Comment by Keyframe
2 years ago
OT, but that take on Lucas has to stop. Was he surrounded by many capable people that contributed to his works in great ways? Of course, that's what collaborative art of movie making is all about. Spielberg movies would probably suffer a lot without Kahn editing them, so would Scorsese's without Thelma Schoonmaker, etc.. Look at the other world-building things Lucas did to gain some perspective on him as an artist - from THX 1138 and Graffiti, over Star Wars OT to Indiana Jones, Willow, and ultimately the prequels - yes, the prequels; Compare their cultural presence and impact (even mentioning Jar Jar here) to what Disney Juggernaut with all of the talent and money couldn't bring to presence. Now, combine that with the gravity around him that brought in people that managed to pull technical wonders of digital video editing (AVID) and image manipulation (Photoshop), and many many other things (THX, Pixar, etc.) on top of all of the legendary businesses that spawned up from Lucas Film itself, to Lucas Arts, Skywalker Sound (THX), and ILM. That's not a coincidence, and not on his ex wife (alone) - that's a bunch of smart and hard-working talented people around guy that told them a story, people including Spielberg, and De Palma, and Coppola... Story which they all liked. Give the guy a break, number of successes around him, and not any of the mentioned individuals, is no coincidence. One Howard the Duck does not his legacy make.
I don't want to dunk on Lucas specifically here. I just want to underscore that this kind of "I did it all myself" mentality can infect anyone - even our most creative and talented human beings.
The technological achievements of ILM and Lucasfilm stand out to me here. Lucas himself is not an expert in any form of VFX whatsoever, but he left the storytelling to himself, and trusted in experts to execute on his vision at a certain point.
No one doubts that the prequels were technologically impressive (Jar Jar included) even if the storytelling was lacklustre, but here Lucas stepped back an enabled his team of experts to do what they did best.
When you're young and ambitious you may be more likely to ask for help, and folks may be more willing to give you help. When your in your 50s and a billionare, it just seems that as a society we make it culturally improper for men to ask for help. Sadly, this is also a demographic with a disproprotionately high suicide rate...