George Lucas to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award

KefabiMe writes "George Lucas is receiving the AFI Lifetime Achievement award. I will make no other comment."

Comments

I will.

[nblender]

Yawn. Who cares? A lifetime achievement award for making a bunch of low-quality plot-recipe movies and becoming stinking rich as a result; and we have to give him an award?

Re:I will.

[Penguinoflight]

That's just the sad thing of this award. If the film industry had realized the long ranging impact of the 3 originals, they probably would have handed Lucas the award in the 80s. By now recieving an award doesn't make any sense because of low quality prequals, etc... but how can you know something is a classic in less than 10 years?

Re:I will.

[mankey wanker]

Hey, I practically hate most of the guy's movies - but let's not forget what Lucas has done for special effects, cinema sound, etc. Somehow he was also partly responsible for the film "Mishima" which I think is quite brilliant. "American Graffiti" wasn't bad either.

But anyway, the next time the special effects appear to be seemless and the sound quality vibrates your theater seat - remember Lucas for caring about that stuff. He's certainly moved some things along which is more than most people do.

Re:I will.

[arose]

I take good movies in black and white with mono sound over bad movies with excelent visual and sound effects.

Re:I will.

[NanoGator]

"I take good movies in black and white with mono sound over bad movies with excelent visual and sound effects."

George gave moviemakers better tools. He can't make other moviemakers make better movies.

I thought

[jstrain]

that that award was for someone who continues to innovate and pursue new things, not someone who does something great and spends the next 20 years tinkering with minute details of said work.

Re:I thought

[Snaller]

that that award was for someone who continues to innovate and pursue new things, not someone who does something great and spends the next 20 years tinkering with minute details of said work.


He has - you just weren't paying attention. He has caused a shit load of inventions to take place behind the camera. Because of him a ton of people got the money they needed to invent new effects, better sound systems, etc etc.

Lucas was a visionary

[Goodl]

Despite the debacles that are the 'new' trilogy, no fan could watch the extras DVD that came with Star Wars and deny that it brought a lump to the throat to see how the film that defined space adventure for a generation was literally dragged kicking and screaming to the screen, all despite incredible odds, horrendous bad luck and dumbass studio execs through the sheer force of will and unshakable self belief that the story he was telling had to be told. Much as I really dont like how he conducts himself these days, no-one could say the man hasn't earned his place in history and in the hearts and minds of thirtysomethings globally. I can't hear the opening bars of the John Williams theme without getting chills down my spine and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Re:Lucas was a visionary

[Jugalator]

Good god, do you really have some sort of emotional bond with the original trilogy to such an extent that it affects you physically just being reminded of it? That's not insightful, that's sad.

This "emotional bond" you speak of is common among people who like a movie, or any art form for that sake, a lot. I feel sad for you if you've never found a good enough movie to experience it. I can listen to great pieces of music and it gives me chills, and I can watch movies that brings me to tears. A whole lot of us can. I hope you can feel some kind of emotions when watching movies, since it's great things to experience. :-)

I can't imagine how boring going to the cinemas would be if you couldn't create an emotional bond to some of the characters, for example by humor, anger, love, sadness, or something else.

Star Wars was a good bunch of movies. But they certainly aren't anyhing to spend more than a few seconds reminiscing about.

What can I say... That's just your opinion, and if you have a hard time accepting others, feeling the need to look down on others, you're just narrow-minded.

The man deserves it

[Dancin_Santa]

Having the dumb luck to stumble into the greatest movie franchise in history, Lucas has taken that little bit of luck and transformed it into his vision of a complete alternate universe. Had he been any other short-sighted director (Spielberg, I'm looking right at you and your last half of A.I.) the Star Wars trilogy would have simply ended with the dance of the Ewoks. However, Lucas was able to transform that complete story into a more complete story by going back and fixing and editing and putting in scenes that were originally not his vision in the first place. I hate to use the word visionary, but Lucas truly has a vision.

The problem is that most people cannot understand the mind of a visionary and it isn't until long after they fade into irrelevance that they truly become appreciated. So too it is with Lucas, I believe. Many people are so worried about their childhood memories that they cry wolf every time Lucas decides to change a scene. Nevermind the fact that the whole Star Wars universe makes more sense when the updated (Director's Cut, if you will) scenes are added to the films.

