Battle of the Battles
Inside of a Chinese restaurant sat two rising titans of the film industry, George and Marcia Lucas. Normally such a public outing of film leaders would cause a swarm of paparazzi or a line for autographs and conversations from the restaurant's patrons, although for the Lucas' this was never the case. Editors like Marcia who in many ways carried the backbone of a movie were nonexistent in media coverage and credit and George thanks to his heavily introverted personality had voluntarily stepped back from most of the American Graffiti promotion campaign, thus passing the spotlight to Bruce. As such, while most of America knew of George and Marcia Lucas, very few knew what they looked like. It was such a powerful cloak of anonymity that their double dates with the O'Brians shielded the actors by making them seem like a young man and his girlfriend having a good time with his older brother and sister-in-law.
Of course, even if they were very visibly recognizable, it would be tough to notice the spouses thanks to their lunch being a rather quiet and morbid affair, consisting of lukewarm silences and smalltalk, a product of the herd of elephants in the room on what to do with the space battles and runtime of Star Wars.
It was an unfortunate state of affairs that ran contrary to the two year bliss of the two's marriage after American Graffiti. Shortly before the release, a much needed vacation for the two in France had the couple opening up to one another for the first time since their wedding. After Marcia asked a long needed question, George opened up his fears and anxieties that he had kept bottled up like a glued pressure cooker, and the two started talking honestly and openly about everything and anything that went right and wrong in their lives.
When Graffiti became a smashing success and Lucasfilms was born, the two in their newfound low-stress environment continued their new practice of communication instead of staying silent or running away. Without their marriage and careers under constant attack and George finding new outlets for his stress, the daily talks and openness turned from coping and therapy, to quiet times of intimacy and love. For George and Marcia, it was as if they were back in their college days and discovering each other for the first time, taking the time and effort to explore their relationship and make sure their love was more than a case of opposites attract and similar passions.
Even Star Wars which was George's most ambitious project, one which would likely be the film that defined his career and life didn't get in the way of their marriage as he feared. Instead the two had genuine fun working together as some of the best days since their wedding, an experienced enhanced by both George and Marcia being cinephiles who were crafting a film they believed would be one of the greatest in history.
Then came time for the editing and the happy days turned into frustrating slogs.
The core of their divide and many arguments in the post-production was that at the heart of the matter, both George and Marcia were highly talented filmmakers that at the same time were very stubborn and had two diametrically opposed points of view on how to edit a film. George loved long and slow movies that were rich with detail, a quilt of film theory in every shot with the tiniest of details sharing purpose, while at the same time being arranged in a loose composition. Marcia preferred movies that were fast-paced, bold, dynamic and had precise execution. She wanted each shot to have one purpose, not many, for Marcia believed that a movie needed to have a deep and singular impact in each scene for a tightly-crafted final cut. George wanted a four hour opera, Marcia wanted a two hour adventure. Both found it hard to have compromise thus turning what should have been a simple job into line in the sand arguments for the outcome of Star Wars.
It was not as if George was against taking criticism or advice from his wife. George knew that Marcia was the best Editor in town, his only gripe with the Oscars being that they didn't give Marcia the award she deserved for Best Editing. The final draft of the Star Wars script had also been heavily influenced by Marcia with her playing a key role in the plot changes, most of which George accepted with a lot of pivotal scenes having a Marcia influence such as Obi-wan dying. However, at his core, George was a man who HATED being told what to do and being forced to change his vision. The circle who he was willing to concede to was small with a few close people such as Marcia and Bruce, but when George was presented with what he thought was perfection, he doubled down and built an Albanian bunker, point being the space battles of Star Wars with George going beyond the three chases and Yavin into an hour's worth of epic battles.
Although really, even that wasn't the main problem for editing. For what hurt George the most, was that not only was Marcia right for the most part, but that it had come from her. From their first days editing together at USC, George knew without a shred of doubt that Marcia was the superior editor, nothing he could do coming close to her work. As such, whenever Marcia had an edit, George knew she almost always had to be right, and this time she wanted to throw out his most beloved part of the film and remove or shorten so many scenes that he had the most enjoyment filming. If Marcia wanted to change so much, did that mean that he was a bad filmmaker, that he made a bad movie.
Releasing a sigh as he mindlessly stirred his cold lo mein, George looked to Marcia who was in a similar glum state, though upon noticing his gaze, she gave a tired but earnest smile which George returned.
