[stilldreaming]

Discuss the underappreciated editor of the original trilogy, and one of the few people who had the guts to tell GL "No, that doesn't work." The OT worked as well as it did largely as a result of the extremely talented editing team, and it's undeniable that Marcia had a huge influence (for better or, in recent years, worse?) on her husband's work as a whole.

Here's an interesting article about her professional and personal life that confirms a lot of things I've suspected for years:

The Secret History of Star Wars

So George was the reason they couldn't have children... explains his strange attitude toward parenthood and familial ties that's pretty obvious from Empire on. First time I'd ever actually seen that in writing.

The author of the above article is obviously sympathetic toward Marcia... I feel sorry for her after reading it.

Oh, feel free to discuss anyone else on the editing team or anything related too!

(Mods, I can't seem to use the search function but there was no similar thread in the board guide, please close or merge this thread if it's redundant!)

[basenji]

Yeah, George needs someone to tell him no sometimes. If he doesn't have that, you get the prequels. As it was, the only annoying thing about ANH was George naming the main character after himself; many fans even have the fanon that Luke's full name is Lucas George Skywalker.

[FreedomsBullets]

Good thread idea. I'll read the article in its entirety after work today.

Maybe with her influence some of the mistakes of the PT wouldn't have happened.

So George was the reason they couldn't have children... explains his strange attitude toward parenthood and familial ties that's pretty obvious from Empire on. First time I'd ever actually seen that in writing.

I didn't know that she left him for another man. That must have been hard for him, and it's probably affected his attitude a lot as well.

From the bit I've read so far I found this really interesting:

In fact, the only Oscar the Lucases ever earned was hers, for editing Star Wars.

EDIT: I'm about halfway through now, and this article is really, really interesting. It is not painting GL in an attractive light at all.

[BehrItAll]

I am going to read that article in its entirety when it is not a late hour.

Thanks for starting the thread. I'll add the link to the board guide. We don't have a thread like this.

[BehrItAll]

double post

[FreedomsBullets]

Just finished. It was a bit long, but I really enjoyed that article. Thanks again for posting it. I'm trying not to judge GL too harshly, since a lot of the stories pertaining to him came from other people, but some of that stuff was bad. This paragraph, in particular:

It also led to some tension in the editing room. Cutting the picture together in the attic of their home, the long work hours and strenuous circumstances of its making sometimes brought out unpleasantries. "I like to become emotionally involved in a movie," she says. "I want to be scared, I want to cry, and I never cared for THX because it left me cold. When the studio didn't like the film, I wasn't surprised. But George just said to me, I was stupid and knew nothing. Because I was just a Valley Girl. He was the intellectual." [xxxv]

Why would you say that to someone you supposedly love? I know that he was probably hurting from the bad reaction to his film, but seriously?

I also liked this:

It is my opinion that Lucas chose to shape Anakin Skywalker's arc in the prequels in a similar manner because of his reflections on his own self-created loss.

We've made similar observations, but it makes even more sense given the information I have now.

[stilldreaming]

I keep meaning to coming back and adding more to my thoughts, and I will find a nice long stretch of time eventually, but for now just a few things.

I think it's amazing that she was self-taught... just goes to show, I suppose, that you can sit through as many classes as you want, but without a natural instinct for the flow of a story and the reaction of a human audience, book knowledge isn't much on its own.

I went to USC, and I wasn't a film major or a theater major but I took a couple of electives in the theater building, which is across the street from the Marica Lucas Post-Production building, so I walked past it every day... I always assumed that she was A) a USC graduate, and B) still active in either editing or education, since that building was there. I never really bothered to look up the details, but it's sad that she seems to have just disappeared.

I'm sure that GL was influenced by his personal experiences when he wrote A/P.... and it's pretty obvious that even if she cheated, he played a role in the end of his marriage too (sympathetic article aside, if it was a straight case of a cheating wife and an innocent husband, she wouldn't have been awarded all that money). I wonder if this ties in to the stupidity of Padme's death... if she'd died because of actual medical complications, that makes it Akakin's fault... if she just gives up on life because her heart is broken, that makes her a weak overemotional female...?

