Sci-Fi & Squeam

23 Dec 2015

Star Wars: Elstree 1976

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Sonja Squeams with this review of the little doco by Jon Spira called Elstree 1976,cos you can NEVER have enough to talk about when it comes to Star Wars:

‘A documentary about ten very different lives connected by having appeared onscreen wearing masks or helmets in Star Wars.’

Behind the masks.
Beneath the helmets.
Big People.
Small Roles.

‘Star Wars made, well, stars out of actors like Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher. But they’re only a few of the actors who populated the film. A couple others, such as Alec Guinness, had been stars for decades. Others, many of whom were part of the film’s masked cast, saw their characters rocket to incredible popularity as the actors themselves remained relatively anonymous. Most everyone could identify Darth Vader and Boba Fett in a second. But how many people could pick David Prowse or Jeremy Bulloch out of a lineup?

Elstree 1976 is a film dedicated to conversations with people such as Prowse and Bulloch. It gets in touch with some of the actors who made Star Wars what it was, but who are mostly invisible to the public at large. Some of the actors are just a step up from being extras, while others are featured players whose faces were hidden behind the masks that captured the imaginations of generations of viewers.’

A long time ago in a studio complex not far from London, an army of unknown actors gathered to play minor roles in an obscure science fiction movie that would later go on to conquer the universe. The film was called Star Wars, of course, and it featured hundreds of extras, mostly hidden behind plastic helmets and rubber masks. Directed by Jon Spira,Elstree 1976 tracks down 10 of those bit-part players four decades later, filling in their life stories both before and after their close encounter with George Lucas and his multi-billion-dollar blockbuster franchise.