{"id":2790,"date":"2005-05-27T19:36:00","date_gmt":"2005-05-27T19:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/05\/why-i-do-not-consider-the-star-wars-prequels-canonical\/"},"modified":"2005-05-27T19:36:00","modified_gmt":"2005-05-27T19:36:00","slug":"why-i-do-not-consider-the-star-wars-prequels-canonical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/05\/why-i-do-not-consider-the-star-wars-prequels-canonical.html","title":{"rendered":"Why I do not consider the Star Wars prequels canonical"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The other day I happened to rediscover this interview<\/a> from three years ago with Gary Kurtz, who produced Star Wars<\/a><\/i> and The Empire Strikes Back<\/i>. Among the interesting tidbits:<\/span><\/p>\n

IGNFF: From your personal experience, how would you compare the George you worked with on American Graffiti<\/i> to the George you worked with towards the end of The Empire Strikes Back<\/i>?<\/b><\/p>\n

KURTZ: It was quite different, actually. He was very different. I think the most unfortunate thing that happened was the fact that Indiana Jones came along, and Raiders of the Lost Ark<\/a><\/i> had come out in between. George and I had many, many discussions about that, but it boiled down to the fact that he became convinced that all the audience was interested in was the roller-coaster ride, and so the story and the script didn\u2019t matter anymore.<\/p>\n

Now Raiders<\/i> is not a bad film, but the script actually was much better than the finished film. There were a lot more nuances in the character, and there was less action. It would\u2019ve been a better picture if that script had been made. But, as it is, it\u2019s an interesting and entertaining film \u2014 it\u2019s just that this idea that somehow the energy doesn\u2019t have to be put into getting really good story elements together. One of the arguments that I had with George about Empire<\/i> was the fact that he felt in the end, he said, we could have made just as much money if the film hadn\u2019t been quite so good, and you hadn\u2019t spent so much time. And I said, \u201cBut it was worth it!\u201d<\/p>\n

[ snip ]<\/p>\n

IGNFF: Well what were the original outlines for the prequels? Since they can be compared and contrasted now that the first one\u2019s out there, and the second one\u2019s soon to be out there. Were there major differences from what you saw, from the original outlines of prequel ideas?<\/b><\/p>\n

KURTZ: Well a lot of the prequel ideas were very, very vague. It\u2019s really difficult to say. I can\u2019t remember much about that at all, except dealing with the Clone Wars and the formation of the Jedi Knights in the first place \u2014 that was supposed to be one of the keys of Episode I<\/i>, was going to be how the Jedi Knights came to be. But all of those notes were abandoned completely. One of the reasons Jedi<\/i> came out the way it did was because the story outline of how Jedi<\/i> was going to be seemed to get tossed out, and one of the reasons I was really unhappy was the fact that all of the carefully constructed story structure of characters and things that we did in Empire<\/i> was going to carry over into Jedi<\/i>. The resolution of that film was going to be quite bittersweet, with Han Solo being killed, and the princess having to take over as queen of what remained of her people, leaving everybody else. In effect, Luke was left on his own. None of that happened, of course.<\/p>\n

IGNFF: So it would have been less of a fairy-tale ending?<\/b><\/p>\n

KURTZ: Much, much less. It would have been quite sad, and poignant and upbeat at the same time, because they would have won a battle. But the idea of another attack on another Death Star wasn\u2019t there at all \u2026 it was a rehash of Star Wars<\/i>, with better visual effects. And there were no Ewoks \u2026 it was just entirely different. It was much more adult and straightforward, the story. This idea that the roller-coaster ride was all the audience was interested in, and the story doesn\u2019t have to be very adult or interesting, seemed to come up because of what happened with Raiders of the Lost Ark<\/i> and the Indiana Jones films \u2014 and the fact that that seemed to make a lot of money and it didn\u2019t matter whether there was a really good story or not \u2014 that wasn\u2019t what this kind of film was about. We had serious differences about a lot of that.<\/p>\n

IGNFF: Well it\u2019s ironic to me \u2026 I was talking to somebody who has a lot of good friends at ILM, especially in the conceptual department, and he said that George has basically a new catch phrase in the development process. His new catch phrase is \u201cIt\u2019s good enough,\u201d and they say he uses it all the time now. When you\u2019re talking about that idea of only going to a certain depth because the audience only wants the quick and easy impact, and then move along\u2026. That somehow the audience isn\u2019t observant, so why should we be overly detailed\u2026 it\u2019s just fascinating to compare that with the observations you made.<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

