The story of how Damon Packard went broke making his movies and distributing thousands of DVD's for free is legendary. He not only left piles of them on top of ATM machines, he not only hired the homeless to hand them out to people at conventions, he reportedly received restraining orders from celebrities to whom he mailed multiple copies. I wasn't lucky enough to get a freebie; I purchased this film twice, once on VHS (long lost) and once on DVD, along with his new film "SpaceDisco-1."
Packard is a die-hard nostalgic for films of the 1970's. On the same tape/DVD as this movie is a segment...I can't really call it a "short film" or a "featurette." I guess the best description of it is "noodling around." It's Packard inserting himself into the movie "Winning," with that film's magnificent main theme blasting away and footage of Formula One racing spliced in. I think in a way, Packard is saying he wished he had directed "Winning," in that era, and hates the fact that he's working outside the industry as an unappreciated independent filmmaker in the 21st Century.
And since the movie industry as it exists today was largely shaped by George Lucas, of course Packard hates Lucas. His criticism of Lucas - voiced by a character in the film - includes the charge that Lucas has never filmed a sex scene. Yes, eroticism and visual sex has pretty much disappeared from movies, but is that Lucas's fault or a change in society? (Or maybe because sex isn't so much a mystery to us any more?)
Packard does poke some important and needed holes in Star Wars and Lucas. Yes, Lucas has aggressively merchandised his films, and much about his film-making and authorship should be questioned. That's why I bought this film twice. But after multiple viewings, I can't shake the suspicion that Packard is simply expressing envy about Lucas and bitterness about his own place in the film industry.
Packard is a die-hard nostalgic for films of the 1970's. On the same tape/DVD as this movie is a segment...I can't really call it a "short film" or a "featurette." I guess the best description of it is "noodling around." It's Packard inserting himself into the movie "Winning," with that film's magnificent main theme blasting away and footage of Formula One racing spliced in. I think in a way, Packard is saying he wished he had directed "Winning," in that era, and hates the fact that he's working outside the industry as an unappreciated independent filmmaker in the 21st Century.
And since the movie industry as it exists today was largely shaped by George Lucas, of course Packard hates Lucas. His criticism of Lucas - voiced by a character in the film - includes the charge that Lucas has never filmed a sex scene. Yes, eroticism and visual sex has pretty much disappeared from movies, but is that Lucas's fault or a change in society? (Or maybe because sex isn't so much a mystery to us any more?)
Packard does poke some important and needed holes in Star Wars and Lucas. Yes, Lucas has aggressively merchandised his films, and much about his film-making and authorship should be questioned. That's why I bought this film twice. But after multiple viewings, I can't shake the suspicion that Packard is simply expressing envy about Lucas and bitterness about his own place in the film industry.