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Star Wars (franchise)

'George Lucas' looks at the genius behind 'Star Wars'

Brian Truitt
USA TODAY
'George Lucas: A Life' by Brian Jay Jones

With Rogue One’s release around the corner, a new book takes a look back at the creation of the original Star Wars and the man behind the insanely popular movie franchise.

George Lucas: A Life (Little, Brown, 472 pp., **½ out of four stars) is an unauthorized biography drawing mostly on quotes taken from various interviews with the iconic filmmaker and pulled together by author Brian Jay Jones (Jim Henson). While it may just be a refresher for hardcore Lucas fanboys, for more casual moviegoers the book offers a lot of interesting trivia and insight into the quiet, enigmatic genius who hated working in the very studio system that led to his biggest hits.

The bio goes back to Lucas’ Modesto roots growing up on hot rods and rock ‘n’ roll — both of which were mined for his 1973 breakthrough American Graffiti — plus his prodigious stint at the USC film school. A Life examines all his major works, though it doesn’t spend a whole lot of time on the Indiana Jones films he did with Steven Spielberg, and really gets going when Jones digs into Lucas' six Star Wars movies.

Author Brian Jay Jones.

Through quotes from actors and crew alike, as well as the persnickety director, Jones begins with the first Star Wars movie, chronicling problems with special effects, the many drafts of the story, what would ultimately influence it (including the Vietnam War) and other aspects that worked their way into Lucas’ legendary 1977 masterpiece.

Many of the on-set stories and pieces of trivia (i.e., the Millennium Falcon earning the nickname “Porkburger”) have been told before but are fun to revisit, and in that way A Life makes a nice complement to Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher’s new memoir The Princess Diarist, which recounts her tryst with co-star Harrison Ford.

Carrie Fisher remembers being 19 and 'in love'

Doing those kind of big-budget movies would ultimately involve a lot of sacrifice — mainly because Lucas was such a control freak — but he showed an insane amount of foresight as he negotiated the merchandising deal that would net him billions during his career. (Lucas stepped away from the franchise when he sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012 for $4 billion. The last Star Wars feature he directed was Episode III — Revenge of the Sith in 2005.)

Jones goes deep “inside baseball” when it comes to filmmaking techniques and industry minutiae — though movie nerds will eat those parts up.

Director George Lucas frames a shot on location in Tunisia while filming 'Star Wars Episode II Attack of the Clones' in 2002.

More interesting, however, is Lucas’ on-again, off-again friendship with Francis Ford Coppola, Spielberg and other filmmakers he saw as both pals and competition, and his behind-the-scenes struggles with the studio higher-ups that saw him as a talented nuisance. While Lucas’ reserved and brusque demeanor both helped and hurt him in his public and private life, his never-wavering commitment to being himself is what’s most fascinating about the book and the man.

“Lucas changed the way audiences watched — and rewatched — movies,” Jones writes, and until we get a tome from Lucas himself, A Life is a solid read about a fiercely independent, unforgettable American filmmaking icon.

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