Review of The People vs. George Lucas (2010) by Kate H — 16 Jun 2012

I feel like I now need to write a treatise on my relationship with the Star Wars universe, which films are canon to me and which TV series or whatever I am choosing to ignore. That is not being written here. This film though just brings out every single beef me, or any other Star Wars fan, has with George Lucas and the Special Editions of the films. Our big question here is who actually owns Star Wars? Copyright speaking it's George Lucas but if you take into account the cultural significance, the fact that Lucas encourages fanworks and other participation and did so for the eighteen odd years before Episode I was released. Does he owe the fans anything? Do we the fans have some sort contractual obligation to buy everything that's put out that says Star Wars on it.

Neil Gaiman says in this film that he has no issue with fans reworking his stuff but that fans have no right to knock on his door and demand that he take out characters from his books because they don't like them. That would be how I would think how I align myself here. I may hate Jar Jar Binks with the fire of a thousand suns, a part of my soul may die everytime I flip past Episode II when it's on TV, but that's just how is for me. Star Wars is the Original Trilogy for me. That's just how it is.

It's cathartic and almost like therapy hearing people like me talk about Star Wars, as well as the angry fans who are only that angry because they feel the need to prove their are more harddcore by being that hating. At the end of the day, as they do say in the film, this is how it is going to be and he did give us the Original Trilogy. If get riled up every time I see Greedo shoot first, cringe when I hear Temuera Morrison's voice coming from Boba Fett's helmet, and die when I see Hayden Christensen at the end of Episode VI but it is what it is. It doesn't make me hate these three films that have been a part of my life.

Seems you're getting my treatise anyway. Sorry. Anyway it's a good cathartic experience because it's still amazing and fandom is in the end very forgiving. Also I can't erase the fact that when I was 11 years old I hated Jar Jar and Anakin but still loved the movie.

It feels longer than it is thanks to all the jumping around from different interview clips but it's an interesting issue and, yeah, it's a bit of therapy.