[FreedomsBullets]

I wonder if this ties in to the stupidity of Padme's death... if she'd died because of actual medical complications, that makes it Akakin's fault... if she just gives up on life because her heart is broken, that makes her a weak overemotional female...?

Knowing what I know now it's definitely a good question. I would hope that after all these years he's stopped being bitter, but you never know. Some people can hold on forever. It's sad really that he would be so petty.

[stilldreaming]

Who knows... I don't think that GL tries to put himself into his films (except maybe American Graffiti), and possibly even goes out of his way to try NOT to make them "mean" anything. But (and this is coming from a mediocre, unprolific fanfic writer so correct me if I'm wrong) if you want to write a love scene, you have to draw on the memories of the relationships you've had. If you want to write a scene about death or any other loss, you have to pull out the memories of real-life losses, maybe not in the details but at least from an EMOTIONAL perspective, I think any writer would be automatically, however subconsciously, influenced by their own related experience.

If you want to be more sympathetic to GL though, it could just as well be that as far as HE sees it, whether she dies of a broken heart or of Force-choke-related complications, it's at least partly Anakin's fault either way (even though he didn't consciously mean to kill her). Anakin was so deep in his own rage, so deep in the Dark Side that he wasn't thinking about how what he was doing would hurt Padme... and when it was all over and he was calm enough to look around and wonder what had happened to her, by then she was already gone, and it was his fault. Who knows? It might not be holding a grudge at all, but just regretting what happened.

Or I might just be reading too much into it?

[FreedomsBullets]

Apparently Lucas doesn't want emotional. I tried to find the paragraph in that article where he said that emotion was easy to do, but I'm having trouble locating it. If the article is to be taken seriously, he makes some snide remark about how anyone can do emotional, just kill a puppy. That offended me. Not everyone can do emotional, as GL proved with countless Padme/Anakin scenes that just made everyone cringe.

If you want to be more sympathetic to GL though, it could just as well be that as far as HE sees it, whether she dies of a broken heart or of Force-choke-related complications, it's at least partly Anakin's fault either way (even though he didn't consciously mean to kill her). Anakin was so deep in his own rage, so deep in the Dark Side that he wasn't thinking about how what he was doing would hurt Padme... and when it was all over and he was calm enough to look around and wonder what had happened to her, by then she was already gone, and it was his fault. Who knows? It might not be holding a grudge at all, but just regretting what happened. Or I might just be reading too much into it?

Interesting post. It's hard to say. Padme literally died of a broken heart. Maybe he was creating this perfect, love-obsessed woman that Marcia wasn't?

[BehrItAll]

Originally Posted by FreedomsBullets (View Post) Knowing what I know now it's definitely a good question. I would hope that after all these years he's stopped being bitter, but you never know. Some people can hold on forever. It's sad really that he would be so petty.

I totally think he wrote that death scene out of bitterness.

Anakin was so deep in his own rage, so deep in the Dark Side that he wasn't thinking about how what he was doing would hurt Padme... and when it was all over and he was calm enough to look around and wonder what had happened to her, by then she was already gone, and it was his fault.

That is what Vader believes but the audience knows differently.

[FreedomsBullets]

I totally think he wrote that death scene out of bitterness.

Which makes it even harder to accept for me. If he was a hopeless romantic the scene would be slightly more forgivable.

[BehrItAll]

Only slightly.

I prefer fanfic where she survives.

[FreedomsBullets]

Yea, that's why I said slightly.

I'm not so much bothered by her death... I just wish it had been handled differently. I would have preferred it if she survived, but the death would have been acceptable if Anakin had accidentally killed her.

[BehrItAll]

I was just agreeing.

I wonder how differently the PT would have been if Marcia was still with George and the editor.