I Am Your Father

I have been a Star Wars fan my entire life and have never really thought about the man who was in the Darth Vader costume. This movie did a great job of telling his story and I'm really glad I watched it.

The directors of this documentary, who are Star Wars fans from his childhood, have done a good homage to actor Dave Prowse, the man behind the mask of Darth Vader.

Through several interviews with people directly involved in the making of the original Star Wars trilogy the film discovers the reasons that affected the relationship between Prowse and Lucasfilm after finishing the shooting of the original trilogy. Fortunately the film provides different opinions about this matter.

Last but not least, their homage also extends to other great film actors that played evil roles behind a mask.

Despite featuring some wonderful interviews and archival footage, I Am Your Father is ruined by the film-maker's senseless insistence on inserting himself into the film.

The film has a fascinating story at its heart - that of David Prowse, who played Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy and remained remarkably unrecognizable despite playing one of the most iconic characters in all movie history.

Yet the central story - that of David's all too human journey and disappointment - is elbowed out of the way so the film-maker can indulge in some wish fulfillment.

While I understand the temptation for the film-maker to become his story, particularly given Star Wars' place in the Pantheon, the Michael Moore approach weakened the film and turned what should have been a richly poignant piece into just another ho-hum documentary. Pity.

Enjoyable documentary dealing with David Prowse , the actor who played the main villain, Darth Vader, in first Star Wars trilogy formed by : Star Wars, Empire strikes again, The Return of the Jedi. As his masked appearance marked his life forever and here fans and directors pay tribute to him . As David Prowse never revealed his aspect, and in this documentary we discover why the producers took that fateful decision. As, eventually, in The Return of the Jedi, something strange happened and David was replaced in the final scenes by veteran actor Sebastian Shaw as Darth Vader . It is set thirty years after, when David is an eighty year old actor, a retired bodybuilder, an old-age pensioner who comes to national and international coventions where fans pay agreeable homages .

This unknown and unappreciated actor called David Prowse had a long and unsuccesful career, starting in Hammer Films. There he played Frankenstein, as writer and director Jimmy Sangster met him in Harrods, London mall, where he worked as a gym trainer. As in 1969 Jimmy Sangster discovered him to play "Horror Frankenstein". David played for Hammer Films : "Vampire Circus" by Roger Young and "Frankenstein the monster of hell" by Terence Fisher. And, he even had a brief role without make-up, neither mask in the famous "Clockwork Orange" by Stanley Kubrick and following as a guest star in Benny Hill show . David went on performing adverts as a superhero in Green Cross . As well as he became the personal trainer for Christopher Reeve and his Superman film. However, his greatest hit resulting to be the Stars Wars evil Darth Vader embodiment, in spite of his face appeared totally masked.

In "I am your father" 2015 there are various hosts telling the shooting circumstances of "Star Wars" such as producers Gary Kurtz, Robert Watts, sound technician Ben Burtt, Lou Ferrigno of Hulk and actor Kenny Baker who performed R2-D2. This deserved tribute to David Prowse was narrated by prestigious actor/narrator Colm Meany and was well directed by Tony Bestard and Marcos Cabota.

The producers had a great idea: find an irrelevant person that is well known in disguise and sell lots of tickets to the freak show in which we reveal you "the real person". Unpleasant way of presenting a human being, but the makers of this movie have to make a living too. It turned out freak show was the only part the producers were interested into.

Darth Vader is a character created by Lucas. The script was written by several script writers. The costume was designed by two other people. There were several people manning the costume even if we restrict ourselves for the sake of argument to the original series. The voice is someone different. The stunts are done by a totally different person. The sounds were made by the special effects team. And the dishonest producers want the audience to believe their guy IS Darth Vader. They even bring in talking heads to say something about the acting. Acting? A human clothes hanger moving a big costume around? Not only that, but the world owes him recognition for his what? The guy got paid for his work and it was not charity.

Sure the man was upset for not getting a bigger part. It's human. And the ego in every one keeps pointing out "you're the main character". But in this spirit why not make a documentary called "I Am the Janitor on the Star Wars set". Oops! Even the Star Wars name was out of reach for this production team.

Contact me with Questions, Comments or Suggestions ryitfork @ bitmail.ch