Lucas truly does deserve this award not only for what rich memories he brought to us when we were still kids, but also for the memories he gives kids of the future. When we look back in 20 years and reminisce about the Star Wars Nonology we will finally see why Greedo had to shoot first and why Jar Jar was crucial to the story of Anakin Skywalker.

Re:The man deserves it

[op51n]

When we look back in 20 years and reminisce about the Star Wars Nonology we will finally see why Greedo had to shoot first and why Jar Jar was crucial to the story of Anakin Skywalker.

I totally disagree. I have tried not to care about the changes he continues to make, as I have copies of the original release that will keep me happy, but I just can't fathom his decisions. Well... No, that's not quite true.

I took a look at the comparison of the three releases, and the apparently dodgy censorship (the red flashes in the prison scene) and Greedo's shooting first, only appear to be ways of making the film more kid friendly. As of course Jar Jar and the awful slapstick he added in the Mos Eisley approach and other inserts also go to show.
I just can't understand why he is doing this. It removes about thirteen layers from Han's character, making him fairly uninteresting for a start.

It's not that I'm worried about my childhood memories. Like I say, I have the originals, my memories are intact. The problem is, now anyone who hasn't seen the originals will see the new DVD release, and it's not the same movie. I can fully appreciate a director's wish to go back and fix special effects, and even insert some new scenes to expand the scale - like with Mos Eisley. But I'd do it seriously. Adding laughs into those bits is lame and wrong pacewise.

Basically, he's taken his movies, and turned them into a cleaner, more child-friendly franchise. I almost wouldn't be surprised if he does release the unaltered remastered editions to get the rest of the available cash, but that depends on if he's willing to allow such violence to be seen! I've lost pretty much all my respect for the guy, aside from, as someone mentioned, what he did for sound and effects in the industry.

Re:The man deserves it

[bob beta]

Nevermind the fact that the whole Star Wars universe makes more sense when the updated (Director's Cut, if you will) scenes are added to the films.

You see, there's the problem. Great stories, and good movies, don't have to 'make sense' in that way. There's a trick in drama called the 'aesthetic distance' where the audience is supposed to 'buy into' the fact that the performance is an approximation, and expand the spectacle themselves, internally in their own mind.

Loose ends, paradoxes, etc. are supposed to be overwhelmed and become irrelevant because the dramatic effect smooths it all over.

Instead, in Lucas, and in filmmakers like him (sadly a dominant force these days in filmmaking) everything has to be 'real' or as 'real-seeming' as can be made possible.

It's like the difference between a fabulous Doctor Who episode, with cheese props but a wonderfully crafted story and brilliant acting, and the massively engineered psuedo-reality of the modern flicks. One works well within limits and succeeds in going beyond said limits. The other is just 'as good as it could be in the era it was produced' and people ten years later will obsess over the then-obsolete rough edges.

For a technician like Lucas, the second production makes him a ton of money. It also sells a lot more home theatre hardware and drives a need to continually upgrade the playback hardware in the theatres. I guess that stuff is important to some people.

Re:The man deserves it

[WaterBreath]

I've got to wholeheartedly agree with the general sense of this article, that Lucas does deserve this award. I think people are overlooking some things when they consider this.

First of all, Lucas has made more than 5 movies. Second, Lucas has made more than 5 blockbuster movies. (He had to be doing something right.) Third, not only has he made blockbuster movies, but he's made meaningful movies, such as American Grafitti and THX-1138.

Regarding people's newfound hate of Lucas for his remastering/editing of the Star Wars Trilogy... I'll admit that I'm young enough that I saw the first three movies on VHS when I was very young. When the remastered versions came out I didn't remember the originals very well. It was like seeing them for the first time. And from that viewpoint I can tell you that the remakes are still good movies. I also think the prequels are good. As good as the originals. The problem is that the overall quality of movies in general has improved so much. There are many movies that flop today, but would have been blockbusters in the 1970s. The prequels are just not as far above the average today as the originals were when they came out.

