All Criticism is Self-Criticism - George Lucas & The Tao of Episode I - VI

Intitiate :

" What's in there? "

Master :

" Only What You take with You. "

" Oh, for my members and friends of the press, my self-appointed white critics, I was reading Mr. Bernard Shaw two days ago, and I came across a very important quote which I think is most apropos for you. He says, 

"All criticism is a[n] autobiography."

Dig yourself. "

Stokely Carmichael 

Dig Yourself.

" The controversy over who shot first, Greedo or Han Solo, in Episode IV, what I did was try to clean up the confusion, but obviously it upset people because they wanted Solo [who seemed to be the one who shot first in the original] to be a cold-blooded killer, but he actually isn’t. 

It had been done in all close-ups and it was confusing about who did what to whom. 

I put a little wider shot in there that made it clear that Greedo is the one who shot first, but everyone wanted to think that Han shot first, because they wanted to think that he actually just gunned him down. "

Only What You Take with You.

Dig Yourself.

Only What You Take with You.

Smoke That MF-er like it Ain't No Thang.

Dig Yourself.

So - Who Likes Lists..?

Dig Yourself.

BILL MOYERS: 

A professor I know said that he recently asked his freshman class how many of them had seen all three of the trilogy, and everyone in the class raised his hand. 

And he said to me,  

‘I hope Lucas knows he’s mentoring an entire generation of — of — of young Americans.’

GEORGE LUCAS: 

I — I have a philosophy that we all teach, and we all teach every day of our lives. 

And it’s not necessarily what we lecture. 

I’ve discovered kids don’t like lectures at all. 

But it is really the way we live our lives.

And what we do with our lives and — and the way we conduct ourselves.

And once in a while they listen to the lectures. 

So when I make the films, I’m very aware of the fact that I’m teaching on a much larger scale than I would just as a parent or somebody walking through life. 

Because I have this megaphone. 

Anybody in the media has a very large megaphone that they can reach a lot of different people, and so whatever they say, whatever they do, however they conduct themselves, whatever they produce has an influence and is teaching somebody something. 

And I try to be aware of what it is I’m saying.  "