I Am Your Father: DVD Review

I Am Your Father: DVD Review

Rating: M
Released by Madman Home Ent

Starting this doco with a Lucasfilm disclaimer saying they had no involvement is not perhaps the strongest beginning for this piece.

It's essentially a paean to the man behind the most iconic mask in the history of movies - Darth Vader.

But what director Marcos Cabota wants essentially to do is to give the man behind that mask in the actual film, Dave Prowse, his time in the spotlight.

Feeling like Prowse has been sidelined in the Star Wars World and denied his moment of fame when the mask was originally removed in Return of the Jedi, Cabota decides to meet Prowse and propose a reshoot.

This is the original premise of the doco, but it's somewhat thwarted by its ambitions and the ideas of the film-makers, who actually flip the idea around and begin an investigation into why Prowse has effectively been carved out of the legacy of Star Wars, banned from the official convention circuits and cut out, even though he's one of the most iconic figures of our time.

Talking heads like Lou Ferrigno, Kenny Baker, Jeremy Bulloch add to the feel of the movie celebration of those behind the mask.

While the director manages most of the time to keep his fanboy in check and Prowse seems very affable and honest, the picture that emerges is one of sadness and one which feels like it's building to a very public recantation from Lucasfilm over what's happened.

At its heart, I Am Your Father is a celebration of all actors behind a mask (as the credits show them), but the slightly mixed ambitions of the doco mean it's not quite a success if it's about either reshooting footage. While it rightly gives Prowse his time in the limelight, and follows the innate tragedy of what happened to him (he emerges as slightly miffed, but carries on in that very English way), it unfortunately never quite hits the heights it aspires to.