George Lucas in the US armed forces
- Thread starter Thande
- Start date
Thande
Donor
Yes, but that's clearly untrue. All that existed were a handful of names later reused (such as Mace Windu) and some very broad themes.
Not that this is in any way relevant to the thread.
I always find this quote funny by Lucas:
"the movies are for children but they don't want to admit that."
That's why in Ep. 3 all the Jedi get murdered, Anakin ends up killing a bunch of kids (offscreen) and then after having all his limbs cut off, loses most of the skin around his face while on fire and left to die by his former master.
Poor kids. I don't even want to know what Saigon Lucas would come up with for them.
Maybe Anakin doesn't go to the dark-side, just goes home, gets a wheel chair and lives in a crappy appartment dealing with chronic pain and constantly berating people on his floor about the horrors of the Galactic Civil War.
"the movies are for children but they don't want to admit that."
That's why in Ep. 3 all the Jedi get murdered, Anakin ends up killing a bunch of kids (offscreen) and then after having all his limbs cut off, loses most of the skin around his face while on fire and left to die by his former master.
Poor kids. I don't even want to know what Saigon Lucas would come up with for them
. Maybe Anakin doesn't go to the dark-side, just goes home, gets a wheel chair and lives in a crappy appartment dealing with chronic pain and constantly berating people on his floor about the horrors of the Galactic Civil War.
I'm sure that Vietnam or no, Lucas will try to venture into scifi. He liked the old Republic serials, which is why he remade them in the form of Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Vietnam won't prevent them (well, things like them since butterflies may catch up) but it could well shape them.
"The prequels were only to sell merchandise but we don't want to admit that."
So no Jar-Jar Binks?
It has been noted that Jar Jar is heavily reminescent of the Asian stereotype with broken English and general clumsiness among other things. It's possible that Lucas may base the entire Gungan race off the Vietcong, given the Asian stereotype that Jar Jar has. Of course, the nature of the Gungans would depend on Lucas' experiences in Vietnam.
On second thought, maybe an AK-47-toting Jar Jar may not be such a good idea.
Hendryk
Banned
If one looks back at 1970s SF, it ran the gamut from sheer escapism to dark social commentary to utterly whacked-out drivel. In the decade that gave us "Zardoz", I shudder to think what an alternate George Lucas with war-induced neuroses might come up with. For all we know it would have been unwatchable drivel and would have killed his career before it had even begun. And then out of spite, he would have gone into the porn industry.
Er... Jar Jar is heavily reminiscent of racist African stereotypes.
Thande
Donor
Well, the Episode 2 romance subplot proved he can already write excuse-plot porn-style dialogue...
Know another Veteran that wrote Scifi and Fantasy?
Walter Miller (ie A Canticle for Liebowitz)
A lot of good Sci-Fi was written by Veterans
NothingNow
Banned
Yeah, Clarke was ex-RAF, Heinlein served in the Navy for a bit before getting a medical discharge, Aismov worked for the navy, and after WW2 got drafted and served for nine months in the Army.
Then again most of the SF writers in the fifites and sixties had served in WW2.
In the modern era you've got folks like John Ringo, who served in the 82nd Airborne and then the Florida Army National Guard, but they're not as common as they used to be.
Jar Jar is a large amount of racist stereotypes of Africans and (I think) Jamaicans.
The Trade Federation is supposed to be Asians.
I've heard Jar Jar's voice mostly came from the voice actor's real voice while doing him. I don't think he's racist so much as a stupid character who is the attempt at comedic balance (like C-3PO and R2-D2, except where they're whitty and the humor comes from a higher-brow group dynamic, Jar Jar's mentally handicapped and works on the principle of "stupid person fall down=funny"). So it's poor character rather than attempts at old black stereotypes.
Interestingly enough, the Trade Federation accent varies depending on the nation that dubs it. Ours is Taiwanese I think. Other nations have French accents and Russian and so forth
Hapsburg
Banned
I dare you to find a bigger example of irl grimdark than WW2. Vietnam was nowhere near as bleak, as terrible, as destructive. If people could make it out of WW2 alright and be well-adjusted afterwards, people can (and most have) come out of 'Nam the same way.
I read somewhere that Lucas wanted to be a race car driver - hence the speeding tickets that kept him out of the Air Force...
