I Am Your Father

I am Your Father is a great premise for a documentary, but it falls fundamentally short on promises.

Director Cabota, obviously has the passion for this topic, it it well researched, directed with taste, with the cinematography a cut above your average doco.

However the overwhelming drive and expected climax of this film is the re-make of a pinnacle scene in Star Wars. Unfortunately this falls horribly short, and ultimately leaves the audience frustrated.

Although we are treated to seeing Prowes gain some recognition for his work as Darth Vader, and some keen insights into the politics behind the Star Wars franchise, but no matter how well intentioned , or skillfully crafted, this climactic disappointment taints the experience.

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.

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This documentary is a nice enough retrospective on the history and legacy of veteran British Hammer Horror film actor David Prowse, the actor who filled the dark shape of Darth Vader in the original trilogy of Star Wars films.

However, the documentary teases throughout a particularly fanboy mind-blowing scene in which the director of the documentary allows Prowse to reprise the penultimate scene in Return of the Jedi in which Darth Vader, who lay dying, removes his mask and reveals his face to his son Luke for the first time.

In the original film, Sebastian Shaw played the face of the man behind the mask, much to the chagrin of Prowse. The director of this documentary teases that he has reshot this scene with Prowse restored to the role of the dying Vader, and very nearly shows part of it, but cuts away before fans are treated to what they have dreamed of seeing since 1983.

Given that Disney allows fan films to be made in the Star Wars universe, and that Lucasfilm has had a long history of doing so, showing this to the world would cost the director nothing. Granted, Lucasfilm did not give permission, but Lucasfilm doesn't give tacit permission to anyone who asked to do something specific with the Star Wars universe if there is a profit involved. For a not-for-profit cause, such as just showing the clip to all of us fanboys really want to see the scene, it would cost them nothing. All it does is tease your interest all the way through the credits, hoping you will see it in this documentary.

Spoiler warning: you don't.

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 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.