It’s made from a piece of steel tubing used as the tubular handle that supported the flash bulb of an old Graflex camera, a few other odds and ends and lots of crazy glue.
But when Roger Christian pulled it out of a protective blanket Saturday afternoon at the Guelph Public Library’s main branch, he might as well have been unveiling the secret to the universe.
‘Ooohs’ and ‘ahhhhs’ filled the room as the man showed off one of the most iconic movie props of all time: Luke Skywalker’s lightsabre.
Like many of the props used in the original Star Wars, the lightsabre came out of creativity, George Lucas’s desire to have everything looked like it belonged in the scene and the fact the movie didn’t have much of a budget.
“The lightsabre is the icon. That’s when we knew ‘there’s something here. This is going to work,’” Christian told the Star Wars lovers on Saturday.
Christian worked on the set of the first Star Wars movie in the art department and is responsible for creating and or helping create the lightsabre, R2D2, 3CPO, Chewbacca and a host of other Star Wars staples.
He cobbled together the prop largely from a box of discarded parts at a friend’s camera store in London, England.
Christian was at the Guelph Public Library talking with host Craig Norris about his work read from his book Cinema Alchemist, taking questions from an enthralled public crammed into the library’s programming room.
He later posed for photos, autographed books and sold some autographed photos.
“I believed in this movie the whole time, but I don’t think anyone else did,” Christian said. “George Lucas once said ‘only five people stood by me and Roger was one of them.’
“Nobody was really respecting what we were doing or what George was doing.”
The movie was made for a modest $11 million ($40 million in today’s dollars). The original alone has grossed $322 million and spawned an industry of subsequent films. It also won six Oscars, one of which sits in Christian’s office.
Christian says it is an epic hero movie, translated to science fiction, but believable science fiction.
“George wrote the perfect myth,” he said. “It’s the first time ever in science fiction that you believed the world. That’s why it worked.
“George Lucas makes his films for 9 year olds, but he says ‘it’s not my fault adults like them as well.’”
Christian, 73, has a long and storied career in the movies, including some future Star Wars movies and the first Alien.
He gave the audience a glimpse behind the Star Wars curtain, telling tales from the movie set and some of the little secrets that went into the movie.
R2D2 included nozzles taken from the emergency oxygen tubes that are on airplanes and his arms were carved by Christian from wood. Little person Kenny Baker wore the costume “like a rucksack.”
A Tunisian villager thought the large Bantha creature – a woolly mammoth-like beast – was actually real and beat it with a club at the remote set.
Most of the people working on the film thought it was a terrible idea and that it would fail miserably.
Some other Star Wars tidbits offered by Christian:
R2D2 actor Kenny Baker: “He couldn’t walk, only shuffle and kept saying ‘let me out’ … but we knew then we had a movie.”
The Phantom Menace: “It’s a $100 million movie. I told George ‘I think you’ll get it back.’”
On George Lucas: “He’s never been part of Hollywood. He had such a tough time when he was starting and he remembered that.”
On Alien: “It was the first science fiction horror movie.”
On CGI: “CGI, when used correctly, is fine … The toy box is open. You can do anything … but audiences aren’t stupid.”
David Prowse (Darth Vader): “He was upset that George Lucas didn’t use his voice. That’s why they fell out.”
The Force Awakens: “I actually loved The Force Awakens. I thought J.J. (Abrams) gae back the Star Wars they loved.”
The Heroes Journey: “Great, but it’s an action movie.”
Character most deserving of his own movie: “Boba Fett”
