RIP: Marcia Lucas, Oscar-Winning Star Wars Editor, Dies At 80 (thewrap.com) 21
```Long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 brings word that Marcia Lucas, part of the editing team for both Star Wars and Return of the Jedi, has died at age 80 after a battle with metastatic cancer.
Married to George Lucas from 1969 to 1983, Marcia is remembered by The Wrap as "a powerful asset in the early days of the Star Wars series, helping shape its voice and identity long before it became the massive global franchise..." She won an Academy Award for Best Film Editing for her work on the original "Star Wars" movie, an award that came four years after she was nominated for editing George's previous film, "American Graffiti." She additionally edited his debut feature, "THX 1138." Beyond these collaborations with her then-husband, Marcia worked as an editor with other acclaimed filmmakers like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. She was credited as sole editor for Scorsese's "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore," and served as supervising editor for "Taxi Driver" and "New York, New York."
Marcia served as part of a three-person crew editing both "Star Wars" and "Return of the Jedi." On the first film, she worked alongside Paul Hirsch and Richard Chew and was personally responsible for editing the Battle of Yavin — otherwise known as the iconic "trench run" sequence near the end of the film. For "Return of the Jedi," Marcia shared credit with Sean Barton and Duwayne Dunham.
"If only Lucas had people like her on the prequels instead of sycophants who worshipped him as a God..." argues this 2015 blog post noting an article calling her "the secret weapon behind Star Wars — including this anecdote from The Secret History of Star Wars : The [Star Wars] Death Star trench run was originally scripted entirely different, with Luke having two runs at the exhaust port; Marcia had re-ordered the shots almost from the ground up, trying to build tension lacking in the original scripted sequence, which was why this one was the most complicated (Deleted Magic has a faithful reproduction of the original assembly, which is surprisingly unsatisfying).
She warned George, "If the audience doesn't cheer when Han Solo comes in at the last second in the Millennium Falcon to help Luke when he's being chased by Darth Vader, the picture doesn't work."
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 for sharing the news.
Married to George Lucas from 1969 to 1983, Marcia is remembered by The Wrap as "a powerful asset in the early days of the Star Wars series, helping shape its voice and identity long before it became the massive global franchise..." She won an Academy Award for Best Film Editing for her work on the original "Star Wars" movie, an award that came four years after she was nominated for editing George's previous film, "American Graffiti." She additionally edited his debut feature, "THX 1138." Beyond these collaborations with her then-husband, Marcia worked as an editor with other acclaimed filmmakers like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. She was credited as sole editor for Scorsese's "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore," and served as supervising editor for "Taxi Driver" and "New York, New York."
Marcia served as part of a three-person crew editing both "Star Wars" and "Return of the Jedi." On the first film, she worked alongside Paul Hirsch and Richard Chew and was personally responsible for editing the Battle of Yavin — otherwise known as the iconic "trench run" sequence near the end of the film. For "Return of the Jedi," Marcia shared credit with Sean Barton and Duwayne Dunham.
"If only Lucas had people like her on the prequels instead of sycophants who worshipped him as a God..." argues this 2015 blog post noting an article calling her "the secret weapon behind Star Wars — including this anecdote from The Secret History of Star Wars : The [Star Wars] Death Star trench run was originally scripted entirely different, with Luke having two runs at the exhaust port; Marcia had re-ordered the shots almost from the ground up, trying to build tension lacking in the original scripted sequence, which was why this one was the most complicated (Deleted Magic has a faithful reproduction of the original assembly, which is surprisingly unsatisfying).
She warned George, "If the audience doesn't cheer when Han Solo comes in at the last second in the Millennium Falcon to help Luke when he's being chased by Darth Vader, the picture doesn't work."
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 for sharing the news.
RIP (Score:4, Insightful)
Sad that the more talented Lucas to work on SW went first.
Re: (Score:3)
It's clear the original trilogy was lightning in a bottle for many reasons, and it's clear that Marcia Lucas and other skilled editors had an absolutely huge impact. But can you really say the editor is the "more talented" Lucas? Seems to me that for a time, whatever partnership George and Marcia had personally and working together, worked really well.
After the split, neither one of them ever created something as on target as the originals.