George hated this new state of conflict that drove a wedge in his marriage, and to be honest he was responsible for a decent portion of the grief for his stubborn stands and procrastinating adventures into script writing for the anthology show. Part of him wanted to unconditionally surrender so that he and Marcia could return to their happy days and push Star Wars forward. However, another part of him said that if he did so, not only was it not good for the film, but it would set an unhealthy precedent for their marriage that would ruin all the work they had put in for the past two years.
It was then that George remembered a conversation that he shared with Bruce on the Lucasfilms rooftop.
"Bruce, how do you...nevermind." George attempted to ask, then retreated over realizing how silly such a question sounded.
"How do I what George?" Bruce asked in concern.
George waved it off, "It's nothing."
"It doesn't seem like nothing to you. Is there something you need advice George? I don't mind sharing." Bruce pressed.
George sighed heavily and decided to finish what he started, "I was wondering how do you and Carrie handle...fights." He asked lamely. It felt highly awkward to ask for marriage advice from a 20 year old who wasn't even married for a full year, but George felt that Bruce had to have some answer. Everyone on the set knew Bruce and Carrie to be the perfect couple, an honest to God fairytale romance come to life. Outside of brief moments of annoyance, the two never had any bad times and were madly in love just standing next to each other or holding hands. A good chunk of the retakes were trying to keep the two from acting as mushy lovebirds on screen. It was a relationship that George felt he couldn't come close to obtaining with Marcia.
Bruce set down his beer in concern, "George, are you and Marcia-"
"No, no, no; it's nothing terrible I promise. I still love Marcia, and things are a hell of a lot better than something taking place during THX. It's just that I can't find a way to resolve things over the battles and I think no matter how this ends up one of us is going to be bitter. But I doubt you and Carrie ever had anything like that." George said, then taking a deep swig of beer.
Bruce pondered the question for a while and then answered, "Well, Carrie and I don't really fight have frequent fights. Something comes up every month or two, we have a fierce debate for a while, and then we find a compromise and show each other that we still love each other and it's not going to get in the way moving forward." Bruce explained, with George starring in befuddlement to which Bruce just shrugged, "She can be a bit of a spitfire when pushed, and I'm Irish, it happens."
"What do you two even fight about? The Yankees?" George asked, the image of Bruce and Carrie at odds not being something he could possibly imagine.
Bruce chuckled at that, though George had not been joking. "Nah, my Yankee temper is reserved for Farah and Todd. There's usually a couple of topic triggers; my work habits, Hollywood nonsense, politics, guns." George was rather alarmed at the last topic to which Bruce quickly explained, "Carrie didn't like my continued ownership after Mom was shot, but I felt I needed to protect our home and family. We went at it for about a week, but then I showed Carrie how serious and responsible I took things, and we came to an agreement where I didn't use them for fun and kept the training away from the house, and she started learning karate and I helped her with defense."
George was intrigued, finding the cases to be different in passion even if the stakes were wildly different. "So how'd you handle things when you two were dug in so strongly, and how'd you find a compromise?"
Bruce hummed in thought, contemplating for a while on how to best articulate the system he and Carrie had built, "Well, we aren't perfect and don't always keep to it when things run high, but generally whenever there's something we're polar opposites on, we keep quiet and don't say a word when the other's talking, just let each other air things out until there's nothing left to say and then respond. Always say things in detail, leave no room for wrong signals or misinterpretation. Be level headed and keep emotion out as best as you can. And honestly, I know it sounds weird but I prefer to have the fights stretch and take their time."
"Doesn't that make things worse?"
"For a lot of people probably. But with us, I don't want leave room for unfinished business and have Carrie be resentful or vice versa. Plus when we're not rushing for victory or to settle things as soon as possible, Carrie and I can just focus on talking and understanding the other. It helps remind us that we're here for each other and we'll work through it."
While George didn't entirely agree with the advice, he was sympathetic to the spirit and remembering how Bruce's intervention had helped to make life better many times before, George sought to follow it closely when he reignited the discussion.
"Marcia...what is it about my filmmaking that you think is bad?" George asked bluntly.
Marcia gave him a sour look, "George, do we have to talk about it here?" The purpose of their outing had been to relieve the stress through a quiet lunch at once of Bruce and Carrie's favorites, but seeing as how that hadn't mended anything and just pushed tensions to the side, George felt it was best to just rip the bandaid now.
"I'm not going to get mad or argue, I promise. I just want to know what I'm terrible at so when we look at the footage again, I know where I'm wrong so I can listen to you better and make the best decisions. I don't want to continue screwing things up because I refuse to let go of bad habits." George said.
Marcia sighed and held onto his hand, "George, I don't think you're bad at anything when it comes to movies."
