The People vs. George Lucas (2010)

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

When the new re-digitized enhanced versions of the original three Star Wars films (now called Episodes IV-VI) were released in the late 1990's, some fans were outraged about certain elements. While overall, the enhancements did improve on the original, particularly the scenes in space, a few little "changes" made hardcore fans literally scream in protest in theaters. The two biggest annoyances were from the first film: the killing of the agent in employ to Jabba the Hutt in the bar at Los Eisles Spaceport. In the original, Han Solo fires a single shot from a hidden gun and kills the agent. In the enhancement, the agent fires first, then Han fires his gun. Fans who had seen the original more times than going on dates during adolescents complained it diminished Solo's character from being "dangerous" and "unpredictable". Problem no. 2: the inserting of a scene with Jabba Hutt in discussion with Solo outside the Millennium Falcon. I think those two things might be questionable but they didn't really hurt the new enhancements significantly. But if fans were nit-picky about these aspects with the new versions, they didn't know what being unhappy with Star Wars was really about.Most fans would admonish the new films of the series, the prequels, Episodes I-III. Bad characterizations, particularly Jar-Jar Binks, bad writing, silly dialog, and terrible acting plague the more recent films. If these films had been not great but good, I think fans could have lived with that. But these films were for the most part god-awful. The visuals were good, but visuals don't make up for a bad story and really bad screen writing. Although the films made a zillion dollars at the box office, most fans, including myself, were beyond disappointed. The resulting Star Wars product appeared to be what a 12 year old might come up with, not a seasoned filmmaker whose creative control would supposedly make the films incredibly good without the interference of dimwitted studio executives. (See my review of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, where I gave it 2 stars out of 10.) I rated Episode III a mere 5 stars, that would be barely a C- without much entertainment value but still better than Menace. However my minimum for real entertainment value is 7.The present film, called The People vs. George Lucas, is a kind of cinematic hate mail response to Lucas from the fans of Star Wars in the form of a loose format documentary. The film is mainly about how the fans of the original Star Wars films, and a little bit about the 4th Indiana Jones film, felt betrayed by Lucas. The first part demonstrates how the original kids who saw Star Wars in 1977 (before it became Episode IV) and the two sequels energized a cultural phenomenon, now called "fandom". The first generation of kids in the late 1970's and early 1980's did more than simply see the films, they lived and reenacted them. They made their own videos, movies, and plays, even their own props, as well as buying all the merchandise for sale. Much of this documentary shows endless homemade videos and movies inspired by Star Wars, as well as interviews with the most hardcover of fans.These same kids were young adults when the new films were released in the late 1990's and early 2000's and felt betrayed by Lucas. I saw it during its first run at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood, and I remember there were screams of elation when the words "STAR WARS" in its special lettering took over the screen. But there was little to be happy about when by film's end, all of my group were talking about how dumb a film it was and how could Lucas have come up with something so ill-conceived and poorly produced. Some people regard it as Lucas' worst film since he became a high-budget filmmaker, right up there with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. It may be the worst film to gross over $1 billion.Some elements could have made the documentary much better. I didn't want to just hear endless fans talking about their disappointments. There's a few scenes where hardcore fans are tearing up their cherished Star Wars toy collections. Even one group of conspiracy theorists proposed that Lucas was in fact dead, having been killed by corporate executives circa 1990, and a corporate figurehead had taken his place which will do the studio's bidding! I wish the documentary had gone into more details about the releases of the original films and the newer ones, and offered box office and merchandising information. That said, the fans needed to have their say about why they were disappointed in Lucas. It shows that sometimes artistic creations can occasionally have lives of their own outside their creators. Lucas may be the creative head of the Star Wars Franchise, but he doesn't and can't own how fandom will either deify or vilify him for his next Star Wars creations. In a word, Lucas inadvertently created a Frankenstein's monster (the fans) when he made the original Star Wars movies, and now he can't seem to control them.

