Elstree 1976 (2015)

Looking through the prism of fandom can sometimes be a frustrating experience where one feels daunted by their love of something no matter what anyone says. These feelings & much more rear their ugly heads as I watched Elstree 1976. If anything, this doc gives an interesting insight into the Star Wars phenomena as bit players, walk-on's & neglected extras rhapsodize on what being in the most famous film of all time has done for their lives.

Maybe slightly too long (yeah, even at 100 minutes), but there's a lot of wonderful anecdotes from all of these 'walk-on' players and actors and people-behind-masks, and it's not completely about the making of Star Wars either. I think that was what pleasantly surprised me the most; not only that, the people talk about where they came from and their personal lives to an extent - all of them, from what I could tell, came from working class backgrounds, had sometimes sick/dead family members, and it was not necessarily always a 'I'm going to be this kind of actor' let alone any kind of recognizable entity - and, after Star Wars, how their lives fared.Some kept on working in movies (there's one guy who went on to be in a number of films as the sort of 'oh, hey, background guy' in films like Living Daylights and Last Crusade), some didn't (the one actress, who barely considers herself that, found that she was more keen on getting her walk-on roles and not really seeking anything more), and some went on to being other iconic figures (Dave Prowse as... cross-walk guy?) There's also a good deal of time spent talking about fans and conventions, and the reactions to how these cons go isn't anything too out of this world (as one of them says, 95% of the people are terrific, the rest are... weird), but it adds another level on to the proceedings.Most interesting is the bit about how there is a sort of tier system as far as people going to these conventions, with one man being interviewed (I forget his name but he's the guy that gets blown up in the X-Wing after shouting "Loosen up!" and recalls not remembering his lines out of order) saying that at one con a guy came trying to make himself into a thing when he wasn't even credited... and then this same guy, one presumes - or someone like him- is interviewed, and I mean, hey, that briefing scene on the Death Star on Yavin had a LOT of guys, you know. And meanwhile a guy like Prowse says with only a bit of bitterness that he isn't asked to conventions anymore, certainly not the official SW ones, but it doesn't seem as anything sad, like he knows he's made some bad blood along the way ...(the context, in case anyone's curious, Prowse used to be really terrible when it came to leaking info about the sequels when they were in production, to the point where he wasn't given the pivotal line in 'Empire' due to his loose lips, so that may be a reason he neglects to mention, but I digress)...The key thing with Elstree is that you don't have to be a major Star Wars fan to see it. I'm sure it helps, and having listened recently to the 'I Was There Too' podcast with Anthony Forrest (the 'Mind-Trick' Stormtrooper, and another character cut from the final version), there's some extra things to find out about these people that make them interesting all within this context. Stylistically it's talking heads and a sprinkling of film clips, stills, (mostly from SW, and sometimes, to emphasize a character as the one neat trick, the film does a kind of back and forth loop like one might see on, of all places, Instagram, but it works as a 'here's this guy or woman').What it comes down to is that these people would be great fun to talk to in sum, and that's the important thing. While the fandom is nice for these people, it's not everything (not even for Prowse, not anymore, or Jeremy Bulloch, the one actor interviewed here that wasn't there in 76), so in a way this is more like a series of human interest stories that happens to have as the connecting thread of 'Oh yeah, that sci-fi movie that the quiet bearded guy was directing). It works for both crowds, even as it's special up to a point, a 'good for one watch' thing.

As a lifelong Star Wars fan I sat down and watched this DVD with great anticipation but other than a few positives it unfortunately fell way below my expectations and was very disappointing. As the name of the title suggests ..... Elstree, I was hoping to get an insight into the studio and get a better understanding of what it was like in 1976 working on the original film set with some behind the scenes original footage / photos etc but it didn't offer that. Having said that, I appreciate that the film was focusing mainly on the original extras and supporting actors as opposed to the studio itself and listening to each of their interviews there was some interesting stories particularly Dave Prowse but overall it just seemed to drag on and sadly became quite boring. Most of what they had to say was about what they did before been in Star Wars and what they did after. It including their appearances in the conventions which was one of the few highlights. This film had so much potential but I feel it was simply put together cheaply and in a hurry which is such a shame. If you are a genuine Star Wars fan you will find some parts of it interesting but in my opinion it's not one of the best documentary on Star Wars you will ever see.

Spoiler alert: I had waited for 6 months for the DVD release. The trailer showed us some "behind the scenes" footage of X-wing fighters, storm-troopers and a man in a Darth Vader suit hanging around waiting to go on and perform. What became clear is that it was staged NEW footage. There wasn't really any behind the scenes we haven't seen. The film itself jumped around, I guess the directer thought it would be cute to just put the first names of people and it took me some time to figure out who was who (and I am more than the casual SW fan). I'm not sure what this was supposed to be. It was more like a trashing of the extras and small parts actors. They were show in the worst light possible, the small roles saying the people who had no dialog or were cut shouldn't go to the conventions. They acted very petty as if this was all the director shot? I think he wasn't a fan of Star Wars and wanted to show something else because I surely didn't enjoy the in-fighting. He didn't even film on location at Elstree! Short on photos or footage but you get the same stock behind-the-scenes footage of the rebels on the Death star "escaping" but Lucas say the mic is in picture. This was like someone re-mixing something great into a smearing, cut-throat, vote-them-off-the-island reality crap sitcom. There was no celebrating Star Wars, it was all about the drama between some actors and extras who were lucky enough to be involved in the film. What a waste of time. Did TMZ do this movie?P.S. - How is it that the director and most of the fans don't know Boba Fett was in Star Wars (at Elstree 1976) but he was cut out. It was the cut Jabba the Hutt scene. Right at the end of the scene you are introduced to Boba. It is a difficult cut scene to find but it is in a few behind the scenes specials for Star wars. Also the Greedo scenes were re-shot with a different actor/actress because the fingers just looked silly.