George Lucas turns 80: A director in the eternal Star Wars

When the name George Lucas (80) is heard, everyone immediately thinks of two words that have made film history: “Star Wars”. When the name “Star Wars” is heard again, a gigantic film, series and merchandise empire immediately appears in one’s mind’s eye – with Lucas as its omnipotent emperor in a checkered shirt. Even the fact that he handed over all of the “Star Wars” film rights to Lucasfilm in 2012 to Disney doesn’t seem to have changed this perception. Lucas, who celebrates his 80th birthday on May 14th, had extensive support with the original trilogy – and received some of the greatest criticism when he supposedly single-handedly brought “Star Wars” back to the cinema years later.

The inspiration of a wannabe racer

If a fateful and incredibly traumatic experience had not occurred in George Lucas’s life on June 12, 1962, who knows… perhaps the Star Wars would never have broken out. The then 18-year-old dreamed of a career as a racing driver and was passionate about working on cars himself. On that day, Lucas’s plan for the future suddenly changed: During a risky overtaking maneuver by a classmate, his car collided with Lucas’s.

In the violent accident, Lucas was thrown from his car, he suffered several broken bones and was even briefly in a coma – and: “You can pretty much imagine a future in racing and know that it will ultimately cost you your life. Somehow I became “It’s clear that maybe this isn’t the right thing for me after all.” However, he didn’t have to take long to introspect when searching for his true calling.

Film fan with a love of the stars

Around three years after the accident, Lucas found his calling. His first student short film, “Look at Life,” was released in 1965, and his professors noticed Lucas’s visually ambitious ingenuity early on. The filmmaker was finally able to live out one of his other great passions in his first feature film: “THX 1138” with Robert Duvall (93) in the leading role.

In addition to English and history, Lucas also studied astronomy and, as a huge science fiction fan, dreamed of the stars practically his entire life. Consequently, his directorial debut, released in 1971, was a (dystopian) sci-fi film that dealt with the philosophical question of free will.

His manageable directing work

What many film fans may not be aware of is that as busy as George Lucas was and still is in the dream factory, he hardly made his way into Hollywood history books as a director. In total, he only directed six films and only two of them outside the “Star Wars” universe. In addition to “THX 1138” – after which the quality seal for sound standards in cinemas created by Lucas was named – there is also “American Graffiti”. In many ways, the film, released in 1973, represents a milestone in the work of the “Star Wars” creator.

On the one hand, the coming-of-age film is his only film that is not in the sci-fi genre. On the other hand, he dealt with his car accident ten years earlier: In “American Graffiti”, a careless teenager ends up in a ditch with his car and is lucky to escape with his life. While the scene concluded with Lucas’s past, the actor who caused the cinema accident in question would have a significant impact on his future. Because the newcomer, who was already over 30 years old at the time, was a certain Harrison Ford (81).

The difference between art and business

The importance of “American Graffiti” to Lucas’ future journey cannot be overstated. Even back then he knew: “Making films is an art; selling films is a business.” His business sense was as impressive as his visual vision: Lucas had secured a share in the net proceeds of “American Graffiti” and became a multimillionaire at the age of less than 30.

He founded his production company Lucasfilm in 1971, and its value grew rapidly due to the “American Graffiti” coup. All of this ultimately led 20th Century Studios to become convinced that Lucas could implement an idea that on paper sounded almost unfilmable: a mixture of fairy tales and science fiction that uses unprecedented trick technology to depict an epoch-making battle between good and shows evil.

From insider tip to mega blockbuster

The worldwide success of the first “Star Wars” part, which was released in US cinemas in 1977 and in West Germany as “Star Wars” in 1978, was enormous. With around $275 million at the box office, the start of the trilogy became the most successful film in cinema history at the time and ushered in the blockbuster era with “Jaws,” which was released two years earlier. And because the resourceful businessman Lucas had previously secured extensive merchandise rights to “Star Wars,” his fortune grew into other spheres.

But success had its price: the personal union of sole screenwriter and director of “Star Wars” led Lucas to the brink of collapse. In the 1980 sequel “The Empire Strikes Back”, which is still considered by many fans to be the best part of the entire saga, he left the stage to others: it was directed by Irvin Kershner (1923-2010), and the script was written by Lawrence Kasdan (75) and Leigh Brackett (1915-1978). For him it was the first of his career, for her it was the last.

Lucas also largely left the conclusion of his “Star Wars” trilogy, which appeared in 1983, in other hands; Richard Marquand (1937-1987) sat in the director’s chair, Kasdan wrote the script together with Lucas and led the Star War to its interim conclusion.

A single cook spoils the broth?

The success and pop culture influence of the original “Star Wars” trilogy is well known. Almost any child given a picture of a cheeky, golden protocol droid could recite its serial number. And every adult was as happy as a little child when it was announced that Lucas wanted to publish a new “Star Wars” trilogy at the end of the 90s.

It’s hard to believe, but: The prequel trilogy “Episode I: The Phantom Menace” (1999), “Episode II – Attack of the Clones” (2002) and “Episode III – Revenge of the Sith” (2005) followed “War of the Stars” was Lucas’s first and to date last directorial work. With the exception of part two, in which Jonathan Hales (86) co-wrote the script, Lucas had taken sole creative control.

But the initial euphoria of many “Star Wars” fans was to disappear in less than 12 parsecs. “Episode I” turned out to be extremely infantile in their eyes, the power was demystified just like Anakin “Darth Vader” Skywalker and in general Lucas relied far too much on computer technology. Oscar nominations for “Best Director” and “Best Original Screenplay” for “Star Wars” turned into winning the Anti-Award Golden Raspberry for the script for “Episode II”. In short: the success continued to prove Lucas right. The fans only did half of it.

The extent to which this unusual headwind contributed to the decision to sell Lucasfilm to Disney for $4 billion in 2012 is not documented. Lucas himself had it: “In 2012 I turned 69. The question was whether I wanted to do this for the rest of my life. Do I want to go through it all again? Ultimately I decided I would rather raise my daughter and live for to enjoy for a while.”

The whip man with dog name

In fact, Lucas has been doing exactly that since 2012 – enjoying life largely away from the dream factory. However, he most recently appeared as an executive producer on “Indiana Jones and the Wheel of Destiny” in 2023. What sometimes threatens to get lost in all the “Star Wars” hoopla: Lucas had the original idea of ​​the whip-wielding cult archaeologist and co-wrote all the scripts for the first four “Indiana Jones” films, which Steven Spielberg (77) in turn captured on film . Even the anecdote about the first name of the hero played by Harrison Ford came from Lucas’s 80-year life – he had a dog named Indiana.

Speaking of which: May 14th isn’t just Lucas’s birthday. It also starts the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, where it receives particular attention. Lucas will be honored alongside Hollywood superstar Meryl Streep (74) with an honorary lifetime achievement award. At least for this, the filmmaker, who is considered to be shy, will have to return to the spotlight.