The One Star Wars Movie That Made George Lucas' Ex-Wife Cry Out of Dislike
Marcia Lucas, the ex-wife of Star Wars creator George Lucas who was also an editor on the original film trilogy, has opened up on the Star Wars film that made her cry.
These were not tears of joy. Neither did she find herself weeping at a tender moment. No. She cried because she hated it.
Marcia and George got married in 1969, a full eight years before A New Hope hit cinema screens and changed the face of cinematography forever. Fourteen years later, the year that Return of the Jedi was released, they were divorced. So, their marriage, for better and for worse, ran parallel with the creation of a galaxy far, far away and the almost unfathomable success it enjoyed at the box office and beyond.
And Marcia says the third movie in the trilogy was the "most problematic editorially". In fact, she was critical of pretty much all editors that took their scissors to it prior to her intervention. So much so that she had to beg to be released from another project so she could come and fix it.
She said turning the battle over the sarlacc pit took two months to turn into "something intelligible" and described Yoda's death scene as "too dry" following the original edits.
George and Marcia's marriage finally succumbed to his workaholic nature during post-production of Return of the Jedi – and Marcia had to work for months to make it a movie worthy of the trilogy. And it's generally considered the weakest of the original three by most Star Wars fans.
But this wasn't the film that made her cry.
Why would it? After spending so long in the editing room, it's no surprise that she knew exactly what to expect when she watched the movie. And, of course, she had vastly improved what it and was broadly happy with the outcome – if not quite elated with it.
It was the next movie to be released (in 1999) that brought her to tears. But it wasn't just The Phantom Menace that she had issues with. She described the whole prequel trilogy, and pretty much everything Disney has produced for the franchise as "just terrible".
Indeed, she went as far as to say that "Kathy Kennedy and J.J. Abrams don't have a clue about Star Wars. They don't get it."