Although it sounds as if he had an easy life, in reality, Lucas had to struggle in order to get ahead. Not being interested or involved in school, Lucas turned his attention to cars. When he reached driving age, his father gave him a nice, small, "safe" car. However, passionate about cars and racing, Lucas revved up his engine and turned it into a hot rod. Each day following, he went cruising around town, drag racing often. However, this passion led him to a drastic change in his life. It ultimately led him to success.

Lucas was in a car crash in 1962, which ended his racing career before it even started. He missed his graduation ceremony at his high school, but joked that the only reason he got a diploma was because his teachers felt sorry

Although the idea was unpopular with his father, Lucas was not stopped in pursing his career. At school, he realized that he had to work his but off to stay on top. He did not mind the hard work. Lucas actually felt relaxed staying up all night editing film. Even when a lot of college students got high on drugs, "Lucas got high on films (1, 45)."

Even after all his success, Lucas was still not sure if he had fulfilled his purpose in life. He was not sure if it was Star Wars, Skywalker Ranch, or something else. He had been successful because he was able to put his visions on film. However, afterwards, he felt that his visions were too big for him. Lucas was afraid that God would say to him when he dies, "You've had your chance and you blew it. Get out (1, 277)." This is very unlikely. He saw what he had to do and he did it. "'There is no try,' Yoda lectured Luke. 'There is only do or do not.' When it came down to that choice, Lucas did (1, 278)."

Lucas was quite honestly never expecting Star Wars to be a big hit. He only thought that the film would break even with the cost. He and his wife, Marcia, were in shock to see long lies of people trying to get into the theaters to see Star Wars. However, after three months, the film grossed $100 million which is faster than any film in Hollywood's history.

After this success, Lucas won a scholarship offered by Columbia Pictures and producer Carl Foreman for work on the movie McKenna's Gold in Arizona. He, along with one other winner, had to make a ten minute, 16-millimeter film that related to the movie. Also, before going to Arizona, he entered a scholarship competition sponsored by Warner Brothers. He won and was able to choose a studio in Hollywood to observe for six months. Unfortunately, only one studio was open at that time and he was unable to work in Warner's animation studio. Instead, he observed a musical called Finian's Rainbow, directed by Francis Coppola, a man that would have a tremendous impact on his life.

It never even occurred to me that George Lucas had a rough time before he made it big. He was consumed with massive debts and stress before, and even after, Star Wars hit the screen. Especially when Lucas decided to finance The Empire Strikes Back himself, he had to borrow $25 million dollars in banks just to pay his employees.

After talking to Coppola about his plans to make THX a two-hour feature, the director warned him that the studios would only rip him off. He then offered to Lucas that, if he took a permanent job on Finian's and his next screenplay, The Rain People, Coppola would help him on the THX screenplay. Lucas agreed and Coppola made a package deal with Warner Brothers. They would get The Rain People and an option on THX. They also advanced Lucas $3,000 to work on the screenplay.

Finally, one never realizes how hard it is to make a movie. When you see one on the big screen, everything looks so perfect and in sync. However, to get to that quality of the movie, there was much stress and many problems everyday on the set. Of course, there is the occasional setback to put filming behind schedule, but one does not really know how much pressure there is in making a movie until one actually produces and directs one.

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Approximate Word count = 2708
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)