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This Renowned Director Thought The Early Cut Of Star Wars “Didn't Make Any Sense”


Star Wars may be widely accepted now, but it hadn't always been that way, especially to George Lucas' fellow filmmakers. In fact, there's one famous director who thought Lucas' early cut of the movie is hard to understand.

In an interview with the Business Insider, the man who helmed iconic films like Scarface, Carrie, and The Untouchables, Brian De Palma, shared how his first impression of Star Wars – sans effects and the John Williams score – had been confusing for him.

De Palma is among Lucas' Movie Brats mates who he first showed A New Hope to. The Movie Brats include Steven Spielberg, John Landis, and Martin Scorsese as well.

While Spielberg told Lucas the movie looked like a hit to him, according to the book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, De Palma told Lucas:

The crawl at the beginning looks like it was written on a driveway. It goes on forever. It's gibberish.

However, De Palma clarified to the Business Insider that he sort of never said such things, but he did joke about them. He said:

That is not correct. I am sarcastic. I am considered the class clown, but a sarcastic clown. So I would make fun of certain things. Because everyone would take this stuff too seriously.

He later admitted that he didn't take a liking to the opening crawl, adding how each other's' criticisms were essential to be helpful to each other's movies. He said:

The crawl didn't make any sense at all. And I kept kidding him about the Force. I was like, ‘What is the Force?' But you have to understand, we used to look at each other's movies in order to be helpful. We might say some things that weren't nice.

Although the harsh comments are quite normal, De Palma denied recalling another story claiming how Lucas' wife at the time, Marcia, confronted him. He said:

I don't remember this, but there was an account where Marcia told me, ‘You've hurt George's feelings and you should be gentle with him.' I don't remember that. I really don't know what they're talking about.
I was basically myself. The thing the guys could always count on with me is I would say what I thought. I wasn't holding back.

As for George Lucas, De Palma said that the Star Wars creator never took any offense in his comments.

Well, regardless of Lucas had been hurt about what De Palma thought of the first cut of Star Wars, I'm sure he'd have forgotten those hurtful memories by now. The original Star Wars did rake in $775 million in the worldwide box office at the time of its release. The latest Star Wars film, The Force Awakens, has already grossed over $2 billion worldwide.

The next movie by the franchise, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, is also creating quite the buzz with rumors of reshoots. The movie hits theaters on December 16.

I'm sure George Lucas is proud of what he has created over the years.

Read: Stunt Coordinator Simon Crane Joins Crew For 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' Reshoots

Read: Rogue One Props and Costumes Will Be Showcased in Star Wars Celebration Europe

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