Lucas essentially created the film epic. It may have been tried before, but Lucas was the first to do it successfully in both the eyes of his peers and the eyes of the public. And I'll go so far as to say that he has had no rival. The Matrix started out great, but most of the people that went to the third one did it only out of half-hearted hope and a desire for some sort of closure. The LOTR trilogy is awesome, but it's an adaptation, not an original work like Star Wars. (And don't talk about theft of concepts, because Tolkein was just as "bad", stealing from all sorts of mythologies.)

Lucas deserves this award, if solely for what he did with the original Star Wars movies. Even if you can't get over his recent changes, that doesn't changes how he affected the movie industry.

Re:The man deserves it

[ScrewMaster]

No, don't give Lucas a free pass on this one. Keep the pressure on.

The fact remains that it is perfectly possible to create a character that everyone is supposed to hate (say, Governor Tarkin, Darth Vader, Boba Fett, Jabba the Hutt, The Emperor himself, and of course all the lesser Empire underlings who were killed along the way) but Jar Jar was simply stupid, and Lucasfilms' mastery of digital effects didn't extend to making him a believable alien. Maybe they could now, renderfarms are bigger nowadays, but he just looked like a cartoon character stuck in the middle of an otherwise spectacular collection of special effects. I'm sorry, but I look at Jar Jar as a transparent effort to create more action-figure sales rather than a serious effort to develop a character that would advance the plot of the movie. You're supposed to hate a bad character for what he does. I hate Jar Jar because of what he is. If Lucas had had a clue as to how many die-hard Star Wars fans (like me) he would alienate with that bit of cinematic crap known as Jar Jar he might have rethought the whole thing. And that includes Jar Jar's entire clan: "Shield be going up!" and all that. Viewers were legitimately disappointed in Lucas for that.

Re:The man deserves it

[fucksl4shd0t]

Look, I don't really like Jar-Jar either, but there's a little more going on in the Phantom Menace than the introduction of Anakin Skywalker.

First and foremost, the story in the Phantom Menace is about Naboo, the Queen, and some cultural changes that need to take place for them to keep their independence. Sure, we watch the movie and know that it's only a small episode in the grand scheme of things, and that what's really important in this movie is the introduction of Darth Vader, the beginning of his relationship with Obi-Wan, and the return of the Sith to the Republic.

Hate Jar-Jar all you want, but hate the game, not the player. Jar-Jar's purpose in the flick was to bring the Naboo and the Gungans together to beat a mutual enemy, and the cultural changes that happen on Naboo as a result are fundamental and important.

I actually like the Phantom Menace, but in order to watch it I have to hypnotize myself into thinking I'm 8 years old. But other than that, I find it's a decent flick. But a "flick" is exactly what it is. How good or bad either of the first two episodes are will be determined by the third episode.

Re:past winners

[TheKidWho]

Stanley Kubrick should be on that list

Re:It's a tremendous achievement

[koh]

Okay, okay, so why isn't it called the "shitload of money achievement" ? Would be more to the point, don't you think ? :)

Yeah, Lucas is a hack...

[Perdition]

but what have YOU done?

Maybe "lifetime" is the wrong word...

[Daniel Ellard]

I liked THX1138 a lot. American Graffiti was great. Star Wars 4-6: when they came out, people were amazed. The Indiana Jones still looks good (well, except for maybe the last one).

That's quite a successful run. Maybe not a "lifetime" of achievement, but a bunch of great and/or insanely popular movies in a short period of time.

It's unfortunate that the recent stuff sucks, but he's still got a pretty amazing record.

Short sighted posters

[damieng]

As always a story brings out the most short sighted posters, upset over the treatment of Star Wars.

Lets not forget that the award is not for Star Wars but for his achievements to the industry.

Lucas helped found ILM which helped get special effects to the what they are today. Skywalker Sound has contributed to hundreds of films. THX certification got cinemas, film and DVD production quality up.

And personally, I loved Howard the Duck...

He's done more for the business of movies

[hargettp]

Yet perhaps not so much for the art of movies. Alas, because I enjoyed the original trilogy so much in my childhood.

