George Lucas Admits He "May Have Gone Too Far" After Screening PHANTOM MENACE
Until recently, most Star Wars fans generally agreed that Episode I: The Phantom Menace is the worst film in the entire saga. And even George Lucas himself was not thrilled after seeing a rough cut of prequel film. Lucas was so bothered by the climax of the film, he admitted to the small screening room he "may have gone too far in a few places."
Star Wars: The Last Jedi has divided fans, but it continues to dominate the box office, THR recently took a look back at a making-of featurette that was included on The Phantom Menace DVD, which showed Lucas, in part... had a bad feeling about this.
Critics bashed the film which holds a 55% on Rotten Tomatoes, and most fans were also disappointed in the final product. One of the biggest complaints, besides Jar Jar, was the underwhelming climax of the film. The funny thing is that it turns out Lucas and the crew had the very same reaction. But by the time the time they realized it, it was too late, according to the footage on the DVD special feature.
"It's a little disjointed," Lucas says after the screening ends. "It's bold in terms of jerking people around. I may have gone too far in a few places."
Film editor Ben Burtt adds to Lucas' comments in regards to the pacing and tone of the scenes cut together, which include a lightsaber fight that leads to the death of Qui-Gon Jinn; Queen Amidala and troops escaping; and Jar Jar clumsily blasting battle droids on the ground.
"In a space of about 90 seconds, you go from lamenting the death of a hero to escape to slightly comedic with Jar Jar to Anakin returning... It's a lot in a very short time."
Lucas seemed to agree, but said it was too late to make cuts. The behind-the-scenes footage shows producer Rick McCallum sitting in silence, just staring at the screen with his hand over his mouth. Lucas said:
"It boggles the mind. I have thought about this quite a bit, and the tricky part is you almost can't take any of those pieces out of it now, because each one takes you to the next place. And you can't jump because you don't know where you are."
The footage in the small theater ends and the camera starts rolling in a kitchen as Lucas, Burtt and McCallum have what seems like a slightly heated exchange.
"I do a particular kind of movie of which this is consistent. But it is a very hard movie to follow. But, at the same time, I have done it a little more extremely than I have done it in the past. It's stylistically designed to be that way, and you can't undo that, but we can diminish the affects of it. We can slow it down a little bit, so if it's intense for us, a regular person is going to go nuts."
Here is the featurette. The screening portion starts at the 54:42 mark.