For years and years I've read in the press and on the internet about the strained relationship between actor David Prowse and the people at Lucasfilm LTD, mainly George Lucas. What could Mr Prowse possibly do to completely be BANNED from anything Star Wars related for the rest of his life? Did he beat Lucas with a baseball bat? Apparently, it was much worse: Mr. Prowse had a tendency to talk to the press and give "inside scoop" on movies that were supposed to be top secret. I know Hollywood has something like a "non disclosure" agreement, where they literally "warn" actors, staff, crew members and directors from "spilling the beans" on an specific production. Stuff like "Game Of Thrones" surely has it as well as the newer Star Wars films, but back in the late 70s, there must've been something like that, right? Well, apparently not. Mr. Prowse argues that it was not him who spilled stuff to the press, he never did. A massive production like a Star Wars film has an amazing number of staff, crew members, secretaries, actors, and so forth. So why does Lucasfilm insist it was Mr. Prowse? And even if he DID spill the beans, little it did to stop "The Empire Strikes Back" and "The Return Of The Jedi" from becoming colossal box office hits.
Spanish director and certified Star Wars geek, Marcos Cabota, made it a quest to finally know WHY Lucasfilm distanced itself from actor David Prowse, now in his 80s. If Lucasfilm was so angry at Prowse, why not replace him completely? The final major blow to Prowse came at the end of "Return Of The Jedi", when Vader finally gets unmasked. It was Prowse who the fans wanted to see, no some old crummy British actor. I felt cheated as a fan, but the most cheated person was Prowse himself. "He looks too young to be his father". Wait a second! Isn't Darth Vader in his late 40s? Wasn't Anakin Skywalker in his early 20s when he turned to the dark side to become Darth Vader? What kind of lame excuse is that??? For the mere 3 lines that actor Sebastian Shaw (Darth Vader unmasked) uttered, those same lines could've been uttered by Prowse, but NOOOO, it HAD to be someone else. Lucasfilm has even admitted that they didn't want Prowse's face at the end. Too young I ask? Have you heard of Dick Smith? Rick Baker? Rob Bottin? Special make up maestros that could've gotten the job done with outstanding ease and turn Prowse into an older, battered man.
The only thing I regret not seeing is the supposed reenacted scene from "Return Of The Jedi", where Luke takes his father's helmet off to reveal the human Anakin Skywalker. Director Marcos Cabota kindly asked Lucasfilm permission to shoot this scene, to which he was given a resounding NO. Marcos went ahead and shot the scene anyway, with David Prowse revealing himself from beneath the helmet. The scene was shown to an exclusive number of people, but NOT to the audience of this documentary. So many "rubbish" takes on Star Wars float on the internet that I don't think Lucasfilm has given all of them their OK, so why this one in particular was given a no? Was it because of David Prowse being in it? Lucasfilm was never available for comment on the documentary.
Not showing that filmed scene kind of waters everything down about this documentary. Still, I had a lot of fun watching it, and you get to hear the opinions of people who were in the high ranks of Lucasfilm when the original trilogy was in theaters: Gary Kurtz, the associate producer, Robert Watts, executive producer, Ben Burt, sound FX engineer, Kenny Baker, R2D2, etc. There were no Mark Hammill, Carrie Fisher or Harrison Ford interviews, to share their views on the matter, which is sad (unless all of them hate Prowse as much as Lucasfilm hates him).
I was actually expecting a boring affair but was entertained and Spanish director Marcos Cabota did this documentary out of sheer respect and admiration to David Prowse, the one and only TRUE Darth Vader!
