Post by Subtext Mining on Feb 12, 2022 22:37:47 GMT
I've been trying to find this quote for a long time, and finally came across it again tucked away on this video on Vimeo.
The discovery that the world isn't the way it had been portrayed in our youth, that it was a grim, evil place, and that horrible things were going on all the time - I said, "Well, this is what I'm gonna make my movies about. I'm gonna make the powerful movies. I'm gonna make the films that tell the world the way it is. How what a terrible place we live in and all the bad things that are going on. Maybe that will inform people, and there will be some change."
I made that film and it wasn't very successful. And it portrayed a very grim, modern, isolated world where people didn't care about each other. It wasn't very effective. It wasn't very successful and it wasn't very well-liked, actually.
Some of my friends said, "Well, why don't you make something different, something that's not like you, something that's funny or upbeat." And Fran said, "You can do a regular movie. Why don't you do a comedy, why don't you do something that's really accessible to people." And so American Graffiti was the closest thing I could think of to an accessible movie.
And I made that film, and it was a positive film. It had positive values, it was about growing up, it was about the issues of growing up, and changing your life, and facing those changes and not being afraid of those changes.
And it was an extremely popular film. And I got a lot of letters back from everybody saying how it changed their lives, and how powerful it was for them. And how it put them on the right track, and how it made them feel positive about life again. And I came to a realization at that point that it was more valuable for me to make films, not about the way the world is - because I discovered very quickly that most people discover very quickly what the world is like, it's not news to them how terrible it is. But what they need is a vision of what the world should be, or what it could be. That's when I started out to make Star Wars. Basically I wanted to tell a fairy tale that had these positive values, that showed what caring about your fellow man and not caring what race they're from or planet.
- George Lucas
And yet, I feel like he didn't completely abandon the idea of showing how grim and brutal life can be in Star Wars at times.
The discovery that the world isn't the way it had been portrayed in our youth, that it was a grim, evil place, and that horrible things were going on all the time - I said, "Well, this is what I'm gonna make my movies about. I'm gonna make the powerful movies. I'm gonna make the films that tell the world the way it is. How what a terrible place we live in and all the bad things that are going on. Maybe that will inform people, and there will be some change."
I made that film and it wasn't very successful. And it portrayed a very grim, modern, isolated world where people didn't care about each other. It wasn't very effective. It wasn't very successful and it wasn't very well-liked, actually.
Some of my friends said, "Well, why don't you make something different, something that's not like you, something that's funny or upbeat." And Fran said, "You can do a regular movie. Why don't you do a comedy, why don't you do something that's really accessible to people." And so American Graffiti was the closest thing I could think of to an accessible movie.
And I made that film, and it was a positive film. It had positive values, it was about growing up, it was about the issues of growing up, and changing your life, and facing those changes and not being afraid of those changes.
And it was an extremely popular film. And I got a lot of letters back from everybody saying how it changed their lives, and how powerful it was for them. And how it put them on the right track, and how it made them feel positive about life again. And I came to a realization at that point that it was more valuable for me to make films, not about the way the world is - because I discovered very quickly that most people discover very quickly what the world is like, it's not news to them how terrible it is. But what they need is a vision of what the world should be, or what it could be. That's when I started out to make Star Wars. Basically I wanted to tell a fairy tale that had these positive values, that showed what caring about your fellow man and not caring what race they're from or planet.
- George Lucas
And yet, I feel like he didn't completely abandon the idea of showing how grim and brutal life can be in Star Wars at times.