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. . . The George Lucas Filmography


[Mr.Lucas sitting in a toy shop] Early film-making career, primarily at the University of Southern California :

1965

Look at Life - 1 minute montage combining anti-war pictures with a score of jazzy calypso music and snatches of a news broadcast.

1966

Herbie - (made with Paul Golding) On a busy city street the headlights of passing cars are mirrored as light reflections on a buffed and polished car.

Freiheit - Starring Randal Kleiser, with Christopher Lewis. Concerns a student escaping across the border from East to West Germany. Student is killed in the attempt, the final sceen showing a German soldier standing over the dead body.
Shot in the hills above the beachfront colony of Malibu.

1:42:08 - (subtitled: A man and his car) Simply, a car driving around a race track. Shot in colour at Willow Springs Raceway in North LA.


1967

Anyone Lived in a Pretty How Town - based on E.E.Cummings's poem, shot in colour and widescreen. Concerns a photographer who takes pictures of a couple, turning them into black and white still photographs.

The Emperor - A 20-minute documentary pre-dating American Graffiti with the opening title card 'Radio is a Fantasy'. Starred Bob Hudson, a disc jockey for Burbank radio station KBLA in the mid 1960s.

THX 1138:4EB - Homage to a short film made by the National Film Board of Canada - 2187 (the film is an abstract film made up of news footage with image and sound juxtaposed out of context). THX 1138:4EB however, is about an individual's escape from a futuristic society. Won the Dramatic Prize at the 1967 National Student Film Festival.

6-18-67 - A day in the life of a desert. Or, ostensibly, a making-of documentary of 'McKenna's Gold'.

Lucas went on to work on 'Finian's Gold (or Finian's Rainbow)' and 'The Rain People' with Francis Ford Coppola.


1968

Filmmaker - A behind the scenes film on 'The Rain People', a 32 minute documentary made with a budget of $12,000. Stars the director of 'The Rain People', Francis Ford Coppola, and Shirley Knight, James Caan and crew members of Zoetrope Productions - running time of original version 64 minutes.

Subsequently, Lucas made THX 1138 in 1971 as a feature film and finally made his breakthrough with American Graffiti in 1973.

FEATURE FILMS

1971

THX 1138 - Adapted from Lucas' short film - THX 1138:4EB. The plot concerns a dystopian future, where the populous are kept in a passive state by drugs administered by the state. The repressive government manfactures future generations in the laboratory and relegates minorities to the status of non-humans; sex is outlawed. THX 1138 and LUH 3417, attempt to escape from this underground society when THX 1138 stops taking the drugs, and LUH 3417 becomes pregnant. They are captured and thrown into White Limbo, a jail where inmates are contained by their own fear. With the help of others, THX 1138 escapes, eventually reaching the surface and freedom.
Filmed during a 40 day shoot in the San Francisco Bay area in 1969 for a budget of $777,000; Filmed in Technicolor and Techniscope. The film was released by Warner Bros. on March 11th., 1971 at an original running time of 88 minutes. A restored version ran for 95 mins. Rated PG as a Warner Bros. release of an American Zoetrope Production.
Earned $945,000 for Warner Bros. in rentals (info. dated 1983), but still ended up in the red.

1973

American Graffiti - The story - four buddies aged seventeen to twenty, who had grown up and goofed off together, reach a crossroads in their lives. Two of the boys are leaving their small California town to attend college. Steve has doubts and stays; Curt has doubts and leaves. The lives of the other two friends revolve around cars: Milner tries desperately to maintain his superiority as King of the Road, and Toad tries desperately to get drunk and laid in the car that Steve has entrusted to him. The action all takes place on one long, hot summer night of cruising.
Filmed in Marin and Sonoma Counties, California, in 1972 for 28 days on a budget of $775,000. Filmed in Technicolor and completed at American Zoetrope Studies, San Francisco. Released on August 1st., 1973, then rereleased on May 26th., 1978 in a restored version. Running time 110 minutes. Rated PG, a Universal Pictures release of a Lucasfilm Ltd./Coppola Company production.
Academy Nominations (1973): Best Picture, Direction, Original Screenplay, Supporting Actress (Candy Clark), Film Editing; winner of 1973 Best Screenplay Awards from New York film critics and National Society of Film Critics.
Earned more than $117,000,000 in ticket sales throughout the world (info. dated 1983).


The Rest of George Lucas' Life

Sooner or later, I'll add some details on the Star Wars trilogy and the many, many films he has produced. But just because he works hard, doesn't mean I do, so they won't appear just yet.


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