Beatnik in flannel.

Fans will know already, but Wired has a big cover package tied into the release of Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Steve Silberman meets a George Lucas yearning "to be the rebel filmmaker he aspired to become a long time ago."

So you're thinking, yes, yes, we've heard this before. But wait, wait:

"When I went to USC, I didn't know anything about movies," he told a Canadian film crew in 2002. "I watched television. I wasn't that interested in movies."

While this kind of talk suits Lucas' image as an ordinary billionaire in a flannel shirt who wanted to upgrade the old-fashioned cliff-hanger so generations of kids could learn to dream again, it obscures the crucial part of his life when he first glimpsed his own destiny. Understanding these early years not only casts light on Lucas' current yearning to make experimental films, it reveals the frustrations that drove a self-proclaimed Luddite to finance the creation of digital tools that forever changed the craft of moviemaking.

From that point on, the story gets very interesting. Turns out, 19-year-old George was sneaking off to City Lights to snatch up flyers with info on Canyon Cinema screenings, then down south to catch up on his Godard and Truffaut, but most of all: "The work of three Canadian directors in particular excited Lucas about the potential of experimenting with the tools of filmmaking." George Lucas, Norman McLaren fan? Claude Jutra? "The film that made the most profound impression on Lucas, however, was a short called 21-87 by a director named Arthur Lipsett, who made visual poetry out of film that others threw away.... 'When George saw 21-87, a lightbulb went off,' says Walter Murch..."

The site sports an online exclusive: Silberman's Q&A with Lucas: "I'll be remembered as a filmmaker. The technological problems that I solved will be forgotten by then, but hopefully some of the stories I told will still be relevant."

Then Jesse Scanlon previews the Letterman Digital Arts Center Lucas has built on what was once the Presidio army base at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge: "The joint facility will allow films and games, two principle sources of revenue for Lucas, to develop on the same track." Then, from Wired's main page, you can click on Michelle Devereaux's chart mapping the original Star Wars trilogy's influence on people, companies, technology... the navigation's a little clunky, frankly.

Fans will also already know that Kevin Smith has pronounced Sith "fucking awesome." Spoilers galore. Via filmtagebuch.

But should those not "genetically predisposed" to love Sith, as Smith claims he is, feel let down, Clive Thompson puts forward a suggestion in Slate: "Maybe Lucas should step aside and let the fans take over." He's not just being snarky. Star Wars: Revelations, he argues, is "just as good - and often quite better than - the cringe-inducing Star Wars movies of recent years." What's more, they're almost ridiculously feasible. Thompson explains.

Updates: So Time's got a cover package as well, but unless you're a subscriber, you can read no more than the first few paragraphs of Richard Corliss's story, two of Richard Schickel's Qs and two of Lucas's As. But John Cloud's recollection of a childhood spent praying he could go live with Han and Chewie is all there, plus Lina Lofaro's Harper's-like Star Wars index and Patrick Stack's list o' links.

In the New York Times, Henry Fountain: "If truth be told, sci-fi writers say, their work and Star Wars never had much in common." And Laura M Holson considers the post-Star Wars future of Lucasfilm.

Earlier: Kevin Smith, Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg talk - a lot - in Empire about the old and new trilogies; and much earlier, that is, circa 1999 in the Fray, a wonderful recollection of growing up with Star Wars from Adam Rakunas.

Posted by dwhudson at April 30, 2005 3:12 PM