masonfisk 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.

Paul Magne Haakonsen I happened to come across this documentary on Netflix, I think it was. And being the big "Star Wars" fan that I am, of course I took the time to sit down and watch it; as I gobble up everything from that universe."Elstree 1976" was sort of a rather pointless documentary about some people with little or virtually no parts in the "Star Wars: A New Hope movie". Who really cares about an extra that has no speaking part?But more importantly, why was a documentary necessary about them?This documentary is not worth the time or effort, even if you are a big fan of the "Star Wars" franchise. It offers very little insight into the making of "Star Wars: A New Hope", and essentially just revolves around persons whom had little time on the screen and portrayed characters that had little to no impact on the movie at all.Seen it once, never returning here again.

bazmitch23 Everybody in the world has a story to tell. It is cool that the lesser known people involved with Star Wars get their moment to shine. We already know who David Prowse is. He played one of cinema's greatest villains. We have interviews with the actors who played the X-Wing fighters, Greedo, the Stormtrooper who hit his head and of course Jeremy as Boba Fett (even though "The Empire Strikes Back" was shot in 1979, which is out of place for a documentary called "Elstree 1976").The doc opens with the actors explaining who there are and their growing up tales, Prowse became a body builder due to problems with his muscles. He also explained that he almost got in trouble on A Clockwork Orange by asking Kubrick "Are you 'One Take Stanley'?" Fortunatley, Stan just laughed.They all explain how they were cast in Star Wars and their parts. Greedo had acid put on his back for the burning effect, and no he does not talk about "Who shot first".The X-Wing fighters said that they had to queue for their scenes in the X-Wing cockpits as if they were queuing for a ride.The Stormtrooper who banged his head said he couldn't see out of the helmet, which explains Luke's line "I can't see a thing in this helmet."Then they talk about conventions and how the lesser known actors were annoyed that Vader and Fett were getting all the glory and they weren't.Then we have the "What are you doing now" act in the documentary and this is where the doc gets quite dull for me. Most of them haven't really anything interesting to say, other than "I don't act any more" and "I just do parts in TV." After the Star Wars tale, you just don't care about their stories anymore, but then all actors go through the "Where are they now" part in the lives. Even the big names quit. One actor said he had bit parts in movies such as Indiana Jones and Superman, and he was depressed that he wasn't getting any big parts.The female extra who has a "blink and you miss it cameo" in the Cantina scene went out with Christopher Reeve whilst filming Superman.Another actor said he is now a teacher and has created a series called "Johnny Spacerocket."It's an okay doc, Star Wars fans might be interested in the first 45 minutes, but afterwards the doc gets slow and dull.

elle_kittyca I'll make my review of this film short and sweet and without much care to finesse the details. I usually like documentaries about people, and a movie about the extras of Star Wars should have been right up my alley. Unfortunately, the film focused on the lives of few extras, some of whom were interesting and some of whom were not. I found a few of the anecdotes of working on the actual film or conventions amusing but there was an awful lot of rambling on by people who I could care less about. I could care less about some guy playing squash with Kiera Knightly's father, or about the guy who had a backache and ended up taking too much Valium. While I often find the stories of regular people interesting,this put far too much focus on people telling mundane details of their lives and careers. A better movie would have been made by interviewing more people and including more interesting details, or alternatively, to follow the lives of one who had a particular unique story or path of this life. You might like this if it covers one of your very favorite favorites, but if you want something more than just filler, i don't recommend it.