Elstree 1976

Surely no film in history has prompted this level of examination. Focusing on the actors who were either faceless, in tiny parts or extras, things start off horribly as the director spends the 1st half hour telling us their personal histories w/out even telling us what they did in the film. Things get interesting after that as we learn the odd ways that playing a tiny part of a phenomenon affects them, that even the smallest bit players pull rank over extras, & how great Jeremy Bulloch can be.

What hurts this ultimately is that a lot of the people interviewed, you just don't care about. David Prowse's story held my attention as well as the tension between the "actors" and the "extras" which they could of easily been given more screen time to... You know instead of focusing on a pointless story where a female extra slept with Christopher Reeve. Pass, this isn't the documentary you're looking for.

Needs to expand upon the larger story about Britain in the 1970s and then it would be interesting. Edit out the convention footage, it makes this seem like a by/for/about fan movie, it needs to concentrate on the past.

There are some excellent stories told during this film about how some of the supporting cast got their gigs on the first Star Wars film. Some of the stories are very entertaining. Some aren't. Would you pay for the autograph of the X-wing pilot, third from the left, front row, from the scene of the briefing before the assault on Death Star I? Probably not. It's entertaining but it wanders from something interesting to something not quite about half way through. Still worth a look.