When my wife agreed to put The People vs. George Lucas on the Netflix queue, I rejoiced.  Perhaps she would get insights into my Star Wars obsession as well as into my great disappointment in the prequel trilogy.  In my humble opinion, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith did have great potential.  This is the movie that should have begun the Star Wars prequels.  That said, the documentary began with an excellent overview of the original trilogy from 1977, 1980, and 1983, but from that point thereafter I found myself repeating, “At least I’m not THAT obsessed.”

The original generation of fans is freaked out.  Only the remastered Star Wars IV, V, VI are available for purchase on DVD and Blu Ray.  Not a problem for me.  I liked the CGI-enhancements from the 1990s (except for the new songs in Return of the Jedi).  I guess I’m lucky to have kept my VHS box set, as well as a working VCR to view the originals.  There’s also much consternation about the 1970s Christmas special never being aired again (I had forgotten about it until this documentary), about Han Solo firing after Greedo (I never noticed this change in the theater when I saw it again in the 1990s), and about midi-chlorians ruining the mysticism of the Force (I think Lucas may have actually been ahead of his time on this one).  And it goes without saying what most of the first generation fans think about Jar Jar Binks (yet I can’t help but think that the Ewoks from Return of the Jedi are just as ridiculous).

In sum, this is a terribly long documentary for such a short list of complaints.  Why not see all these criticisms summed up in the song parody of “Somebody I Used To Know”?  This YouTube video is called, much to my great delight, “The Star Wars That I Used To Know.”


By Mark Schelske