The ensemble is the key to Lucas movies

 

Thursday, July 09, 2009

 

I just saw The Crystal Skull again and realized my first review of the movie was off.

Harrison Ford didn’t save the movie they way I thought he did. Something more fundamental did.

I’ve been reading the scripts to all the Indiana Jones movies (not the alternative scripts – that comes later), and between watching the films again and my previous reading of the Star Wars scripts, I finally understand why I have a problem with some George Lucas movies and not others.

For instance, I love Willow, but hate the last three Star Wars films.

I’m also not a huge fan of the second Indiana Jones film.

Reading the scripts I realize how much Steven Spielberg has done to rescue the Indiana Jones movies, and why this largely failed for me in the Temple of Doom.

All Lucas films suffer from the same basic flaws (but for that matter have the same potential for success) with or without Spielberg’s savvy editing and changes to the script. (Look at the mourning scene over Marion in the first movie and you see Spielberg at his best in altering the text to make the film better).

Lucas works whenever he emphasized the ensemble over individual characters.

In many ways Crystal Skull script is about the same marginal quality of Temple of Doom, but works better because Lucas as created a new ensemble to help Harrison carry the weight of the film.

In Crystal Skull nearly everything falls on his shoulders.

 

**************

 

My wife’s a bit pissed at me for buying a new set of the first three Indiana Jones films. She thinks I’m crazy since we already owned the set in VHS.

But I realized the VHS versions were not wide screen only after I bought a copy of Crystal Skull in the wide screen version.

You can’t watch any of these films on half a screen.

I’m pissed at Block Buster because they sold me a copy of Schindler’s List with the pink girl (red hat girl in the book) missing.

The film works on some levels without it, but since the Red Girl is the motivating moment for Schindler, any film without it screws with the film’s integrity, so I went and bought another copy – again risking divorce.

 

*****************

 

I just finished rewriting another two minute monologue.

Although I’m still working on the larger film, “The Ghost in Old Mill Tavern,” I’ve decided to do shorter films featuring monologues.

I think I’ve developed a working formula. The first three films were straight monologues just to get me into the habit of learning my lines and actually acting them out.

The next film – my God a western – will bring the other elements of film making into this with an establishing shot, master shot, and variety of two and three shots as well as insets and moving camera.

I’m actually working on these as serious productions that I might – if they are good enough – submit to contests. This means I need to use digital tape verses the video mode on my digital cameras. The difference in quality is amazing.