George Lucas is part of the 70s class of filmmakers who reshaped movies. Lucas and his peers — Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola — have been back in the spotlight as of late. While Scorsese and Coppola have resided on the less commercial side of films for the majority of their legacy, they have also been the ones who have famously come out against the long-running popular genre of comic book superhero movies in recent years. Scorsese would not completely count out the entertainment of Marvel films, but the Killers of the Flower Moon director would make his statement that Marvel isn’t cinema. Coppola, however, would be less diplomatic about the matter and not only agree with Scorsese’s statement but also refer to them as “despicable.”
This year, at the Cannes Film Festival, George Lucas would be honored with a Palm d’Or for his contribution to film and the Star Wars creator shared his own opinion on the Marvel debate with a very broad definition. World of Reel reports that while Lucas spoke at Cannes, he indicated,
Look. Cinema is the art of a moving image. So if the image moves, then it’s cinema. I think Marty has kind of changed his mind a little bit.”
Star Wars was George Lucas’ attempt at recapturing his own nostalgia for Flash Gordon shorts, as well as the Westerns and Samurai films of his youth. His brand expanded well beyond his first 1977 film into its own universe, which mirrors the scope of the Marvel universe. Both franchises reside under the umbrella of Disney and while Lucas sold his rights to the studio, he would continue to contribute his ideas even if he wasn’t involved in development. Disney would opt to go their own route and Lucas says his vision “sort of got lost.”
Lucas explained, “I was the only one who really knew what Star Wars was…who actually knew this world, because there’s a lot to it. The force, for example, nobody understood the force. When they started other ones after I sold the company, a lot of the ideas that were in [the original] sort of got lost. But that’s the way it is. You give it up, you give it up.” Then, he added, “I’m a stubborn guy and I didn’t want people to tell me how to make my movies.”