Lucas: His Hollywood Legacy

by Richard Ravalli (editor)

George Lucas is an innovative and talented director, producer, and screenwriter whose prolific career spans decades. While he is best known as the creative mind behind the Star Wars franchise, Lucas first gained renown with his 1973 film American Graffiti, which received five Academy Award nominations, including Best Director and Best Picture.
When Star Wars (1977) was released, the groundbreaking motion picture won six Academy Awards, became the highest grossing film at the time, and started a cultural revolution that continues to inspire generations of fans. Three decades and countless successes later, Lucas announced semiretirement in 2012 and sold his highly successful production company, Lucasfilm, to Disney. His achievements have earned him the Academy's Irving G. Thalberg Award, the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award, induction into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame and the California Hall of Fame, and a National Medal of Arts presented by President Barack Obama.
His Hollywood Legacy is the first collection to bring a sustained scholarly perspective to the iconic filmmaker and his legacy beyond the Star Wars films. Edited by Richard Ravalli, this volume analyzes Lucas's overall contribution and importance to the film industry, diving deep into his use and development of modern special effects technologies, the history of his Skywalker Ranch production facilities, and more. With clearly written and enlightening critiques by experts consulting rare collections and archival materials, this book is an original and robust project that sets the standard for historical and cultural studies of Lucas.

336 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 14, 2024

Reviews

[A Cesspool · Rating 2 out of 5]

Comprised mostly of Dale Pollock's Skywalking and Lucasfilm’s annual, in-house, yearbooks (summation); the latter being the primary justification for publishing; Since the LF yearbooks are supposedly guarded like the JFK assassination archives/library, e.g. no public loaning, photocopying, and only pre-authorized general viewings.

Considering the author obviously necessitated Lucasfilm's cooperation, don't expect any revelatory, new specs. Attempts memorializing balanced record of LF, if only rotely;
Like when chronicling the handful of LF employees' indifference towards their employer (after corporate turnover throughout the executive suites). Otherwise it's mostly legacy press releases vs. user comments (srsly, randos via AV Club's kinja).

Author, Richard Ravalli doesn't waver when towing the company's official record deception; commemorating Jurassic Park's digital revolution, Ravalli regurgitates the same tired lie crediting Lucasfilm's premier luddite, Dennis Muren for EVERYTHING animator/engineer/extraordinaire Steve ‘Spaz’ Williams created out of whole cloth -- even Muren was eventually forced to acknowledge, if not for Williams contributions, Jurassic Park would have been a latex, animatronic, stop-motion project (as originally intended). Ravalli literally repeats those same anecdotal with Amblin executives around Williams' workstation, glimpsing his ground-breaking, game-changing rendered-wireframe movie files for the first time and being totally blown away, only swapping Muren in Williams' seat. It's disgusting, and only subsidizes one of ILM's biggest insults/greatest betrayal: best illustrated in the 2022 documentary, Jurassic Punk , when Muren accepted the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects (all thanks to Spaz Williams) and refused to even mention the creators name in his acceptance speech.
Srsly! If the author had really researched beyond Lucasfilm PR/Publicity, he'd know Dennis Muren was incapable of "rendering a wireframe skeleton" all on his own.

The author also covers the special editions, fandom and fan made content, in extended detail, yet, entirely omits Harmy's Despecialized Edition(s)?!?! How can you even point readers to originaltrilogy.com (offer a brief summation of its origins), and Not even mention definitive fan made content: Project 4k77?? He triflin

Do yourself a favor and pick up the recent A Disturbance in the Force instead -- that Lucasfilm monograph is loaded with new specs and revealing interviews. Whereas Ravalli bypasses the disaster Holiday Special completely (all in the name of keeping in Lucasfilm's good graces, and preserving an open line of cooperation between author and enterprise).
tags: Did Could-Not-Finish

[Chris (horizon_brave) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Less of a biography...more of a review of other people's biographies. This work is more like essay's, written about other accounts of Lucas' life. Like reviews and thoughts on interviews, and other people's work. It's okay, it swings wildly in tone. One section has this critical roasting of the female characters in Star Wars from a very feminist point of view...then another portion is a retrospective on the Prequel hate. It's all interesting..just know that it's more like a collection of essays about different topics that Lucas was part of.