Fans vs. George Lucas: Suggested Viewing

Official Star Wars Blog/flickr

For more background on the battle between Star Wars director George Lucas and his fans, see the following:

Fan Edits
Since Lucas doesn't seem to want to make the movies his fans are after, they've started editing both the prequels and re-releases and distributing them online. It all started in 2000, with The Phantom Edit, a nearly Jar-Jar free fan edit of The Phantom Menace. That editor went on to do Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Phantom (an edit of Attack of the Clones), and now there's even an edit of all three prequels into one film, Star Wars: Rise of the Empire. They can all be found online at fanedit.org.

THX 1138 and Low Budget Eye Candy
A video essay that looks at the final chase sequence of Lucas's first film, THX 1138, and the benefits of adversity in filmmaking:

LOW BUDGET EYE CANDY #1 from Steven Boone on Vimeo.

The Red Letter Media Phantom Menace Review (Part 1 of 7)
As Lucas's creativity wanes, perhaps we could be grateful that his fans seem to be picking up the slack. Perhaps the best thing to come out of The Phantom Menace, this video review shows what exactly went wrong with the first of the prequels. Prepare to lose an hour of your day, starting now.

The Star Wars Trilogy (1997 Special Editions and Original Theatrical Releases)
A little over a year ago, Lucas finally got around to releasing the original theatrical versions on DVD as a series of bonus discs on the Star Wars Trilogy box set (up until that point, only the modified 1997 "special editions" had been released.) Just one problem: as yet another "fuck you" to his fans, Lucas released the original theatrical versions without 5.1 sound and without an anamorphic widescreen picture. Which is all a technical way of saying that the picture is VHS-quality and the sound poor. You can watch the originals, Lucas seems to be saying, but it'll be like watching them at your Grandma's house circa 1989.