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| Surrendering to the Force in this great on-set posed publicity image for the classic sequence. |
Pushed into the hangar bay by Darth Vader's continuing onslaught, and with the arrival of Imperial Stormtroopers further blocking his escape, Obi-Wan Kenobi makes a final sacrificial gesture so as to buy escape time for Luke, the rescued Leia, and the the others onto the
Millennium Falcon. Kenobi's end of life work at bringing the eventually revealed brother and sister together in battle against the evil of the Empire has finally been achieved...
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| Great close-in shot of Guinness and his lightsaber weapon. |
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| Vader makes a rushing offensive. |
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| Kenobi blogs and swings himself to the opposite side. |
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| Crossing swords in a specially posed image on set. Image via The Star Wars Archives. |
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| The classic posed confrontation shot, without airbrushed lightsaber blades, used across the world in publicity. |
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| Alternate shot of the classic scene. |
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| Another of the great classic posed images used for publicity. |
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| A selection of specially posed images on set from the hangar towards the actors. |
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| The five guard Stormtroopers rush to watch the duel. |
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| An interesting sacrificial gesture by Kenobi towards his enemy (almost like the sword master duellists of old saluting their opponent), developed by Lucas with Guinness on set. A posed image on set, note the lack of Stormtropers compared to the similar images above. |
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| The cut-in half on set practical effect developed by John Stears that was ultimately replaced with an optical effect slow down in post production. |
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| Another angle of the unused shot. |
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| The collapsed Kenobi costume on fire in another unused and abandoned moment. |
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| Additional image with airbrushed Vader lightsaber blade. |
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| The final effect with collapsed cloak as seen in the completed movie. |
BEHIND THE SCENES
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| Guinness confers with Peter Diamond and George Lucas, as assistant director Anthony Waye overhears in the background. |
After three weeks of rehearsals, fight shooting was now ready to begin on the hangar bay set/adjoining corridor at Elstree, and the
scene where Vader says to Kenobi: “We meet again at
last”, filmed on Tuesday 1st June, 1976. Lucas and his crew,
working from storyboard sequences which involved
contributions by legendary British movie sketch artist
Ivor Beddoes (who would also contribute on
The Empire Strikes Back), film the important action in
three specific sequences, with the individual scenes
within those parts shot from three to four different
angles (one of which would be of Sir Alec fighting,
whilst another would involve Dave Prowse attacking
from his side) and then photographed in a wide master
shot (breaks would also be taken so as to allow Dave
Prowse, boiling in the Vader costume, to have his helmet
taken off and un-sweat).
As the duel progressed (also shot on Thursday May 28th and with a second unit coverage day on Thursday 2nd June), a well-trained but over-enthusiastic Dave Prowse, unaware of his
own strength within the costume, and during the scene
where the two warriors are close-up to one another in an
attempt to break each other's sword contact, accidentally
hurls Alec Guinness with such force that the famous
thespian is quickly dispatched to the other side of the
corridor floor.! An apologetic Prowse, Lucas, and other
members of the crew, quickly rush to Guinness aid
(recalled Prowse to Starlog magazine in 1978: “There was one
moment in the (lightsaber) fight where we (Prowse and
Alec Guinness) came up close to each other and we’re
talking through the words. And then I push him away. I
sent him flying. I’d obviously caught him off balance
and sent him spinning up the corridor. Everybody rushed
in and grabbed hold of him and picked him up and shook
him down. I certainly apologized.” Though a little
winded, Guinness, who gentlemanly blames himself for
the fall, would tell the continuing-to-be-extremely-apologetic Prowse not to worry, and is soon back filming
the next part of the scene. Recalled Prowse to
Starlog: “He (Sir Alec Guinness) was marvellous to
work with and most friendly. They (the cast) accepted
me as an actor on the same par with them. And it was
just super.” Prowse added to Photoplay magazine in 1978: “He’s such
a nice man. He (Sir Alec) actually apologized for falling over."
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| Guinness keeps his lightsaber close between takes. |
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| Guinness contemplates with his raised lightsaber blade as Lucas talks to an out of shot Dave Prowse about Vader swinging the final death blow swing. |
Because of the lack of strength in the rods, and the fact
that they would break easily (with technicians, in
between takes, having to sweep up bits of debris that
would fall as the blades clashed), the duel took longer to
film than anticipated (in the finished theatrical version
there are moments when you can see small bits of the
light reflective tape coming off the surfaces of the sabers
when they clash)-recalled Prowse to
Photoplay:
“The biggest problem during the fight was that we
couldn’t touch. We couldn’t hit each other because as
soon as the dowls (lightsabers) touched they broke. So
there we were, swishing away trying to avoid each other
like mad.” For lightsaber rehearsals on set, in which still
photos would also be taken for publicity purposes (with
airbrushing being done to the shots by ILM a year later),
the actors would use uncoated wooden rods before using
the actual real props.
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| Sir Alec Guinness with the impressive full lightsaber blade prop. The actor enjoyed the film's new spin on the King Arthur and wizard Merlin legend. |
Whilst fighting Darth Vader, Obi-Wan’s line of dialogue
“If my blade finds it’s mark you will cease to exist,”
though filmed, was cut from the final edit, and replaced
with some over dubbing with the dialogue: “You can’t
win, Darth.” With the late decision to kill off Obi-Wan Kenobi just before the film began shooting in Tunisia in March, 1976, Marcia Lucas helps George with additional scripted and filmed lines of Force related dialogue linked to Kenobi during this tense sequence, so as to build up his mysterious demise into the Force. Marcia was keen to reference the mystical Force more in the film than was actually ultimately showcased and talked about.
Certain shots of the duel would also be
flipped in the editing stages.
Vader’s slicing through Ben Kenobi, filmed on Thursday
May 27th, was achieved by replacing Guinness with an empty shape padded cloak, set up so that, as Vader’s
saber hits it, an electronically detonated charge cuts the
cloak in two pieces, with the bottom half falling a split
second before the top, to show what was supposed to
have happened. Unfortunately, the release mechanism
would catch fire several times, making the shots filmed
impractical for use. One long shot scene, showing the
collapse of the Obi-Wan costume, would however be slowed
down in post production, to give the appearance of the evaporation of Ben's body into the Force.
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| Posed image of Kenobi preparing to sacrifice his life to the Force. |
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| A lovely shot of the two icons behind the scenes. |
