“I thought it was operatic”: Steven Spielberg named George Lucas’ most accomplished movie
Separately and together, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas have developed a habit of reinventing the cinematic medium’s commercial and technological capabilities, with their enduring friendship instigating several industry-wide shifts in Hollywood.
Whether it was Spielberg directing the highest-grossing movie in history with Jaws before being usurped by Lucas’ Star Wars prior to reclaiming the title for himself through E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and then doing it again with Star Wars, or Industrial Light & Magic being pivotal to the CGI revolution that benefitted them both immensely, they’ve always been happy to pat each other on the back.
Not that Lucas has been anywhere near as prolific as his bearded brethren. The filmmaker has only helmed six features in his entire career, with his last non-Star Wars jaunt behind the camera coming on 1973’s American Graffiti. Still, those two earned him Academy Award nominations for ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Original Screenplay’, and the films themselves were shortlisted for ‘Best Picture’.
Outside of a galaxy far, far away, Lucas co-created the Indiana Jones series alongside Spielberg, served as a regular soundboard during the writing process and directed the second unit on Raiders of the Lost Ark. He also made contributions – for better or worse – to Willow, Howard the Duck, Francis Ford Coppola’s Tucker: The Man and His Dream, and World War II drama Red Tails.
If most people were pressed to name which entry in Lucas’ back catalogue is the most accomplished, then it would likely boil down to a shootout between American Graffiti and Star Wars, with the staunchest supporters of the ambitiously unwieldy THX 1138 thrown in for good measure. Not Spielberg, though, as he outlined to Roger Ebert.
“I really love George’s Star Wars: Episode II,” he offered. “I thought it was operatic, George’s most accomplished movie.” That’s right; the film where Hayden Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker voices his intense and deep-seated hatred for sand was named by none other than Spielberg as the most distinguished work of Lucas’ entire career.
Attack of the Clones isn’t even the most accomplished of the prequel trilogy, but Spielberg was suitably won over by the wooden acting, stilted dialogue, and artifice of shooting the majority of the scenes against greenscreen backdrops. Each to their own, but it’s nonetheless surprising to hear a director famed for injecting their blockbusters with so much emotionality and vibrancy to sing the praises of a sci-fi spectacular that’s become more notable for the memes it created than anything that happens on-screen.
Then again, Episode II does mark the first time Yoda showed himself to be a secret lightsaber-wielding badass after revealing his old man schtick to be nothing more than an elaborate ruse, so maybe that’s what tipped the scales for Spielberg in Attack of the Clones‘ favour.
