Elstree 1976

Not your typical Star Wars documentary made for adoring fans, Elstree 1976 is a more earthbound story about the numerous bit players and heavily-costumed supporting actors who appeared in George Lucas's franchise-launching Star Wars. A parade of grey-haired, sometimes frail individuals—who were part of the film's alien bar scene, or among the Empire's army of Stormtroopers—share their sometimes mixed feelings about appearing in the beloved classic. Actor David Prowse stuffed his massive frame into Darth Vader's costume and walked with persuasive command throughout the original trilogy (a stuntman handled the fighting). Prowse says that he didn't know his voice would be eliminated and replaced by that of James Earl Jones. In the decades since, grasping for his proper place in the Star Wars firmament, Prowse has shared his ill feelings with producing company Lucasfilm, and is not invited to official conventions. Jeremy Bulloch, who had a few moments in the trilogy as bounty hunter Boba Fett, is more sanguine about his legacy, seeing it as a brief but memorable chapter in a respected acting career lasting 50 years. And then there's Angus MacInnes, still facially recognizable as X-Wing fighter Gold Leader, who is a bit miffed that he comes lower in the Star Wars cast member pecking order, after some whose faces were hidden behind layers of rubber. But most of the film focuses on those who briefly register on camera as the back of a head or a Stormtrooper with a line or two. Oddly, some of them feel a little guilty about participating in conventions and getting paid to satisfy Star Wars completists. Filmmaker Jon Spira creates here a solid portrait of a group of people who had no idea in 1976 that they would become semi-celebrities—and are somewhat uncomfortable with it. Recommended. (T. Keogh)