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Today, it’s almost universally accepted that George Lucas’ “Star Wars” is a cornerstone of cinema. The film has garnered numerous awards and launched a highly successful science fiction saga, along with an enormous merchandising empire that captivates fans across generations worldwide. However, during an early screening with Lucas’ director peers, a notable critic emerged: Brian De Palma, who would later direct “Scarface,” didn’t quite connect with the film’s concept.
20th Century Fox
According to J.W. Rinzler’s “The Making of Star Wars: The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film”, De Palma bluntly questioned Lucas about the film’s mystical elements, reportedly asking, “What is this Force stuff?” He also wondered why there wasn’t more realism, such as visible blood when characters were shot. Despite these initial reservations, De Palma later admitted that he recognized the film’s potential even if he had significant critiques.
Reflecting on the experience in a conversation on the “Light the Fuse” podcast, De Palma acknowledged his early skepticism. He found “the Force” to be a less-than-inspiring term for a guiding spiritual power, admitting, “Needless to say, I had a lot to say about the Force, which obviously I was terribly wrong about.” De Palma emphasized that such exchanges were commonplace among friends reviewing each other’s early work, stating, “Sometimes I was right, sometimes I was wrong. They did the same for my movies.”
Despite his initial criticisms, De Palma didn’t just focus on the negatives. Steven Spielberg, who was also present during the screening, recalled that De Palma contributed constructive feedback. One significant suggestion was the famous opening crawl, which would become iconic in the series.
Spielberg recounted to Empire Online in 2016 that De Palma criticized the film’s introduction, feeling it plunged audiences into a complex narrative without sufficient setup. De Palma reportedly told Lucas, “Nobody will get it. It’s just a void with stars and some silly ships moving around.” However, he didn’t just leave it at that; he proposed the idea for an opening text crawl to give viewers the necessary background. This suggestion became a defining feature of the “Star Wars” films.
Brian De Palma made one key alteration that changed Star Wars forever
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Brian De Palma wasn’t shy about telling his good friend George Lucas that his early cut of “Star Wars” needed work, but it wasn’t just criticism and negativity. According to Steven Spielberg, who attended the screening as well, De Palma also had some suggestions on how to improve the movie. One of those was the creation of the film’s opening crawl, which became a staple of the franchise.
“I was in on the very first rough cut of ‘Star Wars’ with De Palma,” Spielberg told Empire Online in a 2016 interview. According to Spielberg, De Palma expressed frustration that the film dropped audiences into the middle of a complicated story with no context, telling Lucas, “‘Nobody will get it. It’s just a void with stars and some silly ships moving around.’” But along with that criticism, De Palma offered up a solution — an opening “crawl” that would provide the necessary context he was looking for.
“I said, ‘George, you’ve gotta set this up somehow like those crawls in the Flash Gordon movies,’” De Palma told the “Light the Fuse” podcast. According to De Palma, Lucas wrote his own, but it needed a lot of work: “It was all gobbledygook basically, so I and [screenwriter] Jay Cocks went over the crawl and basically rewrote it so it made some sense. And that was our contribution.” One could rightly argue that without De Palma’s input, “Star Wars” might have simply confused moviegoers, rather than dazzle them.