The People Vs. George Lucas

Directed by Alexandre O. Philippe

Available now on DVD

Talking over Skype, documentary filmmaker Alexandre O. Philippe grins, “Did George Lucas rape my childhood? Is that what you mean to ask?”

Under discussion is the Swiss-born director’s doc The People vs. George Lucas. It explores the perhaps unparalleled relationship between the millions of Star Wars (and Indiana Jones) fans worldwide, and the man behind the multibillion-dollar grossing franchise(s) George Lucas.

No, Philippe answers, he doesn’t feel violated — unlike sibling musical duo Hot Waffles, who appear in Philippe’s film singing their song “George Lucas Raped Our Childhood.” Or Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who in a now legendary episode of their animated TV series South Park portrayed a both literal and metaphorical sexual assault on Indiana Jones… at the hands of Lucas and accomplice Steven Spielberg.

“The love/hate dynamic is totally unique in popular culture,” marvels Philippe, citing the widespread, hostile critical and Internet fanboy reaction to the Star Wars prequels — the first of which, Episode One: The Phantom Menace, was released in 1999. But Philippe feels Lucas has done far more than merely make a series of embarrassing followup films.

“I find it very problematic that George Lucas is trying to suppress the 1977 print of Star Wars,” the director says. “It’s very important to cultural history.”

It’s a point well made in Philippe’s film: the best existing version of the original theatrical release is a 1993 laser disc issue. And it’s not even in widescreen format. So why hasn’t Lucas, who theatrically re-released the first three films in 1997 with new and digitally enhanced special effects, made the original trilogy’s prints widely available?

“That’s an excellent question,” Philippe says. It’s especially pertinent to both fans and film lovers, who want to see a full preservation of the cinematic record. A clue, perhaps, are the “improved” 1997 re-releases — which some hated just as much as the later prequels.

“There’s not a thing improved about those ‘improvements,’” Philippe says. “The digital effects technology clashes especially with the first film’s look, feel and sensibility.” Nor, he continues, does the re-insertion of a scene featuring Han Solo and the villainous Jabba the Hutt add a thing.

And all that’s not even the worst of it, says the director. What’s particularly upsetting is that Lucas claims the original negatives were altered to create the special editions — and hence, he has no plans for further restorations or releases of the initial trilogy’s original theatrical versions.

“I have a hard time believing that,” Philippe says. “The technological explanation doesn’t make any sense. That’s really an insult to film history. That’s what I don’t appreciate.”

What all this really reveals, the filmmaker declares, is the real George Lucas. “He’s really a tragic figure,” Philippe sighs. “Control is a key theme in his life.” Prior to Star Wars, Lucas had his first two features, THX 1138 (1971) and American Graffiti (1973), taken out of his control and recut by Warner Bros. and Universal respectively. “The rest of his career, it seems, has been about retaking that control.”

Even, apparently, at the cost of being a widely reviled figure among a generation that previously celebrated him. And in that, there may be perhaps an even greater irony.

“The success of Star Wars, in a sense, took control away from him a second time,” he says. The People vs. George Lucas makes the point: his vision was one that affected the world — and that the world has claimed ownership of.