FWIW, I am on record as saying that the Empire<\/i> \/ Raiders<\/i> duo of 1980-1981 represent Lucas\u2019s peak as a filmmaker, but I am also on record as saying that the Indiana Jones sequels<\/a>, produced in 1984 and 1989, were cartoonish disappointments. And of course, Lucas\u2019s decline really began with Return of the Jedi<\/i> in 1983, but nobody realized it at the time. For me, it wasn\u2019t until I saw the \u201cspecial editions\u201d in 1997 that I realized just how different the films were; I went back and saw Episode IV again a couple times for the pure nostalgia value, and I went back and saw Episode V<\/a> again because it was a beautifully realized bit of world creation, but after seeing Episode VI, I had no urge to see it again whatsoever.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anyway, after skimming that interview, I flipped through the last pages of Alan Arnold\u2019s Once Upon a Galaxy: A Journal of the Making of The Empire Strikes Back<\/a><\/i>. This book is as \u201cofficial\u201d as they come: it was copyrighted by Lucasfilm Ltd. and published by Del Rey in August or September 1980, and on pp. 247-248, there is this interesting tidbit from a transcript of an interview between Arnold and Lucas conducted on October 29, 1979:<\/p>\n

AA: Tell me more about the overall concept of the Star Wars<\/i> saga.<\/p>\n

GL: There are essentially nine films in a series of three trilogies. The first trilogy is about the young Ben Kenobi and the early life of Luke\u2019s father when Luke was a little boy<\/b>. This trilogy takes place some twenty years before the second trilogy which includes Star Wars<\/i> and Empire<\/i>. About a year or two passes between each story of the trilogy and about twenty years pass between the trilogies. The entire saga spans about fifty-five years.<\/p>\n

AA: How much is written?<\/p>\n

GL: I have story treatments on all nine. I also have voluminous notes, histories, and other material I\u2019ve developed for various purposes. Some of it will be used, some not. Originally, when I wrote Star Wars<\/i>, it developed into an epic on the scale of War and Peace<\/i>, so big I couldn\u2019t possibly make it into a movie. So I cut it in half, but it was still too big, so I cut each half into three parts. I then had material for six movies. After the success of Star Wars<\/i> I added another trilogy but stopped there, primarily because reality took over. After all, it takes three years to prepare and make a Star Wars<\/i> picture. How many years are left? So I\u2019m still left with three trilogies of nine films. At two hours each, that\u2019s about eighteen hours of film!<\/p>\n

AA: What will the next chapter be?<\/p>\n

GL: The next chapter is called \u201cRevenge of the Jedi.\u201d It\u2019s the end of this particular trilogy, the conclusion of the conflict begun in Star Wars between Luke and Darth Vader. It resolves that situation once and for all. I won\u2019t say who survives and who doesn\u2019t, but if we are ever able to link together all three you\u2019d find the story progresses in a very logical fashion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This 26-year-old interview would seem to corroborate Lucas\u2019s claim that the series was originally meant to be a six-part story, though I don\u2019t know whether it would corroborate his assertion or insinuation at Cannes this month that it was the media who started the rumour that he was going to make nine movies in total.<\/span><\/p>\n

But his claim that the prequels would take place while<\/i> Luke was a boy<\/i> \u2014 and in contact with his father Anakin, it seems \u2014 sure scotches any claim to the effect that the current prequels represent the story that Lucas had in mind back then!<\/p>\n

So, just as my friend Betty<\/a> refuses to recognize Voyager<\/i> and Enterprise<\/i> as canonical Star Trek<\/i> series, I refuse to recognize the prequels as canonical Star Wars<\/i> movies, and I refuse to recognize them no matter how<\/i> many prequel elements Lucas shoehorns into current and future \u201cspecial editions\u201d of the original trilogy.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The other day I happened to rediscover this interview from three years ago with Gary Kurtz, who produced Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. Among the interesting tidbits: IGNFF: From your personal experience, how would you compare the George you worked with on American Graffiti to the George you worked with towards the end […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy I do not consider the Star Wars prequels canonical<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The other day I happened to rediscover this interview from three years ago with Gary Kurtz, who produced Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. 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