Just not a good writer. He was telling a personal story with American Graffiti. SW was his backup because he couldn’t get rights to Flash Gordon. Being interes

Just not a good writer. He was telling a personal story with American Graffiti. SW was his backup because he couldn’t get rights to Flash Gordon. Being interested in mythos, Kurosawa and servicably well educated in film he was at the right time as the FX were reaching a level of being not laughable. But he was an even better business guy, and at least at that time smart enough to turn Empire over to Kirshner and Kasdan. Everything else was pretty much downhill from an art standpoint.