Lucas: His Hollywood Legacy by Richard Ravalli
Is it fair to blame George Lucas and Steven Spielberg for killing Hollywood’s second golden age by supplanting the challenging films of the late ‘60s-early ’70s with popcorn blockbusters? One essay in the new collection, Lucas: His Hollywood Legacy, takes that charge to task. In “Notes on the Lucas-Spielberg Syndrome,” Baylor University’s Jim Kendrick insists on a more nuanced view. Rather than hold Lucas and Spielberg’s hits as “a convenient scapegoat,” Kendrick understands the phenomenal success of Jaws, Star Wars and company as exaggerating “already existing tendencies” in Hollywood. Massively publicized blockbusters? The Godfather and The Exorcist predated Jaws and Star Wars.
Edited by historian Richard Ravalli, who grew up in Lucas’ hometown of Modesto, CA, His Hollywood Legacy encourages a “broader dialogue” on the filmmaking entrepreneur. His Star Wars franchise became an empire onto itself, spurring new visual technology, but he has also been denounced as reactionary, even childish, the cinematic analog to the Reagan era’s rightward shift.
His Hollywood Legacy examines many facets of Lucas’ career. Kenneth Hough’s essay investigates Lucas’ Marin County estate, the Skywalker Ranch, comparing and contrasting it with William Randolph Hearst’s San Simeon. Hough describes the 2,500 acres as both a refuge for Lucas and “a place of lively collaboration.” Innovation and tradition coinhabit the ranch. Although the sprawling Technical Building resembles one of Northern California’s circa 1900 wineries from outside, its façade conceals one of the world’s most advanced postproduction facilities.
The underappreciated role of Lucas’ wife Marcia Griffin (they divorced in 1983) receives its own essay in His Hollywood Legacy. She helped edit his early films, and as an extrovert balancing Lucas’ introspection, “encouraged him to do a more emotional, character-oriented piece” following the box-office failure of his cold, dystopian debut, THX 1138. That “emotional, character-oriented” film turned out to be American Graffiti, lifting Lucas into Hollywood’s stratosphere and setting his direction as the purveyor of Baby Boom nostalgia.
Lucas: His Hollywood Legacy is published by University Press of Kentucky.
Get Lucas: His Hollywood Legacy at Amazon here.
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