George Lucas may be one of the most beloved sci-fi figures in history, but his genre talent doesn’t end there; for example, the man lives in a comedy better than anything anyone could ever write.
Indeed, it’s one thing to retroactively chuckle at his reckless creative abandon that has captured, let down, and recaptured the hearts of too many Star Wars fans to count, but Lucas’ finest, most hilarious hour was no doubt his legal battle against the folks behind the Chilean television airings of the original Star Wars trilogy back in 2004, even if he himself would probably disagree with the “hilarious” sentiment.
Here’s the lowdown: back when we were smack-dab in the middle of the prequel trilogy’s theatrical era, Chile began airing the original Star Wars movies on cable television but wasn’t exactly keen on breaking up the films with commercials. The solution, apparently, was to edit Cerveza Cristal beer ads into the televised cut of the films, and, by the sheer will of the cosmos (known for having a wicked sense of humor, of course), some of those scenes have begun resurfacing on the website formerly known as Twitter.
If it was the goal of the broadcasters to not break immersion, then this was precisely the worst way to achieve that. The Cerveza Cristal cuts were undoubtedly hilarious—unless you’re George Lucas, in which case your response wasn’t laughter but filing a lawsuit against the Chilean Council for Self-Regulation and Advertising Ethics, a lawsuit that would end in Lucas’ victory and the beer ads subsequently being pulled from most all future airings.
Let this be a cautionary tale, Cerveza Cristal—the only man who has earned the right to such audacious Star Wars edits is the man who came up with Star Wars in the first place. That’s not to say I wouldn’t pay the price of a movie ticket to see Finn or Rey crack open a nice brew at the most inopportune moment possible; I’m just saying—be smart about it.
(featured image: Lucasfilm)
