To the vast majority of the filmgoing public, George Lucas’ loudest and most ubiquitous contribution to cinema is a certain mythological space opera by the name of Star Wars. Despite the auteur’s relative divorce from his own franchise in its current iteration, Lucas remains less a director, and more the shepherd of a divinely-influenced bit of science-fiction gospel. And while the imprint of Star Wars on movies and culture is impossible to deny, it’s Lucas’ previous effort, even 50 years after its debut, that’s held a much more resounding, if quieter, influence on the DNA of popular cinema.
