George Lucas’ filmography seems to indicate he’s much more of a story man than a scenarist – almost everything that has his name attached to it as a writer indicates he wrote the story and not the screenplay (i.e., the Indiana Jones movies), or else was co-screenwriter.
Apart from the SW movies, Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz co-wrote American Graffiti with him, and Walter Murch was co-writer on THX-1138 (along with, I read somewhere, an uncredited Francis Ford Coppola).
I believe Episode IV is the only movie that has Lucas as sole writer. And while the dialogue isn’t exactly Paddy Chayefsky, it’s also not that bad (or have repeated viewings killed any objectivity?). I mean, the most recent movies have much worse dialogue and they do have co-writers.
I remember reading that Alan Dean Foster, the acknowledged ghost writer for the Star Wars novelization, was the actual screenwriter. Can anyone confirm this? Anyone have any info or opinion on this? Was Star Wars the only screenplay Lucas ever wrote without any help?
Uhh, I beg to differ. This is the movie where Harrison Ford reportedly told Lucas that “You can write that crap, but nobody evers talks like that.”
The movie with lines like “We found the Rebel Base, but we estimate that it has been deserted for some time.” Noooooo, George. Maybe “We estimate it has been deserted for five weeks,” or “It has been deserted for some time.”
Or"He’s a crazy old man. I don’t believe he exists anymore." That’s a pretty weird way to talk about someone. Why not “I think he’s dead”?
Or “Lord Vader, your devotion to that ancient religion has not given you clairvoyance enough to conjure up the stolen data tapes, or…” Even in a Galaxy far, far away, nobody talks like that.
I suspect that Lucas did write the screenplay. And that’s why he never wrote another.
The dialogue worked okay for what it was. It was SUPPOSED to be operatic and over-the-top. Dialogue’s not that important in a movie like “Star Wars,” anyway; the screenplay is generally very good otherwise.
Having said that, if the credits say Lucas wrote it, odds are pretty good he wrote it.
(I’m sure someone will be along soon to claim it’s called “A New Hope.”)
Operatic and over-the-top I don’t mind. But Lucas’ words rankled. You’ll notice that nobody ever complains about the dialogue in The Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi.
Operatic and over-the-top is one thing. The dialogue SUCKS, very badly sometimes, in both these movies. If anybody actually talked like that, you can understand why their Empire fell.
Both of these movies are full of clunkers - “Yippee,” anyone? Yippee?
Gah. Some of those lines are on par with James Cameron’s alleged writing in Titanic.
The dialouge in Star Wars doesn’t suck, IMHO. I agree with the “operatic” comment made earlier and would suggest that some of the more negative comments along those lines have had their opinion colored by the over-the-top hatred of the prequels. But, having said that, I will agree that Phantom Menace has some real, real bad dialouge problems. Clones isn’t as bad as a whole, but the “romantic” scenes are horrible! AARGH!
Most of the dialogue is stilted and terrible. But it also has some rather funny bits, IMO – Han using “Your Worship” sarcastically, “No reward is worth this,” “Charming to the last…”
These lines, at least, would seem to me to come from someone other than the terminally stiff and unfunny George Lucas, which, combined with his track record on other films, is what made me think someone else took a pass at the screenplay.
As for Phantom Menace, I admit I didn’t look at the credits as I don’t own a copy. I guess I’m not surprised he alone wrote that thing.
I am positive that I read an onlne interview with Lucas, wherein he admits that he hired a writer(s) to help with some of the dialogue in the original “Star Wars,” with an agreement that he/she/they would not be credited. Not sure if was Hyuck and Katz, or someone else.
The Annotated Screenplays places marks next to the lines that were rewritten by Hyuck and Katz. It isn’t a substantial amount. The bit of dialogue where Threepio calls Luke “Sir Luke,” for example, is marked. I’d estimate that the total amount of revised lines would be around a dozen or so.
And I’d agree on the “operatic” observation. It’s supposed to recall Flash Gorden and Buck Rogers, and it does that perfectly.
