Wired: In addition to the experimental films that you say you want to make now, you’ve expressed an interest in making historical films.
Lucas: Yes, but I don’t want to get into situations where people say, “That’s not historically correct.” History is fiction, but people seem to think otherwise. The thing I like about fantasy and science fiction is that you can take issues, pull them out of their cultural straitjackets, and talk about them without bringing in folk artifacts that make people get closed minded.
Wired: Give me an example of what you mean by a folk artifact.
Lucas: Fahrenheit 9/11 . People went nuts. The folk aspects of that film were George Bush or Iraq or 9/11 or – intense emotional issues that made people put up their blinders and say, “I have an opinion about this, and I’m not going to accept anything else.” If you could look at these issues more open-mindedly – at what’s going on with the human mind behind all this, on all sides – you could have a more interesting conversation, without people screaming, plugging their ears, and walking out of the room like kids do.
History is fiction? How postmodern of you, George. And how revolting. Yeah, the Holocaust was just like Harry Potter. And George laments that people were upset with Michael Moore because he was too obvious about telling the truth that people didn't want to hear. So, George is going to give us that same truth through his more subtle folk mythology so that we don't run out of the room like little babies when he gives us our medicine. What a jerk.
That quote about Moore's movie sounds like the blatherings of someone who wants to attack Bush, but who won't just come out and do it with clear and unambiguous language.