I've always been a bit harsh towards George Lucas - I'm not quite sure where the negative-opinion sprang from, but somewhere along the way I got the notion that this man simply made shitty, poorly written movies to sell more toys & collectibles to his unwavering legion of followers. Now, I should clarify that I'm not talking about the originals - I admit that I've only seen episode 4, 5 & 6 once... I watched them all back to back when I was very young, with my cousin Chad, at a thanksgiving family get-together. I had no beef with the films at the time - but then again I had a bowl cut... so, who knows.

Anyways, I'm getting side tracked. Point is, Lucas has written & directed some pretty mind-numbingly terrible movies the last few years... but, about six months ago, Billy made me sit down and watch a behind the scenes documentary on Lucas, spanning from pre-Star Wars to present day. I was pleasantly shocked to find that the young Lucas openly despised everything that he now embodies as a production powerhouse. But I was still hesitant to give the full benefit of the doubt. Until now - after reading this - I can't help but like him - I may never have the patience or desire to sit through his films, but I definitely don't find him as... unaware... as I once thought he had become. Here's a clip:

...Lucas never mentioned the president by name but was eager to speak his mind on U.S. policy in Iraq, careful again to note that he created the story long before the Bush-led occupation there.

"When I wrote it, Iraq didn't exist," Lucas said, laughing. "We were just funding Saddam Hussein and giving him weapons of mass destruction. We didn't think of him as an enemy at that time. We were going after Iran and using him as our surrogate, just as we were doing in Vietnam. ... The parallels between what we did in Vietnam and what we're doing in Iraq now are unbelievable."