When the most famous filmmaker on the planet calls you his mentor, that’s pretty high praise. Mentor is the word used by one George Lucas to describe his relationship with Irvin Kershner, who taught Lucas at USC’s film school and who later went on to direct the best movie in the Star Wars universe, The Empire Strikes Back. It was one of several films Kershner did in Hollywood, and his most successful film. The film world suffered a great loss yesterday when director Irvin Kershner died due to complications from lung cancer at age 87.
“When George approached me, at first I wouldn’t agree,” Kershner told the Memphis Commercial Appeal in 1997. “I didn’t want to follow a picture like Star Wars, because what could I do that was different? But George said, ‘I want to make a picture that is better than the first one. Because if the second one is not successful, that kills the whole series.’ I really knocked myself out,” said Kershner, who worked on Empire for nearly 3 years.
“I was able to go deeper into the characterization. I was doing the second act of a three-act play, or the second movement of a symphony. That’s always the slower movement. I could not have a grand climax, I had to leave things ambiguous. My big climax came at the beginning of the film, with the battle in the snow, then I told the story of the people.”
Tags: Star Wars, Hollywood, California, USC, The Empire Strikes Back, Robocop 2, Irvin Kershner, George Lucas, directors, Irving Kershner dead at 87, obituaries, mentors, unusual people, director Irv Kershner dead at 87, lung cancer
