(Short student films) 1965-67: Look at Life; Freiheit; 1.42.08; Herbie (co-director); Anyone Lived in a Pretty How Town (co-scenarist/scriptwriter); 6.18.67 (documentary); The Emperor (documentary); THX 1138: 4EB. 1968: Filmmaker (documentary).
(Feature films): 1971: THX 1137 (co-scenarist/scriptwriter). 1973: American Graffiti (co-scenarist/scriptwriter). 1977: Star Wars (+executive producer). 1999: Star Wars: Episode I?The Phantom Menace (+executive producer). 2002: Star Wars: Episode II?Attack of the Cones (+executive producer). 2005: Star Wars: Episode III?Revenge of the Sith (+executive producer).
(As Executive Producer): 1979: More American Graffiti (Norton) (+story). 1980: The Empire Strikes Back (Kershner) (+story); Kagemusha (The Shadow Warrior) (Kurosawa) (international version). 1981: Raiders of the Lost Ark (Spielberg) (+story); Body Heat (Kasdan) (uncredited). 1982: Twice upon a Time (Kotty and Swenson). 1983: Return of the Jedi (Marquand) (+co-scenarist/scriptwriter, story). 1984: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Spielberg) (+story). 1985: Mishima (Schrader). 1986: Howard the Duck (Huyck); Labyrinth (Henson); Captain EO (Coppola) (+scenarist/scriptwriter). 1988: Willow (Howard) (+story); Tucker: The Man and His Dream (Coppola); The Land Before Time. 1989: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Spielberg) (+story). 1994: Radioland Murders (Mel Smith) (+story). 2008: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull; Star Wars: The Clone Wars. 2011: Red Tails.
Six-month internship at Warner Bros., spent as assistant to Francis Ford Coppola, 1967-68; co-founder, with Coppola, American Zoetrope, Northern California, 1969; directed first feature, THX-1138, 1971; established special effects company, Industrial Light and Magic, at San Rafael, California, 1976; formed production company Lucasfilm, Ltd., 1979; founded post production company Sprocket Systems, 1980; built Skywalker Ranch, and executive producer for Disneyland's 3-D music space adventure, Captain EO, 1980s.
Modesto, California, 14 May 1944.
Attended Modesto Junior College; University of Southern California Film School, graduated 1966
In whatever capacity George Lucas works-director, writer, producer-the films in which he is involved are a mixture of the familiar and the fantastic. Thematically, Lucas's work is often familiar, but the presentation of the material usually carries his unique mark. His earliest commercial science-fiction film, THX 1138, is not very different in plot from previous stories of futuristic totalitarian societies in which humans are subordinate to technology. What is distinctive about the film is its visual impact. The extreme close-ups, bleak sets, and crowds of ?properly sedated? shaven-headed people moving mechanically through hallways effectively produce the physical environment of this cold, well-ordered society. The endless whiteness of the vast detention center without bars could not be more oppressive.
Although not a special effects film, American Graffiti, Lucas's second feature, does show his attention to detail and his interest in archetypal themes. Within the 24-hour period of the film, the hero potential is brought forth from within the main characters, either through courageous action or the making of courageous decisions. The film captures America on the verge of transition from the 1950s to the brave new world of the 1960s. Lucas does this visually by recreating the 1950s on screen down to the smallest detail, but he also communicates through his characters the feeling that their lives will never be the same again.
The combination of convention, archetype, and fantasy comes together fully in Lucas's subsequent films-the Star Wtarsand Indiana Jrones series. On one level the Star Wars trilogy is a fairy tale set in outer space, as suggested in the opening title: ?A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....? The basic plot conventions of the fairy tale are present: a princess in distress, a powerful evil ruler, and courageous knights. The trilogy is also a tale of the emergence of the hero within and the quest by which individuals realize their true selves, for the princess is really a Shaman, the evil ruler a self divided in need of healing, and the knights latent heroes who do not realize themselves as such at the beginning of the tale.
Scenes, especially from Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, look and sound like Flash Gordon episodes. Members of the Empire- the Emperor, Darth Vadar, the stormtroopers-are an easily identifiable evil in their dark, drab clothing and cloaked or helmeted faces. Their movements are accompanied by a menacing, martial film score of the type that ushered Ming the Merciless on screen. Another reference that associates the Empire with a great evil is that the stormtroopers in several scenes resemble the rows of assembled stormtroopers on review in Triumph of the Will. In contrast to these images of darkness, the rebel forces and their habitats are colorful and full of life.
The Star Wars trilogy is also very much science fiction. The special effects developed to realize Lucas's futuristic vision brought about technological advances in motion picture photography. The workshop formed for the production of Star Wars, Industrial Light and Magic, continues on as an independent special effects production company. While working on Star Wars, John Dykstra developed the Dykstraflex camera, for which he received an Academy Award. The camera was used in conjunction with a computer to achieve the accuracy necessary in photographing multiple-exposure visual effects. Another advancement in motion-control photography was developed for The Empire Strikes Back-Brian Edlund's Empireflex camera.
Lucas and Steven Spielberg then set out to make a film based on the romantic action/ adventure movies of the 1940s. The successful result was Raiders of the Lost Ark. Indiana Jones, based on the rough-edged, worldly-wise screen heroes of those earlier adventure films, is set to such mythic tasks as the quest for the Ark of the Covenant and the quest for the Holy Grail. Jones's enemies on these quests (which occur in the first and the last films of the series), the Nazis, are representatives of the dark side of this universe and carry legendary status of their own. As in the Star Wars trilogy, the main characters, including the extraordinary Indiana, face challenges that will bring forth qualities and strengths they had not yet realized. The dialogue in Indiana f ones and the Last Crusade especially emphasizes the theme of the hero within. At one point the senior Jones tells Indiana that "The search for the cup of Christ is the search for the divine in all of us"; later in the film Indiana is challenged by the enemy as he is told, "It's time to ask yourself what you believe."
Radioland Murders is set in the world of live radio broadcasts of the late 1930s. All the conventional character types are here-from the inept director and his highly competent assistant to the golden-voiced booth announcer to the ever-creative sound-effects man. This romantic comedy/murder mystery was directed by Mel Smith, produced by Lucas, and based on an original story by Lucas. The narrative contains all the heroic challenges to spirit and character of more epic films condensed into a much smaller space and a much shorter time period. The action takes place within a few prime-time hours as a new radio network premieres. The broadcast carries on to a successful completion in spite of the murders of cast and crew, the police investigation, set breakdowns, and ego clashes. This universe of carefully contained chaos sometimes appears to be on the verge of spinning out of control, but it never does. The narrative, the broadcast, and the main characters persevere to the finish.
Lucas's films contain references to genre conventions and to earlier films. Also familiar in his work are the archetypal figures from myths and legends. At the same time, the films are fantastic and unfamiliar, filled with stunning visuals and exotic settings produced by innovative special effects.-MARIE SAELI