It’s time to join Melinda Wolf over at Coffee With Kenobi as she brings us her latest blog looking once again at the ABC’s of Star Wars.
Call me silly [you wouldn’t be alone in doing so ?? ], but I’ve always been … entranced … by Alfred Hitchcock’s decision to make a cameo appearance in his films. They always are unobtrusive roles — an every-day man riding the bus [that’s “Hitch” sitting next to Cary Grant on the bus in “To Catch A Thief”], a customer leaving a pet shop [in “The Birds”], a passenger lugging a double bass trying to board the train [in “Strangers On A Train”]. In some instances, the director had to be rather creative to “appear” in one of his films. In “Lifeboat”, Hitchcock’s image appears in a newspaper ad one of the survivors is reading. It is just as much fun to locate his recognizable visage in the crowd as it is to watch one of his masterful cinematic efforts. Imagine my glee when I recognized [or thought I did at my first viewing of “Revenge of the Sith”] a certain director standing off to the side in the opera house. Blue-skinned and clad in his finery fit for the occasion, subsequent viewings of ROTS proved that my eyes did not deceive me. That is George Lucas in the background as Anakin races up the stairs to meet with Chancellor Palpatine. How fitting that he, George Lucas, finally appeared in a “Star Wars” film. After all, many a crew member and even Lucas’ children stepped into one role or another to help bring the Saga to life. Even acclaimed artist Ralph McQuarrie stepped in front of the camera [TESB]. ROTS was to be George Lucas’ final foray into the life of the Skywalkers. If he was going to make a cameo, ROTS would have to be the movie in which he did so. I, for one, was pleased as punch to see George Lucas — disguised even as he was — show up in one of his Star Wars films. I hope you join me in that sentiment. 🙂