Also, back in the late 60s and early 70s Hollywood basically gave anyone with enough guts, guile and talent a chance to make a movie. The doors were suddenly open for a brief little while. The only requirement was that the director was young because back then the executives had absolutely no idea what the baby boomers wanted in their films, so hits like Bonnie and Clyde, the Godfather and American Graffiti were huge surprises to the studio execs - many of whom were themselves very old and out of touch (some things never change).
It was a massive untapped market that got tapped by other boomers like Lucas, Coppola, Spielberg, Scorsese, etc...
My point is that Lucas, no matter how weird his films would have been would have gotten a shot or two or three simply because of his youth and association with Francis Ford Coppola. Back before THX 1138 he was a sort of apprentice to Francis and he worked on The Rain People with him. Coppola made the Rain People and two other small films that made very little money before he was given the Godfather, and that happened mostly because of his Oscar for writing the screenplay for Patton. If the Godfather weren't a hit then Francis would never have directed another big budget film again. Coppola even toyed with the idea of writing the screenplay with Mario Puzo and giving it to Lucas to direct. Could you imagine that? I shudder to think...
Another thing - Lucas was never a people person. He often hired acting coaches to deal with the actors so making a character driven film like Graffiti was very difficult for the wallflower Lucas, so maybe a few tours in Vietnam would have brought him out of this shyness...
Personally, of all the great auteur directors of the 70s that the United States produced, Lucas is my least favorite. To me he is and was barely a director who never really wanted to be a classical director and who would much rather work with scale models and computer animations than with people. He is a born producer/special effects person not a director. He never even directed the best Star Wars film - the Empire Strikes Back. Star Wars was a good premise, a cute story, but in the end way too gimmicky for me and no where near dark enough.
Also, back in the late 60s and early 70s Hollywood basically gave anyone with enough guts, guile and talent a chance to make a movie. The doors were suddenly open for a brief little while. The only requirement was that the director was young because back then the executives had absolutely no idea what the baby boomers wanted in their films, so hits like Bonnie and Clyde, the Godfather and American Graffiti were huge surprises to the studio execs - many of whom were themselves very old and out of touch (some things never change).
It was a massive untapped market that got tapped by other boomers like Lucas, Coppola, Spielberg, Scorsese, etc...
My point is that Lucas, no matter how weird his films would have been would have gotten a shot or two or three simply because of his youth and association with Francis Ford Coppola. Back before THX 1138 he was a sort of apprentice to Francis and he worked on The Rain People with him. Coppola made the Rain People and two other small films that made very little money before he was given the Godfather, and that happened mostly because of his Oscar for writing the screenplay for Patton. If the Godfather weren't a hit then Francis would never have directed another big budget film again. Coppola even toyed with the idea of writing the screenplay with Mario Puzo and giving it to Lucas to direct. Could you imagine that? I shudder to think...
Another thing - Lucas was never a people person. He often hired acting coaches to deal with the actors so making a character driven film like Graffiti was very difficult for the wallflower Lucas, so maybe a few tours in Vietnam would have brought him out of this shyness...
Personally, of all the great auteur directors of the 70s that the United States produced, Lucas is my least favorite. To me he is and was barely a director who never really wanted to be a classical director and who would much rather work with scale models and computer animations than with people. He is a born producer/special effects person not a director. He never even directed the best Star Wars film - the Empire Strikes Back. Star Wars was a good premise, a cute story, but in the end way too gimmicky for me and no where near dark enough.
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Panzerfaust 150
Banned
I was thinking that, let's say he gets accepted into the USAF as a officer cadet in some ROTC program, does well, and gets selected for F-105s or F-4s. Not long after, he gets orders for Vietnam and is shot down after a few missions, then spends 5-6 years in the Hanoi Hilton. How would THAT have changed him. I suspect a lot.
Forever War was the first thing that came to my mind when I read the OP, actually. If we assume the "grizzled grunt" reaction stereotype then I could see this happening. Using THX-1138 as a model it might vere into trippy angst, or using SW as the model it might be overly FX driven. Either way what a good adaption of that story needs is character-driven psychological drama...which OTL was never Lucas' talent area. Unless the new ATL life experiences change this I hold little hope for the Lucas Forever War.
Maybe if he convinces Scorsese to do it, however...
Fighter Pilot Lucas (assuming no stint in the Hanoi Hilton...see above?) probably turns out a SW type series very similar to OTL, though perhaps with more contemporary dogfight scenes. Perhaps the non-Luke, non-Han pilots get more scenes.
Non-flying USAF officer Lucas...maybe some forced interpersonal skills depending on his job, but I'd assume veres OTL.