The Lost Film That Accompanied Empire Strikes Back 195
An anonymous reader writes "'Alien' and 'Star Wars' art director Roger Christian was given £25,000 by George Lucas in 1979 to make a 25-minute medieval B-feature called 'Black Angel.' This spiritual tale of a knight on a strange quest was inspired by Christian's near-fatal fever when he fell ill in Mexico making 'Lucky Lady.' 'Black Angel' made a huge impression, not least because it shared the dark tone of 'Empire Strikes Back.' John Boorman showed it to the crew of 'Excalibur' as a template for how he wanted his film to look, and 'Black Angel' went on to influence films such as 'Dragonslayer' and 'Legend' throughout the 1980s and beyond. But it has not been seen by anyone since 'Empire' finished its theatrical run. Two weeks ago Roger Christian unearthed a print of a film that was thought lost forever, and in this interview he talks about 'Black Angel,' and provides the only picture from the film that has ever hit the Internet."
Similar to Lucas' Car Crash (Score:4, Interesting)
This spiritual tale of a knight on a strange quest was inspired by Christian's near-fatal fever when he fell ill in Mexico ...
That is oddly similar to the car crash that Lucas experienced shortly before graduating high school in his Autobianchi Bianchina on June 12, 1962. It was a bad wreck that I guess was highly improbable for him to survive. He was going to be a mechanic and race cars until that accident. He is also said to have conceived the idea for "the Force" as it would grow (by assimilation of aspects of some Eastern spiritual philosophies) into the "hokey religions and ancient weapons" of Star Wars. Proof that near death experiences have a very profound effect on people.
I'd provide a citation but I remember reading that off the back of a Topps Galaxy Star Wars card when I was a kid.
Really? What was the distribution on this? (Score:3, Interesting)
I saw TESB the first week it was in theaters (I think it was like day 5). I distinctly remember the theater, the standing in line wrapping around the building in downtown DC for like an hour, and I think I can even picture the interior of the theater, but I do not remember this film. Perhaps it was just too weird for me, but somehow I'd think that it would've been talked about amongst my friends and such.
So was this included with all prints, or just selected theaters in selected cities?
Re:Star Wars (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:and ... (Score:3, Interesting)
"While James Cameron was on a trip to Italy he became very ill with high fever. One night he had a terrible nightmare about a huge robot with red-glowing eyes that was trying to kill him."
Weird that he skipped the red-glowing eyes. But I guess that would've made it too blatantly obvious from the very beginning that Kate Winslet was the evil robot.
I don't believe it! (Score:2, Interesting)
Finally, I find this by chance and find the name of the short film I've been trying to find out about for the last 30 years...
And it's not available to buy... *sigh*
Re:Oh Just Release It to the Public Already! (Score:5, Interesting)
A better example might be people seeing the French Connection and complaining that the car chase is too much of a cliche in a cop movie. (When they aren't aware that the French Connection is the *reason* every cop movie made since has a car chase.)
I think Bullitt has more of a claim to fame as the *reason* every cop movie made has a car chase. Friedkin himself says that it was the Bullitt car chase that inspired him to try to outdo it in the French Connection.
Whether he succeeded in doing so is a matter approximately as well-settled as the question of emacs vs. vi.
Re:Star Wars (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah but Outland was sooo much better than Moonraker.
But not than Barbarella.
"Do you want to come and play with me? For someone like you I charge nothing. You're very pretty, Pretty-Pretty"
"My name isn't pretty-pretty, it's Barbarella."
Even the dialogues leave Moonraker in the dust.