'STAR WARS' AT 45: THE DUEL - PART TWO: A TIME FOR SACRIFICE!

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...

Great close-in shot of Guinness and his lightsaber weapon.

Vader makes a rushing offensive in an unused alternate take as Kenobi makes a mid-section lunging motion with his lightsaber.

Kenobi blogs and swings himself to the opposite side.

Crossing swords in a specially posed image on set. Image via The Star Wars Archives.

The classic posed confrontation shot, without airbrushed lightsaber blades, used across the world in publicity.

Alternate shot of the classic scene, again with non-re-touched blades.

Another of the great classic posed images used for publicity.

A selection of specially posed images on set from the hangar towards the actors.

The five guard Stormtroopers rush to watch the duel.

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.

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.

Another angle of the unused shot.

The collapsed Kenobi costume on fire in another unused and abandoned moment.

Additional image with airbrushed Vader lightsaber blade.

The final effect with collapsed cloak as seen in the completed movie.

Dust to  dust! Vader's foot searches for remains within Kenobi's cloak. Prowse's stand-in, wrestler/actor Moray Bush wears Vader's costume for the scene, filmed by the second unit.

BEHIND THE SCENES

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 (he 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. Prowse added to Photoplay magazine in 1978: “He’s such a nice man. He (Sir Alec) actually apologized for falling over." Prowse further recalled to Starlog: “He 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.” 

Guinness keeps his lightsaber close between takes.

                                                     

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. 

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.

With certain shots from the duel also being  flipped during 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 lightsaber hits it, an electronically detonated charge cuts the cloak in two pieces, with the bottom half falling a split second before the top reached it, to show what was supposed to have happened. Unfortunately, the prototype release mechanism created by John Stears and his practical UK effects team 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 successful enough to be slowed down in post production, to give the appearance of the evaporation of Ben's body into the Force.

Posed image of Kenobi preparing to sacrifice his life to the Force.

A lovely shot of the two icons behind the scenes.