader, and Han Solo comes in and rescues him. In this one, we have the same thing where the Jedi are trapped, they're doomed, they're about to be destroyed, and Yoda comes in at the last second and saves them. So it's, again, the same idea interpreted and expressed in a different way.