"Even in high school I was very interested in history - why people do the things they do. As a kid I spent a lot of time trying to relate the past to the present"
About this Quote
Lucas frames his creative obsession as something nobler than spaceships and laser swords: pattern recognition. The line is disarmingly plain, almost studiously unglamorous, but that plainness is the point. By grounding his imagination in history class rather than fanboy fantasy, he positions himself as an interpreter of behavior, not just a manufacturer of spectacle. “Why people do the things they do” is a filmmaker’s mission statement disguised as teenage curiosity: plot is just motives under pressure.
The subtext is Lucas defending myth-making as a kind of historical thinking. His films rarely chase realism; they chase recurrence. Empires rise, republics rot, charismatic leaders sell fear as order, technology amplifies ancient appetites. When he says he tried to “relate the past to the present,” you can hear the blueprint for Star Wars and especially the prequels: a story less about aliens than about how democracies casually vote themselves into something uglier. It’s not subtle, and it’s not meant to be. Lucas’s politics and psychology are big, archetypal, legible at a glance.
Context matters here: Lucas came of age amid Vietnam, Watergate, and postwar American power flexing into disillusionment. He also inherits a Hollywood tradition of epics that smuggle commentary through period costume. His twist is to use the future as the period costume. The intent isn’t to reenact history; it’s to remind you history repeats because people repeat. That’s why the quote lands: it’s a quiet claim that escapism can be an argument, and that the past is only “past” if you stop looking for its fingerprints on now.
The subtext is Lucas defending myth-making as a kind of historical thinking. His films rarely chase realism; they chase recurrence. Empires rise, republics rot, charismatic leaders sell fear as order, technology amplifies ancient appetites. When he says he tried to “relate the past to the present,” you can hear the blueprint for Star Wars and especially the prequels: a story less about aliens than about how democracies casually vote themselves into something uglier. It’s not subtle, and it’s not meant to be. Lucas’s politics and psychology are big, archetypal, legible at a glance.
Context matters here: Lucas came of age amid Vietnam, Watergate, and postwar American power flexing into disillusionment. He also inherits a Hollywood tradition of epics that smuggle commentary through period costume. His twist is to use the future as the period costume. The intent isn’t to reenact history; it’s to remind you history repeats because people repeat. That’s why the quote lands: it’s a quiet claim that escapism can be an argument, and that the past is only “past” if you stop looking for its fingerprints on now.
Quote Details
| Topic | Learning |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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