Volume 46, Number 11 · June 24, 1999
Billion-Dollar Baby
By Louis Menand
Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace
a film by George Lucas
Star Wars is entertainment for eight-year-old boys. Its creator, George Lucas, had his first major success with a movie for teenagers, American Graffiti (1973), which was one of the most profitable pictures ever made: it cost $775,000 to produce and sold $111 million worth of tickets. Star Wars was his next project, and he set out to make a movie for an audience he noticed was being neglected, temporarily, by Disney. He was able to hire young and almost unknown actors for the lead roles—Harrison Ford, who was working as a carpenter when he was cast; Mark Hamill, who had appeared only on television, notably in the soap opera General Hospital; and Carrie Fisher, whose film career consisted of a bit part in Shampoo—because he knew that children do not care about movie stars.
Review, 3525 words
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