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krpalmerMy local library offers two different ebook lending services, although I do tend to use one of them for its digital comics, music, and some movie and TV shows; its selection of books can seem a little eccentric if not “thin.” It was a change there to happen on the late J.W. Rinzler’s last book, a biography of movie producer Howard Kazanjian. I have to admit to not hurrying to sign it out, though. There had been reports it provided extensive comments not just from Kazanjian, producer on Raiders of the Lost Ark and Return of the Jedi, but also Marcia Lucas, former wife of George, and she just happened to criticize the Star Wars prequel and sequel trilogies alike. This would be thoroughly satisfying for a specific subset of fans, but left me stuck having to “take the bad with the good” (even as I have to acknowledge other people again could be in a similar if not identical situation, and at least a few dedicated souls are intent on insisting they draw no distinctions and have learned to stop worrying and love everything).
In the end, though, I got around to borrowing the ebook. It turned out that Howard Kazanjian and George Lucas had been in the same university at the same time; Kazanjian then found work in Hollywood in the closing years of the traditional studio system, working on The Wild Bunch, with Alfred Hitchcock on one of the director’s last movies, and on a movie called Rollercoaster. That last film got my attention because I knew its laserdisc had been used in an exceptionally early “multimedia adventure game.” (Knowing that I did manage to record the movie off Turner Classic Movies while I was still getting that channel on cable, but I’ve got no idea of how to try and recreate the adventure game from scratch.) It was at that point that Kazanjian started working for Lucasfilm with the now little-remembered sequel More American Graffiti. Before long, though, he was helping to get The Empire Strikes Back wrapped up and moving on to the next Lucasfilm productions. I’ve had the impression production on Return of the Jedi ran much smoother than on its two predecessors even if I can imagine certain insistences that “my personal reaction to the finished product is what matters, not what might have seemed a crisis at the time!” Certain comments about telling actors to keep their luggage clean before flying to England, and certain issues on location in the United States, were certainly intriguing to me even if they might have had a certain bearing on the familiar lamentations that some of the actors had burned out and weren’t bothering to act properly. I also have to admit that after having slight problems with Rinzler’s previous book on the making of that movie I didn’t mind a more neutral take here.
Marcia Lucas makes no grand claims to her importance, but her earlier comments did keep including “this important thing? It was my doing.” Two of those particulars are corroborated by Dale Pollock’s old biography Skywalking, although here a few more details are provided for each of them that could make things more subtle than “Marcia saw in a moment what George hadn’t figured out.” Still, just because I’m at the risk of not being impressed by claims that “obviously George Lucas couldn’t have done anything you liked on the old movies you did like,” that shouldn’t force thoughts of collaboration out of my mind. The Lucas marriage breaking up seemingly at a finish line can seem tragic in itself without getting into “but my own tragedy of being offended by these movies I saw as a grownup is important!” With Kazanjian having to find more work afterwards, though, I did have to ponder comments about him being stuck with a reputation of having worked wonders that only seemed to work against him landing projects. In any case he wasn’t as critical as Marcia Lucas about the later Star Wars films, even if the book did close before “Episode IX’s” opening.
In the end, though, I got around to borrowing the ebook. It turned out that Howard Kazanjian and George Lucas had been in the same university at the same time; Kazanjian then found work in Hollywood in the closing years of the traditional studio system, working on The Wild Bunch, with Alfred Hitchcock on one of the director’s last movies, and on a movie called Rollercoaster. That last film got my attention because I knew its laserdisc had been used in an exceptionally early “multimedia adventure game.” (Knowing that I did manage to record the movie off Turner Classic Movies while I was still getting that channel on cable, but I’ve got no idea of how to try and recreate the adventure game from scratch.) It was at that point that Kazanjian started working for Lucasfilm with the now little-remembered sequel More American Graffiti. Before long, though, he was helping to get The Empire Strikes Back wrapped up and moving on to the next Lucasfilm productions. I’ve had the impression production on Return of the Jedi ran much smoother than on its two predecessors even if I can imagine certain insistences that “my personal reaction to the finished product is what matters, not what might have seemed a crisis at the time!” Certain comments about telling actors to keep their luggage clean before flying to England, and certain issues on location in the United States, were certainly intriguing to me even if they might have had a certain bearing on the familiar lamentations that some of the actors had burned out and weren’t bothering to act properly. I also have to admit that after having slight problems with Rinzler’s previous book on the making of that movie I didn’t mind a more neutral take here.
Marcia Lucas makes no grand claims to her importance, but her earlier comments did keep including “this important thing? It was my doing.” Two of those particulars are corroborated by Dale Pollock’s old biography Skywalking, although here a few more details are provided for each of them that could make things more subtle than “Marcia saw in a moment what George hadn’t figured out.” Still, just because I’m at the risk of not being impressed by claims that “obviously George Lucas couldn’t have done anything you liked on the old movies you did like,” that shouldn’t force thoughts of collaboration out of my mind. The Lucas marriage breaking up seemingly at a finish line can seem tragic in itself without getting into “but my own tragedy of being offended by these movies I saw as a grownup is important!” With Kazanjian having to find more work afterwards, though, I did have to ponder comments about him being stuck with a reputation of having worked wonders that only seemed to work against him landing projects. In any case he wasn’t as critical as Marcia Lucas about the later Star Wars films, even if the book did close before “Episode IX’s” opening.