George Lucas, Hollywood, and the World

The room was full of Hollywood big shots but one guy I wanted to meet was George Lucas. I headed towards where he was standing, stopping to shake hands with Samuel L. Jackson on the way. Incidentally, these movie stars are remarkably thin and have a freakish fineness, compared to the rough and tough vibe of Mr. Jackson in “Pulp Fiction”. However his voice was 100% bad-ass. George – who, by the way, is remarkably short – had been honored with a lifetime achievement-style award, and they showed a video of his many projects. If you just think “Star Wars” when you think of him, you are missing the point. He has had a vast impact on technological advances in sound and special effects. Many films you think are by someone else, actually owe their amazing visuals to the man I shook hands with that night. Besides, he came up with Star Wars.
He’s been talking a lot recently about Hollywood, saying among other things that the blockbuster budget movies like “King Kong” are going extinct. But it was his comments found in the link below that are most interesting. He talks of the power of Hollywood in the world – the ability to bring the image of Americans to the world through film, and television. Of course, another George has been doing a lot to reshape that image – let’s hope not forever. I prefer the American image found in Luke Skywalker and Indiana Jones: Americans who are cool, tough, and….you know, the Good Guys. Americans who’d never get in a big fight for a bunch of reasons that all turned out to be wrong. Seriously, could you imagine Indiana Jones out hunting quail and accidentally shooting one of his friends? I don’t know if George Lucas is right about the spectacle movie genre, that he and Spielberg helped define starting in the ‘70s, but if there is another filmmaker like them coming up, what will the America’s image look like now? Is Dick Cheney one of the Good Guys?

BREITBART.COM - "Star Wars" film legend George Lucas wants more worldly Hollywood