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George Lucas Retires

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Fritzo said:
The thing with Spielberg is he figures out how to present ideas in ways that nobody thought of before. The problem is, he has trouble binding those ideas together into a good movie. Jurassic Park still holds up well, but at the time used CGI to make dinosaurs REAL looking. It was the first movie to do that, and we take it for granted today.

With ET, he was the first to make a movie about an alien that was the hero of the show. That "outcast as a hero" theme has been used in movies ever since.

In Jaws, he was the first to use the "don't show the monster directly until the end" technique. It's now a horror movie standard.

He's done a lot, but his ideas don't always work.
Click to expand...

Kid with single parent is a reoccurring Spielberg thing, too.

...even in War of the Worlds and Super 8.
 
Fritzo said:
The thing with Spielberg is he figures out how to present ideas in ways that nobody thought of before. The problem is, he has trouble binding those ideas together into a good movie. Jurassic Park still holds up well, but at the time used CGI to make dinosaurs REAL looking. It was the first movie to do that, and we take it for granted today.

With ET, he was the first to make a movie about an alien that was the hero of the show. That "outcast as a hero" theme has been used in movies ever since.

In Jaws, he was the first to use the "don't show the monster directly until the end" technique. It's now a horror movie standard.

He's done a lot, but his ideas don't always work.
Click to expand...

Even Spielberg was afraid for Jaws. His "don't show the monster directly until the end" was because he couldn't get the bloody thing to work, he was out of time and overbudget. The cost of running the shark out at sea cost was very high. He thought Jaws was going to be the end of his movie making career.

Sure, now we look at it and say "brilliant idea!" At the time, he was sweating bullets. A series of blunders that ultimately worked in his favor.
 
Lash444 said:
Even Spielberg was afraid for Jaws. His "don't show the monster directly until the end" was because he couldn't get the bloody thing to work, he was out of time and overbudget. The cost of running the shark out at sea cost was very high. He thought Jaws was going to be the end of his movie making career.

Sure, now we look at it and say "brilliant idea!" At the time, he was sweating bullets. A series of blunders that ultimately worked in his favor.
Click to expand...

That's how everyone feels when they do something new. That's were the phrase "necessity is the mother of invention" came from.
 
Lucas, Shelby, etc, just a list of has beens today only slapping their name on shit they had nothing to do with in an attempt to stay relevant.
 
irishScott said:
Uh... in high school we actually had to write papers on Star Wars, was used to teach the "epic hero" archetype. There's more there than you might think.
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uh, yeah. I had that textbook, too. Joseph Campbell, blah blah. 😀

Here's the thing: if overly cliche'd symbolism is the calling card for complex and deep movie-making, then feel free to consider Star Wars the epitome of crafting a story.

There's a reason that it is included in High School textbooks regarding myth-making--because it is blatant enough with symbolism yet thin enough in complexity to effectively introduce the most cursory elements of story craft to a young and inexprienced high school crowd.

Yes, it can actually seem brilliant to the high school mind, but that's about it. Star Wars does nothing new with traditional character archetypes that you will see in tons and tons of other films and stories. In fact, it is nothing more than an exercise in force-fed symbolism, and it dies right there. Empire improves this a bit by adding the complexity to Darth Vader's character and motivations.

Now, if you want to see more of the same archetypes, in much better films that explore the very same themes yet challenge those motivations by creating complexity within characters, and masking their actual roles, watch something like There Will be Blood or No Country for Old Men.
 
ShawnD1 said:
Start an online petition saying he should kill himself. How would you feel if someone sent you a link to a petition saying you should kill yourself and it had over a million signatures on it?
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Didn't they kind of do that with Uwe Bol?

...actually, he set it up himself, no?

:hmm:
 
How does a movie producer/director actually retire? I thought they just stopped making movies, not actually announce retirement. Do they have a company that pays them a retirement benefit or something?

I thought this kind of field was more along the artistic side, where you just make something until you are no longer inspired or physically able. To me it sounds strange to say "retired".
 
zinfamous said:
uh, yeah. I had that textbook, too. Joseph Campbell, blah blah. 😀

Here's the thing: if overly cliche'd symbolism is the calling card for complex and deep movie-making, then feel free to consider Star Wars the epitome of crafting a story.

There's a reason that it is included in High School textbooks regarding myth-making--because it is blatant enough with symbolism yet thin enough in complexity to effectively introduce the most cursory elements of story craft to a young and inexprienced high school crowd.

Yes, it can actually seem brilliant to the high school mind, but that's about it. Star Wars does nothing new with traditional character archetypes that you will see in tons and tons of other films and stories. In fact, it is nothing more than an exercise in force-fed symbolism, and it dies right there. Empire improves this a bit by adding the complexity to Darth Vader's character and motivations.

Now, if you want to see more of the same archetypes, in much better films that explore the very same themes yet challenge those motivations by creating complexity within characters, and masking their actual roles, watch something like There Will be Blood or No Country for Old Men.
Click to expand...

:thumbsup:
 
Triumph said:
Dude, Goonies is one of the greatest movies of the 80's, and I enjoyed 8mm. Not a great movie, but it was certainly enjoyable to watch.

If you want to respect Spielberg, watch his very first movie, a made for TV film called Duel. It's fantastic.
Click to expand...

8mm /= Super 8.

very different films!

D:
 
Fritzo said:
The thing with Spielberg is he figures out how to present ideas in ways that nobody thought of before. The problem is, he has trouble binding those ideas together into a good movie. Jurassic Park still holds up well, but at the time used CGI to make dinosaurs REAL looking. It was the first movie to do that, and we take it for granted today.

With ET, he was the first to make a movie about an alien that was the hero of the show. That "outcast as a hero" theme has been used in movies ever since.

In Jaws, he was the first to use the "don't show the monster directly until the end" technique. It's now a horror movie standard.

He's done a lot, but his ideas don't always work.
Click to expand...


I think you forgot about that guy called Hitchcock. He more or less perfected the technique that the best horror is achieved with the least direct exposure.

Jaws owes everything to Hitchcock, and it is a great horror flick.
 
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