Customer Reviews

Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas

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In times past the function of biographies was generally to elevate their subjects to noble heights and focus on the individuals accomplishments. In modern times the function of biographies often seems to be to tear down their subjects, ruthlessly exposing every flaw and possible past transgression of the person under examination. This biography of film director/producer George Lucas is an evenhanded look at his life and work, even if some of the conclusions it's author arrives at are necessarily personal rather than certifiably factual in nature.

The book is peppered with many quotes from Lucas himself as well as Spielberg, Coppola, Milius and others which lends it a feeling of legitimacy which I believe is probably lacking from other, less sympathetic biographies. Lucas himself is quite forthcoming about his feelings on his own work and what he sees as his limitations as a director. His comments on Hollywood were amusing if understandably bitter, especially for someone who has worked there in the past.

If one omits his earliest film shorts such as the student version of THX 1138 and the documentary Filmmaker, Lucas has only directed three films in his career, THX 1138, American Grafitti and Star Wars. His function since that last mega-smash has primarily been as producer and head of the state-of-the-art Skywalker Ranch production facilities up in scenic Northern California. He has also helped finance a number of less "mainstream" works such as Kurosawa's Kagemusha. It's unfortunately probably true that Lucas has never been taken seriously by many critics ever since Star Wars because that film was so consciously intended as a "kids movie". Despite the fact that it was embraced by popular culture around the world due to its quality and mythic resonance it does tend to overwhelm his early, more adult-oriented films. Lucas himself is quite skeptical of some of the intellectual critical analysis that has been produced on what was intended to be an innocent hommage to 30's style action movie serials and not a "think piece". It's also surprising that so many people continue to consider the Star Wars films science-fiction when they really fall much more into the fantasy genre despite all the high-tech trappings.

Of course this book includes reams of trivia on the films, from the origin of all of the characters names in Star Wars to the details behind preview screenings and loads of very funny anecdotes that could only have been provided by an industry as crazy and high-stakes as Hollywood. Mostly however this is the story of a man from modest origins who managed to beat Hollywood at it's own game and achieve financial independence from "the system" through a combination of very savvy business choices, luck and a personal vision that happened to coincide with what a large number of the paying public wanted to see on screen.

This review refers to the original 1983 hardcover release of this book.

I'm a Star Wars fan, and always wondered what kind of person George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, was. This book pretty much answered any and all questions I had about the Master Jedi himself.

Pollock's narrative of Lucas's life begins with George's childhood, then proceeds into his rebellious teen years--which was the inspiration for American Graffiti--then straight onto Lucas' student filmmaker years and finally to his highly successful movie career. The latter of which is when Star Wars and its sequels were produced and established Lucas as one of the most influential filmmakers in the history of the medium.

The book offers a balanced, journalistic account of Lucas' life, with very little opinion injected into the book. Some places Pollock seems to praise Lucas too much, but it's nothing too extreme.

The only real problem is that the book was written during the production of Return of the Jedi, when Skywalker Ranch wasn't finished, George was still married to first wife Marcia, and before the flops Willow and Howard the Duck. I read the revised edition which has an intro mentioning these things, but the book's main narrative is about what's happened to Lucas up to 1983.

I'd recommend this book to any fan of Star Wars, and anyone else curious about Lucas himself.

A long time ago in a galaxy far,far away George Lucas revolutionized modern movie making, and captivated a nation with his spectacular movie Star Wars. Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi became one of the worlds most beloved trilogys. After Star Wars, George Lucas contintued to dazzle the public with his unique story-telling by bringing us another wonderful trilogy-The Indiana Jones trilogy. This book is an excellent read on how these and other movies from George Lucas made it to the big screen. With excellent background history on Lucas himself, this book is a must for anyone who admires Mr.Lucas. A well-researched book,it gives a detailed account of how some the most famous movies in cynematic history made it to the big screen. Overall I thought it was great and urge anyone who loves Star Wars, or just wants a good book to read to get this book. :) May the force be with you!

I read the older edition and loved it, but the "revised" edition is lacking. I believe that the more accurate, and far more interesting tale is spun in the recent book Droidmaker: George Lucas and the Digital Revolution. That book has a technical edge that Skywalking does not (both good and bad news, I suppose), Droidmaker smacks of deeper truths and less sensationalistic noise. Skywalking covers Lucas' youth very well, and stories of the production of his early films, but I don't think it's really that good a book. I suppose it's a must-have for the fan, but take that with a grain of salt. There are better and more current books now available -- in particular, Hearn's Cinema of George Lucas and Rubin's Droidmaker.

Haven't read a bigraphy so interesting since I browsed through richard branson's 3 years ago. it's always great to read about a rollercoaster life, especially one as up and down and then up up up as george Lucas...

Really Well Written... top marks

This isn't one of those "authorised" biographies which give rose coloured accounts of a person. Instead, Dale Pollock provides an excellent account of Lucas's childhood, his involvement with Zoetrope Films and of course, his creation of the Star Wars series. Pollock provides details of the troubles Lucas encountered in filming Star Wars: his health, conflicts with the British film crew, lack of faith by 20th Century Fox in the film. We didn't see it in the television pogram "Making of Star Wars"!

The book is a must for all fans of George Lucas.

Although a great read - filled with factual errors!
Matmata is the Tunisan town where Luke's crater home is located- Not Matama. The Homestead dwelling is NOT 30 miles from Nefta-more like 5. The book has a nice Photo of a jerba..whatever that is?!- Dewback is the correct word. Djerba is A location NOT a creature. Ben Kenobi does NOT reside in a cave! ..And all these errors are appearing in only ONE of the Chapters, so accuracy is not an issue with Mr. Pollack.

D Slattery

I first bought this book in 1983 and have read it hundreds of times. I was initially disappointed in the 1990 "update" (which contained only a new Foreword) but that changed with the newest version of this book. It's too bad George Lucas dismisses it as being "as accurate as the National Enquirer" because for someone who hung out on the set of "Return of the Jedi" and conducted interviews with Lucas himself, Pollock delivers a highly interesting account of Lucas' life.

I found this book to be incredibly interesting. I love biographies, but some are much more compelling than others. This one really kept my interest. I think one of the best things about it is that it starts with Lucas's roots, and that gives a much better idea to the reader of why things have happened the way they have. I was also impressed by the inclusion of substantial information on Graffiti, which is sometimes ignored, even though it was great, and an important part of Lucas's development as a filmmaker.

I have really enjoyed watching both Graffiti and the Star Wars trilogy since I first read this book, because now I see things that I didn't before, and I notice cuts and editing and story points that didn't seem as significant until I read the book. I think it is great.

This is a good book, but it could be updated. The book is fairly thorough in detailing the early career, ambitions, problems and plights of George Lucas from the time of his birth to the time of making Return of the Jedi. This includes some discussion of THX1138 and American Grafitti. Even the updated version, however, stops there. There is no substantial discussion of any of the new prequels in this book. Yet that summarizes the book's scope and major limitations. That aside, readers will find themselves well-informed about the roots of Lucas, the genesis of Star Wars, and how the dream of the first trilogy unfolded and played out on screen. Obviously this book is not the last word on Lucas, but it is not a bad place to start learning about him