I Am Your Father

Dir: Marcos Cabotá, Toni Bestard

2015

***

Like everyone else in the world, Star Wars is an important film to me. There have been some pretty great independent documentaries made about aspects of the original Trilogy made in recent years, all made by true fans with an unequivocal passion for the franchise. My favorite thus far has been John Spira’s Elstree 1976 which looks at a small group of actors who played minor roles in the film but their characters have now reached legendary status. Their stories featured a whole array of moral and legal issues, with many of them having dolls and toys made in their image without their permission. Many didn’t learn until years later just how big they and their characters actually were. It was fascinating, and for someone like myself who likes to go to conventions and chat to these people behind the masks, it was a lovely and down to earth insight into a world that seemed a million miles away (even though I live a few miles from Elstree and just down the road from much of the cast). David Prowse, Darth Vader himself, features in Elstree 1976 and he talks about his role in the film. I knew his story before, I have met him and have spoken with him a couple of times at conventions, but Spira’s documentary got more out of him than I’d seen before. In Toni Bestard’s documentary, Prowse is the main subject. Bestard talks about Star Wars as if it was a tiny little production that only he and a handful of his friends saw when they were kids. He explains how he learned more and more about Star Wars as he grew and was shocked when he learned that when we saw Darth Vader’s face in Return of the Jedi, it wasn’t the face of the man who had been stomping around in the big heavy costume for the last three films. He saw it as an injustice, like everyone else did when they found out. I have to say though, I got over it by 1987. Prowse has done very well out conventions and appearances and is still clearly happy to talk about his time on the films. There is certainly an injustice, but on the flip-side he was wearing a mask, so he couldn’t really claim he was typecast. The voice thing is also understandable, you can’t really take a villain seriously when it has a thick west-country accent, Vader was an intergalactic warlord, not a sheep-sheering farmer. However, Bestard does interview some pretty interesting people. His most informative interviewee is Gary Kurtz, producer of A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. Sci-fi hearsay is laid to rest as Kurtz explains things from his end, while Bestard also speaks with the news reporter that was misquoted as saying that Prowse had leaked the plot of The Empire Strikes Back, specifically the bit about Vader being Luke Skywalker's father. Essentially, the reason why Prowse had been shunned by George Lucas and the Star War people was based on untruth. It may be a bit late now but it is good that the truth is finally out there, although I would guess that there are only a few of us hard-core nerds who actually give a damn. To then somehow make things even more right (righter?), Bestard gives Prowse the opportunity to film the last Vader scene from The Last Jedi, this time with his real head. It’s a nice little idea but I’m afraid the big problem is Bestard. Prowse agrees but it is clear that he doesn’t really know what Bestard is going on about. After a lot of Bestard talking about himself, Prowse re-films the scene, on an incredibly similar set to the original, with a talented director at the helm, so that the scene looks as if it really could have been from the original film. Prowse then has to fly to Spain for the one off screening, where Bestard has invited his family and friends. Bewildered, he makes a nice little speech, thanks Bestard for his enthusiasm, and lets the evening swim over him. Unfortunately for those of us watching the documentary and not at the screening, we aren’t allowed to see the footage due to legal reasons. Bestard is a likable guy but he’s naive bordering on annoying. There was always going to be a legal issue with the footage, so an anti-climax was unavoidable. I felt a bit cheated if I’m being honest. The interviews were good but only because the interviewees were talkative, Bestard himself was dreadful at asking questions. The film is more about Bestard than it is about Prowse of Star Wars at times, which I’m afraid is a real no no as far as documentaries are concerned – unless the film is really about you, which this one wasn’t. It is certainly one for the nerds and super fans, watchable often for just how silly it is but worth it for certain interviews.