This failed to capture the psychology of the fandom. It didn't specifically say what they disliked about the prequels just that "raped their childhood" like all the other thousands of online trollers out there. I could give more detail than what this had to offer. George Lucas initially wanted to do a remake of Flash Gordon, an old serial he watched when he was kid, but couldn't get the rights to it. So he set out to make his version obviously. He was inspired by the writings of Joseph Campbell. He was practically ripping off other movies such as The Hidden Fortress, Metroplis, and, oh yes, Flash Gordon. So you see I possess better nerd knowledge than what these losers (no offense) had to offer. This brings nothing new to the table and is just pathetic little rants. I will have to side with another user that reviewed this, go watch Red Letter Media. We will get so many more laughs than this. Hell, I'll even recommend a few others just to give them a bit more recognition. Confused Matthew offers a similar review through the films but doesn't have the crude humor that Red Letter Media has. Belated Media has a video called "What if Episode I Was Good?". And another called Auralnauts does a parody of the prequels where they dub over the character's voices and provide for hilarious interactions that are SO much more interesting than what the characters actually say. Check out any one of those four. They're all worth it if you're a Star Wars fan.

I had put off watching this movie for a while. I assumed it was going to be an hour and a half of George Lucas bashing. Was I wrong? Not entirely... but I wasn't right either.I will never deny that I am a fan of all 6 of the Star Wars movies. I never understood the hatred towards the prequels. In fact, people who had turned on Lucas and his recent work, REALLY bothered me. I was tired of fans flipping Lucas the bird and all that he created.In "The People vs. George Lucas" you certainly hear from many disgruntled fans, but at the same time you feel their love for Star Wars. You can see how they are frustrated, but at the same time respect the man who shaped their childhoods. It is an entertaining and well put together film featuring hilarious Star Wars fan film clips and energy-charged interview clips. It is a ball of hatred and sweet at the same time. By the end you remember why you love Star Wars, even if there are things that bother you about them... you still love them and you have to give Mr. Lucas respect for creating it all.

I just watched PvGL, a film that I had been eagerly anticipating for the last several months. I'm a huge Star Wars fan, and like most fans, feel a deep loathing towards the prequels and the changes that Lucas has made to the original trilogy. Now, if you're reading this, chances are you already know the basic premise of this film (detailing the complex and dysfunctional relationship between Lucas and his fans), so I'm not going to reiterate the various intricacies, emotions, and reasoning that go along with that story. Sufficed to say, if you're a fan, you know what I mean. And to that end, the film does a decent enough job painting a picture of who the Star Wars fans are and what the film has meant to western culture as a whole. There are some good insights from a wide range of people, from hardcore Star Wars nerds to film critics to other producers and directors. Most of what they say is easily relatable, as Star Wars really has become a cultural touchstone that almost everyone has some kind of feelings towards. It is cathartic to hear so many other people verbalize the frustrations almost every fan has surely felt towards Lucas, the prequels and the special editions. With that having been said, there are a few flaws. The first being that the film is a bit too long. They could have easily cut about ten minutes out of the first act of the movie, which consisted almost entirely of fan parody and tribute films of varying quality. Yes, Star Wars inspires epic creativity on the part of it's fans, but that is a relatively easy point to make and didn't require quite so much screen time time to illustrate. The other flaw is the end of the film, which completely goes soft on Lucas and abdicates its responsibility to take a firm position on the subject matter that was detailed in the entire rest of the film. After watching a whole documentary which carefully explained all the ways Lucas was ruining his work, thumbing his nose at film history as a cultural artifact (in direct opposition to positions he himself took years earlier) and acting in deliberate contempt of his fans, the conclusion it reached amounted to little more than a shrug and a soft-pedaled declaration of loyalty to Lucas anyway. Disappointing. Any catharsis I felt very quickly melted away and once again turned to frustration. Why did the director feel the need to ultimately kiss up to Lucas? Wasn't that the fatal flaw which led to the prequels in the first place? That nobody challenged him? Let me be clear; I was not looking for a hit-piece here either; two hours of Lucas-bashing wouldn't have made for an interesting or informative film (which PvGL certainly is), but the entire premise of this documentary would have been far more credible had the last few minutes not completely undermined everything that was asserted throughout the entire rest of it.I would still recommend it to fans as there are very interesting points to be heard in this film, but for true geek catharsis (and brilliantly insightful critique), you still can't beat the Red Letter Media long-form reviews of the prequels. People vs. George Lucas is entertaining to be sure, but it still doesn't come close to those reviews.