In a new video, Marco from Nerdkultur talks about one of the most famous villains in film history: Darth Vader. He shows how many actors were involved in the character and what else lies behind the dark Sith Lord.
Who is Marco Risch? Marco Risch has been uploading videos with news, reviews, analyses, and interviews about current movies, series, and video games on his YouTube channel Nerdkultur since 2015.
In his Podcast Nerd & Kultur he chats every Sunday with his colleague Yves Arievich about topics like Star Wars, Marvel, and DC. Together, they are part of the Webedia network, which also includes MeinMMO.
In a new video, Marco talks about Darth Vader and shows how many actors and ideas are behind the iconic character:
Darth Vader is not just one person
Few villains in film history are as iconic as Darth Vader. Marco shows this in a new video, where he particularly deals with the backgrounds behind Darth Vader. A major point of the video is that Darth Vader is not just one single person.
Marco identifies 7 individuals who have been behind the mask in nearly 50 years of Star Wars. One of the least known is Bob Anderson. Anderson was once an Olympic fencer who worked in Hollywood after his athletic career. He provided excellent swordfight choreography.
However, agility was not required in the lightsaber battle. George Lucas wanted the weight of the lightsabers to be conveyed in the fight. However, David Prowse, the actor for Vader, was unable to execute the choreography due to his physique.
For the fight scenes in Star Wars – Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back, Anderson himself slipped into the costume and duelled with Luke Skywalker.
The design of a samurai
There is also a lot behind the design of Darth Vader. Marco explains that the colors play an important role. Darth Vader is dressed entirely in black, while the stormtroopers and the background are white. He is the contrast that immediately catches the eye. According to Marco, this reminds of The Hidden Fortress by Akira Kurosawa.
Thus, Darth Vader is also visually inspired by a samurai. His iconic appearance is thanks to John Mollo and Ralph McQuarrie. They combined a motorcycle suit, a church robe, a gas mask, and a Wehrmacht helmet.
His iconic breathing comes from Ben Burtt, the sound designer of the films. He simply held a microphone to the breathing apparatus of a diving suit.
But that is just a small part of Marco’s video. Anyone who wants to know exactly which actors were also important for Darth Vader and what film tricks were used to make him who he is should watch the video. Another analysis from Marco is about the sci-fi movie Dune 2: After that, you’ll see DUNE 2 in a new light
