George Lucas’ Star Wars became a cultural phenomenon in no time. There might only be a handful who do know something or the other about the franchise. Star Wars has a vast and loyal fanbase that somehow remembers all the minute details shown in the films and the television series. This is how much the fans love Star Wars and why wouldn’t they? After all, George Lucas poured his heart and soul into it.
However, before Star Wars (1977) made waves in the film industry, the director met a roadblock on his way when he decided to screen the film for some of the most renowned personalities in Hollywood. This included Brian De Palma, Alan Ladd, and Steven Spielberg. Unfortunately, his film was not met with applause but luckily, his friends were there to help him out of the mess.
George Lucas’ Initial Screening Was Met with Silence
Steven Spielberg, Brian De Palma, Alan Ladd, and a few others attended the very first screening of Star Wars aka Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, and were left shocked. Not in a good way, though. In his novel titled Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, Peter Biskind wrote that “there was no applause, just an embarrassed silence.” (via Collider)
Clearly, George Lucas had not cracked the code just yet. The attendees criticized the film for the lack of visual effects, something which the franchise heavily relies on. Biskind stated that Lucas had held the film together with dogfights from World War II films.
While the audience members each had their opinions about the early cut, Spielberg seemed to be the only one who saw the potential in it. As per Collider, the Jaws director told his friend, “George, it’s great. It’s gonna make $100 million.”
In a clip from the Light and Magic docuseries (via Cinema Blend), 45 years later, Spielberg was seen clarifying his original stance stating,
“To say it was not finished is a kindness! He didn’t have the effects yet. There was a great deal of debate about context because there were only a couple of effects shots in there. Where are we? Who are we? Who are they? Do we need ‘they’? What is this menagerie of imagination, George, that you’ve invited us to see and tear apart!?”
Out of the lot, De Palma was the one who didn’t think it was necessary to sugarcoat the truth for Lucas and gave him his honest reviews which were, let’s just say, harsh.
George Lucas Benefited from His Friends’ Help
De Palma’s biggest contribution to Star Wars was the opening crawl at the very beginning of the film. He rightfully believed that an introduction was necessary before the film started as the audience would’ve been left confused otherwise. He also shortened the crawl from six paragraphs to three.
Spielberg, on the other hand, recommended John Williams to Lucas who was on the lookout for a composer. Williams then went on to create an original score for the film and there’s no doubt to the fact that Star Wars would’ve been incomplete without it.
However, according to Biskind’s book, Lucas originally refused to accept Spielberg’s help when it came to shooting action set pieces during production. When his friend offered his help, Lucas turned him down because of his competitive personality and the fact that he wanted Star Wars to beat Jaws and become the all-time box office earner.
Luckily, Lucas didn’t mind taking Spielberg’s help later on and thus, he and De Palma were able to help the filmmaker bring out the best in his film.
You can stream Star Wars on Disney+.
