faster, more intense
I was browsing the Star Wars page at the IMDb and was surprised to discover that only George Lucas is credited as the writer of the film. He’s the only official writer, but the IMDb is supposed to be about more than official credits.
Now, it’s an open secret that Lucas’ friends, Willard Huyck & Gloria Katz, punched up the dialogue for the revised fourth draft of Star Wars, and in the process lent the movie some of its famous banter, particularly that between Han Solo and Princess Leia.
Remember the following exchange?
LEIA
Listen, I don’t know who you are, or where you came from, but from now on you do as I tell you.HAN
Listen, your holiness … let’s get something straight! I take orders from one person … me.LEIA
It’s a wonder you’re still alive.
Those three lines were written (or rather, rewritten) by husband-and-wife team Huyck & Katz (sounds like a 1930s comic strip). Much of the wisecracking in the script which has earned comparisons with Howard Hawks and his ilk is directly attributable to Huyck & Katz, and I think the movie would be the lesser without their contribution.
Yet it’s rarely discussed or commented on, which I find a shame. By WGA (Writer’s Guild of America, the screenwriter’s union) rules, you have to rewrite at least 50-percent of a screenplay in order to earn film credit. It is not at all uncommon for many more writers to have their fingerprints on a produced script than those which appear in the credits. Still, given Star Wars‘ immense legacy and enduring popularity, I would have expected more references to these contributions, which are, to my eyes, extremely valuable.
Lucas has often stated that he does not think he’s a good writer, that the process does not come easily to him. He is, I think, a magnificent plotter, and even the largely-disappointing prequel trilogy is, if nothing else, deeply-layered in its plotting and thematic development, even if much of that is lost onscreen. But, to be blunt, he’s not a magician at conjuring fabulous dialogue. So it was with tremendous foresight, I think, that he called on his USC friends to do what essentially amounted to a production rewrite, giving zip to a number of scenes that are quoted every day by a bazillion Star Wars fans.
Though not credited for their work on Star Wars, Huyck & Katz do appear in the credits on American Graffiti, sharing them with their director. Things kind of go down hill after that. They wrote what is generally considered the worst Indiana Jones film (Temple of Doom), the dreadful Radioland Murders, and reached their creative nadir with the execrable Howard the Duck (which Huyck also directed), often cited as one of the worst movies ever made.
But it’s not these blemishes for which I happen to remember them. It’s for those little moments of zip in Star Wars, those little moments of banter and repartee, moments so glaringly absent from the prequel trilogy. And at those moments, I always give a little nod to the Huyck-Katz writing duo. Credit where credit’s due, IMDb be damned.
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