Lucas: Honesty could be the best policy

After reading some of the dialogue on the Original Trilogy fan page I was left feeling rather sympathetic for George Lucas. As viewers, fans and now students we need to consider how this all played out for Lucas. Lucas created Star Wars on a very limited budget hardly expecting it would be the success that it has become. I don't believe even a foolish optimist would have thought Star Wars would have earned 1% of the amount of revenue the franchise has if they were in Lucas's shoes. The fact that it has become as successful as it has is truly remarkable. However with that success, it has elevated Lucas to a position that he probably never dreamed of, and I am not referring to his plethora of money in that regard. To many fans, Lucas has risen to somewhat of a God like "all knowing figure." Some of that may be from comments that Lucas has made and others simply because we want to think there is someone who has the answers to ALL of our questions about this universe he has created. I highly doubt that Lucas thought every word he said would be scrutinized about the minor details and nuances of his universe. Therefore I find it to be a bit unfair to be upset that an interview from 1977 contradicts an interview from 1983 and vice versa. NO ONE would have had all of the ins and outs of Star Wars figured out in that manner. So personally I believe it is okay that some of his details are somewhat problematic.

However, I think we can hold Lucas accountable for his desire to play into this role. At times it appears that he enjoys the role of all knowing figure when he claims to have always had a plan, or known this or that would happen. As the creator, of course he wants to show a persona of being in control of his creation and some arrogance is perhaps warranted.  Yet, if he wore to have some humility and admit to not having it all completely known, he might catch less flack from this fan community. Although I doubt it bothers him too much.

Additionally, we should note the idea that Lucas is a revisionist. Revisionism is very prevalent in historical study, partly because I believe it is human nature. We do not want to admit our faults. We do not want to admit our struggles or mistakes. Consequently we alter, change, revise our stories, our histories and so forth. It is clear that Lucas has tried to do that with his original trilogy to attempt to get closer to the perfection model that Star Wars is now held too. I find his attempts to be somewhat reasonable, although I also believe that his fan base would be more considerate of those alternations if he was upfront about his intentions, rather than attempting to hide them or prevent people from seeing them. Admit the changes and move on, rather than hope your fan base is going to be ignorant to your desired changes. All and All I think Lucas is okay and I wouldn't mind if there were more Star Wars movies if he ever gets bored and needs a refresher.