For the past little while — both before and after the “Star Wars” relaunch news — George Lucas has been talking about getting back to his roots and making experimental movies. Longtime producer Rick McCallum may or may not be involved, but for those who wonder if Lucas ever had an experimental bone in his body, these early shorts are ample evidence that there was a moment, a long time ago, when the filmmaker had more on his mind than Wookies.
Cinephilia & Beyond have dug up a couple of early shorts from Lucas that are worth a peek. First up is “Look At Life,” made by the filmmaker when he was just 21 years old and attending the University of Southern California. It’s very ’60s, a mashup of images of sound wavering towards a political statement, it seems, but not quite getting there. Next is “1:42.08” featuring racer Peter Brock, which, if anything, proves that Lucas did the whole tedious racing sequence thing decades before Sofia Coppola and Vincent Gallo would cop it for “Somewhere” and “The Brown Bunny” respectively. Watch below.