“Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” – Yoda, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
For decades fanboys have debated the Star Wars series. Whether they’re quibbling over the finer points of the original trilogy or lamenting the existence of the prequels, fans of the franchise have brandished unparalleled levels of love and simultaneous hate for its writer/director/producer George Lucas. It’s a fascinating ambivalence never more present than when a geek finishes railing against the Hollywood mogul only to admit in defeat, “But he did make Star Wars.”
While the documentary The People vs. George Lucas doesn’t offer anything new to the continuing argument, Alexandre O. Philippe’s film compiles this long list of gripes into an entertaining amalgam of commentary worth a look for anyone who cares who shot first in the cantina, Han Solo or Greedo.
The title might suggest a courtroom presentation of points and counterpoints, but the doc is instead structured more as an episodic chronology, like the series itself, detailing the evolution of Star Wars as much as it’s geek fandom and the transformation of Lucas.
By beginning with a biography of the director, Philippe is able to land a few blows by contrasting the roguish, anti-studio filmmaker of the ’70s with the modern-day Hollywood billionaire who, ironically, runs a studio. For example, Lucas championed a movement in the ’80s to bar media mogul Ted Turner from colorizing black and white films because he felt classics shouldn’t be altered. Twenty years later, Lucas hypocritically re-released the trilogy as “Special Editions” with a list of controversial changes that not only affected the story, but intentionally superseded the original cut.
Then comes the film’s skewering of the new trilogy, a set of prequels that would rewind the universe to an earlier time in a galaxy far, far away. Geek interviews perfectly capture the sinking feeling of witnessing Episode I perform unsavory acts on their childhood, as if fans hadn’t even considered the possibility of a Star Wars movie being a disappointment. 
I’m convinced the pure substance transforming people into adrenaline-fueled zombies in 28 Days Later spawned from the collective nerd rage over Jar Jar Binks.
Perhaps the greatest strength of Philippe’s doc is it’s establishment and involvement of the “sandbox” Lucas created where geeks regularly build elaborate/creepy sandcastles. A sign of the YouTube culture, the majority of the movie consists of fan-made lightsaber battles, reenactments, and other riffs set in the vast Star Wars universe. There are even websites dedicated to re-editing the series and trading their vision with other fans, such as the “The Phantom Edit” that removes nearly every scene that includes Jar Jar. People adore The Godfather, but you don’t see fan edits of The Godfather: Part III removing Sofia Coppola or reworking the ending. (In all fairness, Francis Ford Coppola never revisited it to touch up Al Pacino’s make-up either.)
It’s been five years since the last prequel and thirteen years since the Special Editions, and yet there’s still an intense feeling of betrayal amongst some Star Wars fans. In fact, the group is so passionate that there’s now a separate, growing faction of jaded nerds tired of the other angry geeks. It never ends. However, whether you decry or deify George Lucas, there’s no denying he has inspired a generation unlike any other, and The People vs. George Lucas deftly documents the Rebel resistance.
3.5 out of 5.
