Rough Draft Of The Force: The Star Wars Reviewed

[Marshall Lemon]

Rough Draft Of The Force: The Star Wars Reviewed

The Star Wars is a fascinating premise with unique historical value and gorgeous art, but at the end of the day, it's just another Phantom Menace.

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[Basement Cat]

I think that I would find this interesting, but then I'm one of those guys who re-read all the appendices at the back of Return of the King before moving on to read and re-read the Silmarillion perhaps too many times for it to be healthy.

As for the differences between the original and the actual movies? Eh. As a writer I've often written whole stories then re-wrote different but far better ones based on the originals.

The Star Wars strikes me as a first draft, basically.

 

[Neverhoodian]

I've long held the assertion that George Lucas is at his best when he has other people around that aren't afraid to call him out on his crazier ideas:

"No George, 'Starkiller' is a stupid name. I don't care if those kindergarteners liked it."

"He PUNCHES her? Do I even want to know about your personal life?!"

By the time the prequels rolled around, Mr. Lucas had become so successful that there was hardly anyone left that was brave enough to try reining him in. Either that or he got lazy and started submitting early drafts as final copies.

 

[Seracen]

Glad to see this get the light of day. It truly proves, yet again, how a good editor can contribute as much to the story as the author...and what was sorely lacking in Lucas' subsequent films.

Still wish he'd gone with the extended universe canon for the Clone Wars. As for it not matching "his vision," well...he shouldn't have taken money from Bantam Publishers, who allowed some truly great authors to shape the universe in ways George never could...

 

[Gennadios]

Lucas didn't "refine" anything. At the time he was still a nobody who had to listen to experienced actors when they told him that he's an idiot that can't write dialog and ad-libbed their own lines. And then he ran across something called a "budget" so he had to tighten the scope of the movies to a few planets.

If budget and people not listening to him weren't an issue, I'm sure Star Wars would have hit theaters as written in the comic. Hell, the prequel trilogy was basically that.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Lucas didn't "refine" anything. At the time he was still a nobody who had to listen to experienced actors when they told him that he's an idiot that can't write dialog and ad-libbed their own lines. And then he ran across something called a "budget" so he had to tighten the scope of the movies to a few planets.

If budget and people not listening to him weren't an issue, I'm sure Star Wars would have hit theaters as written in the comic. Hell, the prequel trilogy was basically that.

Imagine if Lawrence Kasdan had written the prequels, and someone other than Lucas had directed them.