Then again, Star Wars is almost unique for the cultural impact it's
My childhood (Score:5, Interesting)
I can remember seeing those in the theatre, after standing in line for hours. Star wars made a huge impact on my childhood. One of my best childhood memories is with my now deceased uncle seeing Empire Strikes Back. Like many I was terribly disappointed by the later Star Wars episodes. I've not even seen any of the "new" stuff. Actually Revenge of the Sith is the last movie I saw. She will be missed.
Re: (Score:3)
Do yourself a favor and watch Rogue One.
Re: My childhood (Score:4, Informative)
Re: My childhood (Score:2)
After. Watch Andor after. The continuity error at the end of season 2 is a bit jarring.
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Re: My childhood (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Do yourself a favor and watch Rogue One.
I'll give it a shot. Thanks for the reccomendation.
Marcia Lucas Finally Speaks Out | Icons Unearthed (Score:2)
Nacelle Company posted this four months ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Remember the film "Dambusters" (1955)? (Score:5, Interesting)
The 'trench run' against the Death Star is a direct tribute to the Moehne Dam attack in this movie. Guy Gibson attacked first and then flew alongside each attacker to draw flak from the attacking Lancaster - just as Han Solo did for Luke.
Operation Chastise occurred in mid-May 1943. EIght of the nineteen Lancasters were lost in the raid and 53 aircrew were killed. They deserve all the tributes they receive.
Re: Remember the film "Dambusters" (1955)? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Just shows how sometimes connotations and visceral impacts of words change over time.
I learned about that movie from The Wall..
"The secret weapon of Star Wars" (Score:5, Interesting)
Her contribution to Star Wars must not be underestimated.
George Lucas' original edit of the first film was a mess. She and the other editors moved things around and fixed the pacing.
Do watch: How Star Wars was saved in the edit [youtube.com].
She did edit Empire Strikes Back, even if she did not get a credit. (Star Wars.com did not forget it though), and then The Return of the Jedi.
She was also there behind George Lucas all the way during the production of all three movies in the original trilogy.
Unfortunately, Marcia and George had a messy divorce in 1983, and she had no part in later Star Wars productions (which explains a lot of the prequels...). ... and that company then became legendary.
However, George Lucas famously sold Pixar to Steve Jobs to pay for the divorce
Music (Score:2)
The music was incredibly tight on the trench run scene, perfectly choreographed with the action.
Imagine how different Williams's score would have been with bland editing.
Marcia Lucas was no fan of the KK and JJ sequels (Score:4, Insightful)
RIP Marcia, you were spot on about the sequels. Quotes from a 2021 interview:
“Now that she’s running Lucasfilm and making movies, it seems to me that Kathy Kennedy and J.J. Abrams don’t have a clue about Star Wars.”
“They don’t get it. And J.J. Abrams is writing these stories—when I saw that movie where they kill Han Solo, I was furious. I was furious when they killed Han Solo. Absolutely, positively there was no rhyme or reason to it. I thought, You don’t get the Jedi story. You don’t get the magic of Star Wars. You’re getting rid of Han Solo?”
“And then at the end of this last one, The Last Jedi, they have Luke disintegrate. They killed Han Solo. They killed Luke Skywalker. And they don’t have Princess Leia anymore.”
“And they’re spitting out movies every year. And they think it’s important to appeal to a woman’s audience, so now their main character is this female, who’s supposed to have Jedi powers, but we don’t know how she got Jedi powers, or who she is. It sucks. The storylines are terrible. Just terrible. Awful.”
“You can quote me—‘J.J. Abrams, Kathy Kennedy—talk to me.’”
My personal take matches hers - the original emphasized rugged individualism and the Hero’s Journey, e.g. Leia as a capable leader without needing Rey’s constant exposition dumps, personal agency, friendship, clear good-vs-evil, earned power, etc. The sequels? They subverted each, purposefully obliterating entire compelling story arcs, so as to artificially force alignment with “The Message” and certainly to make KK happy.
Re: (Score:2)
This is the best comment in the thread and all the dorks are modding you down.
Re: (Score:2)
This is the best comment in the thread and all the dorks are modding you down.
No down mods yet - not on that post. In fact, it’s now up to “3”. I think it’s worth digging deeper into what’s likely going on.
Star Wars always had politics but not so blatantly aligned with “the message” and especially its flattening effects - forcing “identity group oppression” binaries into the fore over individual agency, pluralism, etc.
But what about Andor? How did it manage to succeed despite top down mandate of The Message? I think this is well w
RIP (Score:3)