Did you know that if it weren't for Francis Ford Coppola, there would probably be no Star Wars? Did you know that Apocalypse Now was originally intended for George Lucas to direct? (Ugh, and it wouldn't be shot here in the first place).

As a Christmas treat for myself, I watched the documentary A Legacy of Filmmakers: The Early years of American Zoetrope from the special features DVD of THX 1138, the first ever first feature length movie that George Lucas did during the 70s. It features various interviews and segments from the top filmmakers of today from Hollywood. Lucas, Spielberg, Coppola, Murch, Deschanel, all whom created Hollywood and made it into a power player, not only in the world of arts and culture but in business as well.

Let me tell you a little bit about it

The most interesting thing in the documentary is the relationship between George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola. Probably without their friendship, we wouldn't have heard of Luke Skywalker and the Godfather without them. In a nutshell, the documentary goes along with the interviews from both men, it traveled from the start of the first ever American Film production company, the American Zoetrope, to its untimely death a few years later but creating and bringing together some of the finest people who changed the course of filmmaking for the next generation. Lucas and Coppola came from two of the most prestigious filmmaking universities in the US then, Lucas from USC and Coppola from UCLA (think of ADMU and La Salle minus the painful basketball brawling). These two schools let out their frustrations through their students' works (especially when US was going thru a major haul with the Flower Children Revolution and the Watergate scandal during that time).

Lucas was a few years younger than Coppola when they first met in a set of the Warner Brother's film. Coppola was directing and one of the youngest directors at that time, Lucas was an intern on his set. Now, we must understand that US Filmmaking then is sadly the same as ours in 2005, commercially that is (if you really want to gain notoriety thru film, go commercial) The set would be full of old geezers and stuck up snobs who looks down on young ones like Coppola because of their age. When the two met, one of the most legendary friendship and partnership in filmmaking started.

Though, even if the two were a known force and very much respected, you would still see their individualism, most noticeably in their work. Coppola's forte in filmmaking is dealing with the actors and their stories while Lucas is more on a visionary in design and structure and concept. Now, they did have their hardships while starting out in their careers since because at that time, it's still hard to show a film without going through obnoxious studio producers. Coppola helped Lucas to produce THX 1138, a film that was very unconventional in terms of its storytelling and presentation (try showing a film that is very much on the same level as Passion of the Christ minus the historical aspect during the late 1970s and you'll have Birth of a Nation all over again). Warner Brother's didn't like it and shelved it, and for the first time Lucas wanted to quit. But with the support of Coppola and a few other famous people that we now know, THX 1138 was finally shown to the public. Though even if it didn't do that well in sales, THX 1138 became a well known film in history, not because of its being the first feature of Lucas but it tells more of a story of the journey of a group of individuals whose passion and sacrifices created a revolution for every visual storytellers to come.

Now, after watching this, all I could think of is that Hollywood did start out like us, all studios and all star power. But with the dream of a few people, it changed and gave something that is so memorable to the world history and that's visual filmmaking.

Though I do agree that Brocka, Bernal, Romero, Red, Siguion-Reyna, Guillen, Diaz, Portes and a whole slew of veteran filmmakers' time is up. A new batch is slowly breeding their way to the belly of the masses, with the knowledge of the old and a heart of the new, in order to give something to the Filipino people. Probably not just a bunch of stories but life changing moments as well.

Eunice Malijan is a 23 year old filmmaker who just finished work as Art Director for a telemovie for Channel 2 and now currently working on her first feature while helping out other filmmakers in their own projects.

You can reach her at oraclecaptain@yahoo.com or you can also e-mail comments and reactions to lifeandleisure@crossroad77.com

Media Source: www.thx-1138.org