George Lucas has always been blunt – even about his own work – so I wasn’t surprised to hear he has less-than-glorifying thoughts on focus groups. We all know how he feels about certain Star Wars topics, so when the director sat down for an interview discussing the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art (which is now in its final stages) I knew we were in for a delightful verbal treat.
What got the director started during his conversation with A Rabbit’s Foot: was his stance that “art is in the eye of the beholder,” but less so when the beholders are focus group members. It turns out his dislike for the group-based approach goes back to his famous friend group. Lucas name-dropped icons Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Francis Ford Coppola while revealing why he really hates movie focus groups. In his words:
I had a group of friends I went to school with: Marty Scorsese, Francis [Ford Coppola], Steven [Spielberg]. We were all students at the same time, and we all know each other really well. I know what their prejudices are. When I show them a movie and they make comments, I know where they’re coming from.
His answer didn’t surprise me at all. Everyone he named – including himself – is known for their filmmaking talents and experimental movies. But they’re also known for being direct about their opinions regarding films in general. This has been especially true when it comes to the Marvel Universe. Just ask Francis Ford Coppola, who has been blunt about the superhero films, but showed much love to Black Panther director Ryan Coogler‘s horror epic by penning a love letter to Sinners. Scorsese has also shared such opinions, but maybe he’ll be into the DCU’s Clayface, since he’s already made a body horror film himself.
In any case, the last director that Lucas name-dropped, Spielberg, is one that every generation knows, and is another that also doesn’t ever seem bothered by negative critiques. (Most recently, he faced mixed reactions to his film Disclosure Day.) And I can understand that after speaking with some of the best filmmakers on the planet about one’s movie ideas, it’s a bit of a drop-off to then hear the opinions from random people. Lucas shared this blunt take on the matter:
I don’t like focus groups. The audience doesn’t know what they want to see.
I think we all know what Lucas is referring to when he says that. Every Star Wars trilogy and spinoff has sparked mixed reactions from the most passionate fans, specifically from those who thought Jar Jar Binks was terrible. Lucas certainly went into that movie knowing fans would be “picky” about the prequels, but no one could ever know how much.
But what shocked me the most was learning that people wanted the director to get rid of C-3PO and even the Ewoks at one time. I couldn’t imagine if those people had gotten there way. What is a Star Wars universe without the humorous duo of C-3PO and R-2? The director feels that studios allow the audience to be too involved in making modern movies, rather than viewing their opinions as just that. In his words:
If they don’t like a character, that’s interesting, and as a filmmaker I want to find out why. But when the studios hear that, they take the wrong message. They let the audience actually make the movie. Of course, now they go crazy with that. Now, it’s all about what the fans think. That isn’t how you make the movie. You make a movie by finding someone that knows how to make movies, that has a story to tell and is passionate about it.
Can you imagine what classics like Citizen Kane and Casablanca would have been like had they been guided by focus groups? How would they have changed Alfred Hitchock’s Psycho had that been as big a part of the studio process at the time?
While George Lucas doesn’t have any current movies in the works, he is overseeing the completion of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art after installing himself as lead curator in the wake of the second curator quitting. The passion project houses 35 galleries and a collection that has more than 100,000 works, from infamous works to African American cinema artifacts.
This unique project serves as a commentary on “disposable art of the 20th century,” which Lucas feels “belongs at the center of its culture.” It seems the director and his wife, who is co-founding the project, want to focus primarily on art that “had never been considered art.”
I wonder if any artifacts from his director friends will be in the museum? After all, they are part of cinema history.