Lucas gets star treatment from AFI

George Lucas, the filmmaker who gave the world light sabers, the Force, Wookiees and THX sound, was selected Friday by the American Film Institute’s Board of Trustees to receive its 33rd annual Life Achievement Award, its highest honor for a career in film.

Lucas, whose “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” franchises are among the most lucrative in movie-making history, will accept the award next June at a gala tribute in Los Angeles -- coincidentally, just a few weeks after the release of his final “Star Wars” film, “Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.” The ceremony will be telecast on USA Network.

AFI director and CEO Jean Picker Firstenberg said the Board of Trustees selected Lucas for his visionary filmmaking, his creativity and his groundbreaking use of technology: “He has such a profound influence on the audience -- he is a storyteller for the ages as was Dickens and Tolkien. He is a modern myth maker ... His mastery of the realm of the digital has enabled him to tell his stories in truly breakthrough cutting-edge fashion.”

Lucas joins the list of such legendary filmmakers as John Ford, Orson Welles, William Wyler, Alfred Hitchcock, John Huston, Billy Wilder, David Lean, Steven Spielberg, Robert Wise and Martin Scorsese who previously have received the AFI honor.

Lucas was unavailable for an interview but commented in a statement: “I’ve been very fortunate to have had a long career doing what I love to do, and being recognized by the AFI for it is really an honor. I’m proud to be counted among such an extraordinary group of people whose lives are dedicated to the art of making movies.”

Lucas, 60, is probably the most famous graduate of the University of Southern California School of Cinema & Television. And it was while he was at USC that his short film, “Electronic Labyrinth THX 1138” won the top award at the National Student Film Festival.

With longtime friend Francis Ford Coppola as executive producer, Lucas made his theatrical directorial debut in 1971 with “THX-1138,” an expanded version of his student film. It was a flop. His next film, the nostalgic “American Graffiti,” released in 1973, was a huge hit and put Lucas on the radar screen.

But it wasn’t until 1977, when he invited audiences to go to a galaxy far, far away with his sci-fi morality tale “Star Wars,” that he changed the landscape of filmmaking. And as chairman of Lucasfilm Ltd., he has guided the growth of special effects and digital imagery with the cutting-edge special effects studio ILM. Its computer graphic research division was spun off in 1986 and became Pixar Animation Studios.

Lucas broke ground in other ways, too: He negotiated the licensing rights to all products associated with “Star Wars,” then an unprecedented practice that is now common.

“It’s hard to figure out a place he hasn’t touched,” said Gary J. Prebula, film historian at Cal State Long Beach. “He and Coppola validated film school.... He revolutionized sound. He is responsible for electronic editing. It is just hard to imagine a place he hasn’t affected.”

Chris Horak, film historian and curator of the Hollywood Entertainment Museum, agreed that Lucas deserves credit for his vision. But Horak said that if you look past the special affects, Lucas’ movies are classic action adventures that have been spun off into a franchise.

He sees Lucas’ ascendancy in the 1970s “as a reaction to the new Hollywood where you had people like Bob Rafelson [“Five Easy Pieces”] and Monte Hellman [“Two-Lane Blacktop”] doing this edgy stuff.... Personally I look at it with a little bit of regret. I thought there was a moment when filmmakers were going to be more adventuresome.”

Prebula said that Lucas may have some flaws as a director, but added that “I don’t really care.”

“I was privileged to be at the first screening of ‘American Graffiti,’ ” Prebula recalled. “As a film student, that was a seminal moment. I realized the power of film when I saw that movie. People were dancing in the aisles.”