The Cinema of George Lucas - Hardcover

Marcus Hearn; Ron Howard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0810949687 ISBN 13: 9780810949683

Publisher: Abrams, 2005

Synopsis

Acclaimed filmmaker George Lucas re-invigorated the science-fiction genre more than 25 years ago with Star Wars, one of the greatest epics and cultural icons of its generation. He has enthralled audiences with his grand vision, mythic narratives, and groundbreaking visual effects ever since, and he remains a pivotal figure in American cinema: Star Wars: Episode II (2002) was the first film to be shot entirely with state-of-the-art digital cameras, and Star Wars: Episode III is set for release in 2005.

Marcus Hearn draws on exclusive interviews-as well as unprecedented access to the Lucasfilm archives-to craft a definitive look at more than four decades of the director's work. Lavishly illustrated, the book features many never and rarely seen images, including stills from Lucas's student films and behind-the-scenes photographs from the first Star Wars, the Indiana Jones adventures, and Star Wars: Episode III. Hearn delves deep into Lucas's achievements in the film industry as a director, writer, editor, and producer. Destined to be the classic illustrated survey of Lucas's career, the book is sure to fascinate not only die-hard fans but also general film and popular culture enthusiasts. AUTHOR BIO: Marcus Hearn is a writer, editor, and publisher specializing in film and popular culture. He is the author of the best-selling Star Wars: Attack of the Clones-The Illustrated Companion. He lives in London. Ron Howard is an actor, producer, and director whose film A Beautiful Mind (2001) won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director.

About this title

About the Author

Marcus Hearn is a writer, editor, and publisher specializing in film and popular culture. He is the author of the best-selling Star Wars: Attack of the Clones-The Illustrated Companion. He lives in London. Ron Howard is an actor, producer, and director whose film A Beautiful Mind (2001) won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director.

Reviews

Adult/High School–With this impeccably constructed coffee-table book, movie aficionados have the opportunity to explore 20th-century science fiction and American culture through the work of an immensely talented director. Film clips, scripts, and interviews help readers to review his vast output. Hearn describes Lucas's childhood, his college filmmaking career at USC, his work with the American Zoetrope collective of San Francisco, his friendship with director Francis Ford Coppola, the making of the classic coming-of-age film American Graffiti, and more. The volume includes photographs of Harrison Ford, Ron Howard, Cindy Williams, and Billy Dee Williams; reproductions of film posters and publicity stills; and the action-packed, movie-shooting schedules of Star Wars and the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, as well as a history of Lucas's educational foundation. Although the book is highly readable, the author sometimes dips into sentimentality and hero worship, and he only briefly discusses the director's movie-business enterprises (Lucasfilm, Ltd., Skywalker Ranch, Industrial Light Magic, and LucasArts), known as the San Francisco Bay Area's mini Hollywood.–ayo dayo, Chinn Park Regional Library, Prince William, VA
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The life and career of the one-man cinematic revolution that is George Lucas gets a lush visual treatment in Hearn's frankly adoring and uncritical coffee-table book, though there's plenty of smart text underpinning the artwork as well. The first two of the book's eight chapters are best, covering Lucas's childhood and student filmmaking days at USC, which culminated in the 1971 masterpiece THX 1138 and 1973's iconic American Graffiti. Hearn deftly portrays this heady period in Lucas's life, in which the director was furiously experimenting with the form and working inside the short-lived San Francisco filmmaking collective American Zoetrope with pals Francis Ford Coppola, master editor Walter Murch and legendary cinematographer Haskell Wexler. This section is elaborately illustrated with photographs, publicity stills and script excerpts, and the photos of young Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss and Lucas himself will amuse fans. Once Hearn begins to delve into Lucas's rise into the cinematic stratosphere with Star Wars, and the creation of his mini Hollywood in the Bay Area, however, the book fails. Hearn's worshipful tone doesn't allow him to satisfyingly explain how this long-haired rebel turned into the mini-mogul that he is today. Still, this is a crucial addition to the libraries of not just Star Wars aficionados but all lovers of modern cinema. (Mar.)

Before Star Wars (1977), "sci-fi" movies were grade-B affairs that even their staunchest fans couldn't keep a straight face about. After that box-office miracle, at least sci-fi movie budgets increased. Hearn's survey of SW director and franchise proprietor George Lucas' output affirms that Lucas is pretty solely responsible for that change. SW wasn't easily accomplished. Lucas' just-previous film, American Graffiti, showed one of the highest returns on investment in movie history, yet he struggled to adequately finance SW and worked for free himself while wrapping it up. The SW story isn't the most interesting in Hearn's chronicle, which is a press kit of artbook proportions rather than a biography or a critique. The most absorbing pages concern Lucas' early years and first professional work, and indicate that a full-scale life would be worthwhile. This book, replete with lots of pictures, including frame enlargements that for once don't look anemic, is for gawkers and -production-trivia-mongers; and with the last film in the Star Wars sextet hard upon us, their numbers should be reaching uncritical mass. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Abrams
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0810949687
• ISBN 13: 9780810949683
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 264