Friday 9th Oct – ‘Elstree 1976’
As an ex-actor and occasional extra I found this documentary about “supporting artists” (as they prefer to term themselves) in the original ‘Star Wars’ film an absolute joy. The film is often (unintentionally?) hilarious, particularly in its depiction of the perceived ‘hierarchy’ of their respective roles, despite the fact that every single one of the actors featured here never had their face clearly shown on screen. I think it would be difficult to do such a documentary based around any other film, for ‘Star Wars’ is held in especially high regard, since it was burned into the minds of a generation, as the first real cinematic blockbuster. It also happens to be the first film I saw in the cinema (I know, hard to believe I’m that old, huh?) and I really could not have hoped for a better introduction to the merits of film and, particularly, considering that opening scene and how many people ducked in the audience as those enormous space ships came overhead, to the additional joys of watching films in the cinema on a big screen and with vast speakers!
The fact that the Odeon’s website crashed the other day, within a minute of tickets going on sale for the new ‘Star Wars’ film, suggests the franchise still retains a certain magic, which surpasses every other film legacy. Hence, why, even playing the person who hands the Princess the medals in the closing ceremony, is a source of fascination to the fandom. One of my friends played an unnamed Death Eater in the last two Harry Potter films and I know that brought her some small measure of fame and fan letters, so I can understand why the people depicted in ‘Elstree 1976’ have been so touched by their personal encounter with such a hallowed set of movies but it is still fascinating viewing. It seemed to all of them, at the time, that they were involved in making a pretty awful B movie and yet it came to be the outstanding credit upon their CV and, arguably, their lives.
There is joy too to be had in those little inside notes that you get in such documentaries. I remember reading Peter Cushing’s autobiography, which made it clear that he was wearing pink fluffy carpet slippers for his close ups as the terrifying Grand Moff Tarkin, due to an injured foot. This forever changed my perception of his scenes. Now, thanks to this documentary, it will be hard to look at Gold Leader’s scenes again without knowing that he is looking down so often because his lines are strapped to his thighs!
I found it rather touching that Dave Prowse (Darth Vader) genuinely seems to believe that his lines were over-dubbed by James Earl Jones only because it would have been too expensive to fly him to LA. Darth Vader with a thick West Country burr can never have been on George Lucas’ mind but, I guess, no-one has had the heart to suggest this to Prowse.