The Genius of George Lucas: A Brief Biography (Part 1)

As I mentioned last week, I’m endeavoring to write a dissertation on the pros and cons of Lucas’s two main franchises: Star Wars and Indiana Jones. (Ok, so it’s not a real dissertation, and it won’t be daunting because I’ll be breaking it up for you, but still. It will be quite a series.)

These fantastic series have been part of my life from my earliest days, and they’ve definitely helped shape who I’ve become. But that doesn’t mean I agree with all of George Lucas’s choices, especially with some the later films. But I thought it would be fun to start a dialogue about his works, and the best way to assess what he’s done is to see where he came from. Join me, won’t you, for this two-part biography of George Lucas!

The Early Years

As with many auspicious characters, George Lucas began pretty inauspiciously. He was born in 1944 in a small town called Modesto, California. He enjoyed reading comic books, watching old TV shows like Flash Gordon, slacking off in school, and driving cars for fun. Cruising the town was a staple activity of his era, but it affected Lucas more than you would have expected. During his high school years he began racing cars, hoping to make driving his livelihood. That idea came to a screeching halt, quite literally, just a few days before his high school graduation.

On his way home, he was broadsided by another vehicle. His small, souped-up car flipped multiple times, and Lucas was thrown from the window. This little escapade did cost him several weeks of recovery in the hospital, but it nearly cost him his life. While he lay recovering, Lucas realized that he didn’t want a future in the racecar industry after all. He determined to go to college and study art instead, deciding to apply a little more effort than he had done in high school.

Schooling Lucas

After he recovered from the accident, he began attending the local junior college in Modesto. His serious-minded father didn’t want him to throw away his education on an art degree, though, so Lucas studied literature, philosophy, and anthropology. Around this time, he also became interested in photography and film. In fact, he enjoyed film so much that he decided to transfer to the University of Southern California and get a degree in film making. This was a good compromise to his dad since the degree would come from a real university, so that’s what Lucas did.

But he wasn’t interested in mainstream Hollywood films. No, Lucas was a visionary. He and several of his film school friends were inspired by the modern, abstract, non-narrative art films, and Lucas decided this was the direction in which he would steer his career. He put this plan into practice while still a university student, making several short films that won awards and set him apart as someone with potential. People started taking notice of his out-of-the-box style. He did what he liked, and it worked for him.

Did that start to go to his head and give him a sense of creative impunity? How dare you suggest such a thing.

A Swing and a Miss

By the time he graduated from USC with his masters in film production, he had several reasons to trust his artistic instincts: he enjoyed what he did, others enjoyed what he did, and they said he was a natural. Actually, one of his university film projects (a futuristic, dystopian little number called Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB) won first place at the National Student Film Festival. This gave him the chance to choose any Warner Brothers director to work under for one movie. Lucas chose Francis Ford Coppola, the man who would later be known for The Godfather movies.

Solid choice, George.

Coppola saw Lucas’s potential and chose to co-found an independent film studio with him. They hoped that the studio, American Zoetrope, would give free-spirited directors a place to make movies that didn’t fit the Hollywood mold. Lucas did just that by expanding his university film into his first full movie, shortening the title to THX 1138. Warner Brothers chipped in and supported his endeavor, but the film was a bit of a flop. People didn’t enjoy it or understand it. Lucas lost his shorts on it, and Warner Brothers didn’t want to work with him anymore.

Some New Hope

With that financial and artistic bummer weighing him down, Lucas trudged on in hopes of finding a way to make another film, a completely different one. He set out on his own and founded Lucasfilm, Ltd., where he wrote and directed American Graffiti, a low-budget film that shocked everyone (including Lucas) by ranking as one of the decade’s most profitable films. The movie was a nostalgic piece reflecting on the good ol’ days of cruising the town in hot rods, just as Lucas had done as a teen. Compared with THX 1138, the movie was a smash hit. Lucas was probably disappointed in the general public’s taste in movies, but he seems to have learned his lesson: artistic films with minimal plot and characterization do well in art school; real people like stories with relatable characters and familiar stories.

He learned his lesson so well, in fact, that the plot of his next film was an exemplary display of Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces, a book that outlines the familiar hero quest storyline. I bet you can guess what film I’m talking about, but you may not know how it came about. Don’t worry—that’s why they pay me the big bucks.

To Be Continued

As I assessed how much material I still had to cover, I thought I’d do us both a favor and save the second half of the biography for next week. Talk about a cliff hanger! Sorry about that, for those of you who were really banking on learning all there is to know about Lucas this week. But, hey, it’s just one more reason to tune in again next week for our next installment of “The Genius of George Lucas.” See you then!

Check out the next post here!

Sources:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GXPixi6fq0
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jWtbJxzGpQ
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lucas_filmography
• https://www.biography.com/filmmaker/george-lucas
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Lucas
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lucas  
• http://www.forcematerial.com/home/2017/1/28/the-car-crash-that-changed-the-galaxy