"Even my dialogue?" George questioned in a bit of light self-deprecation, to which Marcia chuckled. When he watched the audition tapes, George couldn't help but cringe over how clunky and awkward the actors were performing thanks to his messy first draft he gave to Bruce. While he got the perfect cast in the end, George couldn't help but feel he sabotaged the process and prevented some really talented stars from shining at their best.
"The first couple of drafts were a bit rough on lines to be sure, but you kept improving and came up with some incredible conversations." Marcia complimented sincerely, though even then George couldn't be held solely accountable as it took a dozen watches of American Graffiti and heavy inspiration from the improv dialogue to push him to the finish line.
"And the battles?" George pressed on, to which Marcia sank in her seat for what was to come.
"You're not bad at anything George, I promise. And your cut is better than most of what's in theaters. It's just that, you have some preferences and tendencies in storytelling that I'm worried your general audience isn't going to react as they should."
"Like the space battles?" George asked cautiously, to which Marcia nodded. "I know we have to trim a lot of the fat and some scenes have to go, Graffiti did become better after your work. But I think this time a long runtime isn't going to kill it. Everyone loves The Godfather, and they're three hour movies."
"Yes, and The Godfather is a character-focused period and crime drama that takes place over the course of several years. Francis needs the long runtime because the emotional delivery depends on the scenes being a slow buildup to the climax while every part of the plot is critical to the journey of the Corelone Saga." Marcia said. George felt a burning need to retort on how he needed the scenes as well, but remembering Bruce's advice, he let Marcia continue.
"Star Wars is a space adventure as a an exploration of the hero's journey and love letter to those adventure reels. Star Wars' strength is in the journey, and if we spend too much time away from it, then the delivery weakens and the film starts to crumble. If we were talking about Star Wars as a book, then the character exploration, worldbuilding and battles would be its greatest strengths. As a movie, there needs to be some sacrifices to make the most effective film." Marcia explained.
George was at a loss of words at such an argument, Marcia once again seeming to win and present a very effective argument for which he had no effective counter besides his vision. Feeling tired and not seeing the merit in continuing, George was ready to concede until Marcia spoke again, which made him see things from a new direction.
"George, why are the space battles so important to you?" Marcia asked cautiously.
"Well it is Star Wars and a science fiction film." George replied dumbly.
"That's not what I'm asking. I mean...why is it that you're so flustered over the battles and are fighting so hard on it, but on every other scene, you don't have any issue and are fine with change." Marcia pressed, making George understand that while he had defended the battles and explained their artistic purpose, he never really explained why emotionally it was so crucial to him.
George took well over a minute to think of a response in silence, Marcia mercifully giving him the time to collect his thoughts and explain his position. "I think it's because of Obi-wan and Vader."
"Huh?" Marcia said in puzzlement, not really seeing what the lightsaber duel had to do with starfighters and Star Destroyers.
"Was that or was that not the best fight in movie history?" George asked.
"It was the best, and will remain so for many years to come." Marcia agreed with. To both the Lucas', the fight was perfection in human form, both Toshiro and Peter delivering a performance that no one else could possibly match, going into impossible shows of swordsmanship and action that George could never have dreamed of.
"Watching the fight made me realize that we have a film that's not only great, but it's going to change how movies are made from now until the end of time, in ways that go beyond anything Godfather or Some Nights ever did. I strongly believe the space battles are going to play a key role in this. Up til now, almost all space movies have been crappy tales of astronauts exploring with bad effects and costumes. Here we created a whole new galaxy with its own culture and history, and the space battles are on a grand scale that has never been done before. ILM is making the impossible possible, and I'm scared if we miss this opportunity, then we'll never get something as groundbreaking as this again, or at least someone else is going to come and do it first." George argued passionately.
Out of all of his work on Star Wars, his time spent with the Magicians on VFX and SFX was his favorite portion of the film, where George believed he found his greatest artistic love in creating magic and putting it on screen. More than anything, he wanted the battles to stay on screen as much as possible, to help push Star Wars into the film that would define cinema as art.
Marcia pondered on how to best respond, then nodded her head in concession, "I still think it's impossible to keep everything in. But...let's spend the rest of the afternoon looking at the uncut version, and I'll try and approach it differently and see what best enhances the experience." Marcia said, not a full promise of concession, but more than understandable and okay with George.
"Thanks. I'm...I'm sorry for acting so stubborn. You're a brilliant editor, it's just...hard to change something you love."
"I know. It's going to be a great movie. it is Written and Directed by George Lucas." Marcia complimented.
"And edited by Marcia Lucas." George returned.
