TPM 25th Anniversary Re-Release!
Jun 22, 2024 17:18:43 GMT
Subtext Mining, ArchdukeOfNaboo, and 3 more like this
Post by Cryogenic on Jun 22, 2024 17:18:43 GMT
Episodes IV, V and VI were jaunty, lighthearted movies, because that was the mood I was in at that time, and that was the kind of story I wanted to tell. But I always knew there was a very dark backstory behind those movies, and the telling that story is what we do with Episodes I, II and III.
Very nice. I couldn't remember where I made the post, but going back through earlier pages of the General grievances thread in this same section (i.e., the Lucas Era one, not the Disney Era one), I just found it. Ever since I saw your post here, I kept meaning to dredge up that older one of mine, because I wanted to add all the Lucas quotes in it, which are similar to the one above and nicely complement it:
From Reply #122:
LUCAS: "I couldn’t have that same tonality in the father’s trilogy that I did in the children’s trilogy. The thing about children is, they’re exuberant, they’re naïve. You know, they’re funny. But fathers, especially fathers going down the wrong path -- it’s a much more somber reality."
Star Wars: The Last Battle, Vanity Fair, Feb 2005, by Jim Windolf
Star Wars: The Last Battle, Vanity Fair, Feb 2005, by Jim Windolf
LUCAS: "The first three episodes are a tragedy, and the second three go slightly goofy, but they're inspirational: Even the worst, most evil people find compassion. Darth Vader has compassion for his children, and that's ultimately what children are for."
George Lucas and the Cult of Darth Vader, Rolling Stone, June 2005, Gavin Edwards
George Lucas and the Cult of Darth Vader, Rolling Stone, June 2005, Gavin Edwards
LUCAS: "It's a downer. The saving grace is that if you watch the other three movies, then you know everything ends happily ever after. Nevertheless, I now have to make a movie that works by itself, but which also works with this six-hour movie and this overall twelve-hour movie. I'll have two six-hour trilogies, and the two will beat against each other: One's the fall, one's the redemption. They have different tonalities, but it's meant to be one experience of twelve hours."
The Making of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, 2005, J.W. Rinzler, p. 62
The Making of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, 2005, J.W. Rinzler, p. 62
As you can see, these other quotes are all from 2005. It's nice to see Lucas saying the same thing prior to ROTS ("the dark one").
It's also funny that he whimsically suggests the earlier films were lighthearted because "that was the mood [he] was in at the time" -- LOL!!! You gotta love our George.
Of course, beneath the surface of Lucas' casual boast (almost in itself a playful putdown of the OT -- just movies he did because they agreed with his mood at the time), one can glean a shard of truth: the prequels were the story he was quietly itching to tell, and in the Vanity Fair quote, he describes them, with reference to the core story arc (a father going bad) as "a much more somber reality". Interesting wording. Quite stark and quite different to the supposedly upbeat, uplifting "fairy tale" aesthetic of the Original Trilogy.
And it all begins -- and then begins again, and again, in perpetuity -- in Episode I: the mirror and the reflection.
You might think history teaches; it repeats;
page after page, a poem in perfect rhyme
tolls echoing bells from both sides of the sheets
for births and funerals, tells the time
of ageless Alice, Hamlet’s fallacies --
the latest light from vanished galaxies.
-- Suite of Mirrors, Harold Witt, Contact, 1962
