Michael L Torrie wrote:
On Thu, 2006-06-08 at 08:21 -0600, Lloyd Brown wrote:
P.S. I like "The Last Starfighter". Robert Preston is one of the
greatest actors ever.
There's only so much a great actor can do with a storyline and script
that is just awful.
Then of course Star Wars episodes I, II, and III illustrate what can
happen when you have a decent story (could have been much much better),
horrible writing, horrible screenplay, and horrible actors.
Episodes IV, V, and VI illustrate how decent actors can sometimes breath
life into bad writing. But at least there was a great story there. And
the only thing that made the dialogs palatable was the fact that George
Lucas' wife at the time edited and rewrote all the dialogs for most of
those three movies. Of course now George has divorced her and does his
own writing and it really shows.
I've been hesitating on this thread, but here goes...
Many of the actors in Ep I and II (I never saw III), were actually quite
good, but horribly directed. Watch Portman in The Professional, which
was years before Ep I. I've seen Ewan McGregor be decent. I would
definitely not call Liam Neeson "horrible".
No, the problem is that Lucas was saved many times from failure with the
original trilogy by those around him. Sir Alec made Ep IV believable.
Some of the best lines of the original films were thought up by the
actors on set (eg. "I love you." "I know."). But he went on to believe
*he* was the one who made those movies work, and his level of control
hit a new level on the prequels. Whether he let anyone question him, or
people were just too scared to do so (or had too much faith in his
abilities) I don't know. Lucas had a lot of help writing the dialog
(I've never heard about his wife helping) with A&E's "Empire of Dreams"
documentary talking about Irvin Kershner helping a lot.
Remember that Lucas did not direct Ep V or VI. That was Kershner and
Marquand (who replaced Speilberg who couldn't direct because he was a
member of the Director's Guild that had sanctioned Lucas for not opening
Ep V with the production credits). He is a great producer (as shown by
his efforts with other, competent directors), but couldn't carry his own
reputation's weight with the prequels.
One final note: Lucas makes, IMHO, poor story decisions. The big three
actors wanted one of their characters to die in Ep VI, but Lucas
refused. The reported reason for his split with Kershner was over
whether Ewoks or Wookies should inhabit the Moon of Endor. (That's an
unsubstantiated rumor, BTW.) He consistently has shown a slow
progression into the "dark side" of movie making: being more interested
in money than conveying a message.
That's just my two cents.
-jb
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