The People vs. George Lucas: Stars Wars Fans Strike Back!

When it comes to thinking about fan culture, no discussion would be complete without talking about Star Wars and its fans. Other films and television shows like Star Trek and Buffy the Vampire Slayer have all garnered a large cult following who create reenactments, parodies, fan fiction and other fan texts, but none really compares to cultural products of the love/hate relationship that Star Wars fans have with its creator, George Lucas.

Star Wars fans have been interacting and reworking the films since they came out, but one of the most popular fan videos to first gain mainstream attention was George Lucas in Love, a short independent film released in 1999 by Joe Nussbaum as a parody of Shakespeare in Love, which had been released the year before. The film received critical praise and attention and eventually officially premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 1999 and went on to win several film awards. The film is available online, so check it out below!

However, while the film George Lucas in Love did help to make visible how millions of Star Wars fans were recreating and rewriting Star Wars into fan fiction, videos and images, it failed to really consider the fans themselves and why they were reworking Star Wars into something new in the first place.

Fast forward from 1999 to 2010 to the release of the film The People vs. George Lucas, which examines the ambivalent relationship that Star Wars fans have with its creator, George Lucas. The film looks at Star Wars controversies, like the introduction of the slightly racist character of Jar Jar Binks in Episode I: The Phantom Menace, and how fan culture has influenced and shaped the legacy of Star Wars. The director of the film, Alexandre Philipee, invited fans to send in their own footage, which Philipee sorted through and compiled to create the film, all 634 hours of it. The film comes across as a love/hate letter to George Lucas, highlighting the significance of fan culture and fan participation in the development of the Star Wars movie empire and legacy. The film The People vs. George Lucas most importantly explores the meaning of participatory and fan culture, asking the question of who culture really belongs to: the fans or the creator?

The People vs. George Lucas - Trailer #3 from The People vs. George Lucas on Vimeo.

Your move, George Lucas!