George Lucas Returns to Earth, Bearing Gifts

George Lucas Returns to Earth, Bearing Gifts commonedge.org

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is destined to become a landmark and must-visit destination for Los Angeles visitors.

121 points•surprisetalk•10 days ago•71 comments•

#lucas #earth #george #bearing #gifts #returns #lucas returns #george lucas

71 comments

slg8 days ago

It truly is a one of a kind museum. You'll see some of the most famous art in the world from people like Norman Rockwell and Frida Kahlo on the same walls as a random strip from Doonesbury or The Far Side. You'll walk through a reproduction of the Sistine Chapel shortly before walking through a reproduction of the podrace from Phantom Menace. You'll go to the theater and see a 60+ year old experimental short film made without a camera by pressing moth wings into film and then a few minutes later they'll show an episode of Cowboy Bebop.

It's such a bizarre and idiosyncratic collection that the museum itself inspires as much thought as the art in it.

hamdingers8 days ago

Nothing makes me more excited about this museum than the turnover in curatorial leadership throughout the project, capped off by Lucas assuming the title himself.

Give me his unrestrained vision. Put it in my veins.

slg8 days ago

It's reminiscent of the difference between the Star Wars prequel and sequel trilogies. Regardless of your opinions on the quality of those movies, the biggest differentiator is that the prequels were the singular vision of a self-funded artist while the sequels are a corporate product of a global media empire. Even if the latter produces a better movie, it ends up sanding off many of the edges and those edges are where a lot of us found the magic of Star Wars. The Lucas Museum is similar in that it very clearly is the product of an excentric billionaire rather than the same type of curatorial thinking you will find in other art museums.

antonvs8 days ago

CGI already did that. It turned out… ok

ckekcmekcn8 days ago

> Give me his unrestrained vision. Put it in my veins.

His unrestrained vision is The Phantom Menace. It’s the sand dialogue. It’s JarJar.

grehbies8 days ago

Spoiler warning.

EDIT: Get it? For the Museum of Narrative Art?

In all seriousness, I think I would have preferred the [Renaissance masterpiece] -> [Pop culture artifact] progression to have been a surprise. People seem to be more and more focused on expressing their own exuberance and less on preserving for everyone else the experience they put so much stock into. It's a bit selfish and hypocritical.

I knew who Luke's father was years before I saw Empire, and I can only imagine what a shock that must have been to people who didn't. I can only imagine. It would have been nice to have known, though.

slg8 days ago

> I think I would have preferred the [Renaissance masterpiece] -> [Pop culture artifact] progression to have been a surprise.

I never imagined I would be accused of posting spoilers for a museum, but even if we accept the idea that a museum can have spoilers, I think you're reading too much into what I said. There's no overt progression in the curation. I was simply detailing what I was thinking as I browsed the museum. In fact, the museum seems to be specifically designed to let the visitors experience the museum however they want. It was just my personal experience that this attempt to background the curation paradoxically had me thinking more about that curation than if they took a more traditional approach.

Hugsbox8 days ago

Brother it's a museum, not the newest Marvel movie. There aren't "spoilers".

popalchemist8 days ago

It hardly makes sense to conceive of a museum as having spoilers, since you go there to see the things that you know are there.

Triphibian8 days ago

This group photo from the opening gala doesn't have all the stars that were present that night, but what a wild assortment of talent this is. https://deadline.com/2026/09/lucas-museum-opening-hollywood-...

Keyframe8 days ago

Is that Frank Miller next to Spielberg? Quite a crew!

tanseydavid9 days ago

I used to see him (and occasionally his wife) eating breakfast at "greasy spoon" restaurant called Hilda's in San Anselmo (Marin County, CA).

Hilda's sadly closed for good in the past year or so.

msisk68 days ago

I accidently bumped into him at the Borders Bookstore in San Rafael back in the late 90's. I was looking at the new hardbound SciFi books and he was looking at the Star Wars books on the top shelf. I just said "excuse me" and he said "no problem" and we returned to our tasks.

Rendello8 days ago

He pops up in the background of a random documentary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC9RI8_QYmw

kridsdale38 days ago

Maybe that's when he read about Coruscant, picking up Heir to the Empire in there.

assimpleaspossi8 days ago

My son used to wait on him at a restaurant in Chicago when he came by to visit his now wife. My son, being a professional actor, had to use his best skills to treat him as just another customer

kkotak8 days ago

I used to see him often around one of his homes in Russian Hill. We used to live around the corner :).

FlowingRiver8 days ago

Obligatory random appearance of George.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC9RI8_QYmw

mungoman28 days ago

Very cool! Can’t help but think that the museum library is inspired by the main hall of the Stockholm City Library https://biblioteket.stockholm.se/about-the-stockholm-public-...

Karliss8 days ago

Isn't multiple floors of bookshelves with open central area a very common theme in large fancy libraries? For example British museum reading room, Oval room in France national library, Morgan Library & Museum, Rose reading room in New York Public Library.

The shelves can't be very high to keep them easily accessible, adding additional levels solves that. Open central area with higher ceiling gives more natural lighting.

VanTheBrand8 days ago

Definitely has similar vibes

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