He created one of the greatest (and first, I believe) movie merchandizing businesses in history. I would question whether there would be so many "Power Ranger Toys" or "Barney" tie-ins if the Star Wars franchise hadn't done been so successful.

He has continually expanded the frontier of digital effects in film-making, and although in recent years his studio's work has been eclipsed by other films (e.g., The Matrix, Shrek, Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, etc.), I do believe that nevertheless he deserves credit for the push towards effective uses of digital imagery in cinema.

He has enhanced the audio experience in most large cinemas in operation today (at least in the US). I can't say how many times I've seen "THX-1138" digital surround sound by Dolby--that sound system was developed in conjunction with Lucas' team.

He was first to expand the idea of film sequels (and series) in modern cinema. Would we have had Die Hard, Die Harder were it not for Lucas? Would we have The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions were it not for Lucas? What about Star Trek the Movie I-IV? Back to the Future I-II? If the original trilogy had not been so popular with audiences, would subsequent sequels & series concepts have been developed other major film studios?

There may be other such achievements as well, but with the above I think there is a strong case that Lucas reshaped how the business of movies does it's business.

Re:He's done more for the business of movies

[rdean400]

although in recent years his studio's work has been eclipsed by other films (e.g., The Matrix, Shrek, Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow).

I would dispute that.

Pixar really plays to different market segments than Lucas's films, so they haven't really eclipsed Lucas's work. (And to be fair, Pixar itself started out as a division of Lucasfilm, Ltd. It was purchased by Steve Jobs for $10mil in 1986 and rechristened "Pixar".). No Pixar = no Toy Story, and no Toy Story means we probably wouldn't have seen a good wholly computer animated picture yet.

ILM was the special effects studio for Sky Captain and the World fo Tomorrow, so Lucas's company was part of that one.

That leaves the Matrix. Although bullet time generated more buzz than massively digitally created armies of Phantom Menace, it's about equivalent on the revolutionary scale. Matrix got perceived as better by having a more well-executed story.

The fact is engraved into Pixar's HQ: "No amount of technology can turn a bad story into a good one" (Although TPM and AOTC were good stories, poorly told).

We'll Ignore...

[a_peckover]

...the parts where he revolutionised film making (THX, Skywalker Sound, ILM, non-linear editing) and where he became the most successful independent film-maker of all time.

I absolutely agree.

[MtViewGuy]

I mean think about it:

1. Industrial Light and Magic essentially pioneered the modern age of cinematic special effects. They took "traditional" special effects to new levels of excellence and helped pioneer CGI effects for movies.

2. Pixar pioneered much of what computer animation can do, and under subsequent leadership of Steve Jobs the company has produced several blockbuster hit movies.

3. Lucas Sound helped develop the THX certification for high quality movie presentation in the theaters, and it has extended that certification to DVD mastering, too. A THX-certified DVD tends to have high-quality picture and sound on average.

the subtitle

[Anonymous Coward]

Lifetime achievement for most money made while ignoring the fans who keep forking over more money no matter how much he insults them.

Sounds like an achievement to me.

Re:Well deserved

[(SM) Spacemonkey]

There is a significant part of the film community that doesn't see a causal link between technical and artist achievement. Many actually see the relative surge in the use of SFX as determintal to cinema. After all blue screen, CGI and digital worlds are just tools. Tools that can be used to create a masterpiece (Citizen Kane has a similar amount of effect shots as Star Wars, yet you wouldn't know) or create a Michael Bay film. I would also like you to consider a timeline of special effects, in many cases Lucas wasn't the conceiver, but the populariser.

I respect and appreciate the technical strides that Lucas took. Hell, I am enough of a geek to be here. However the AFI doesn't give technical awards, but artist awards. Cultural impact aside, I firmly believe Lucas isn't worthy of such an award.

Just an opinion of a film nerd. I am the guy who writes essays on the link between R2D2 and characters in Akira Kurosawa films. Disagree if you must, and many will.

I felt a great disturbance in the force...

[TheOnlyJuztyn]

... as if millions of _real_, skilled directors cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced...

Lifetime achievement

[Anonymous Coward]

I think this achievement is more about its wallet than about its talent. The juges are Unitedstaters.