It’s been a banner few weeks for Star Wars fans. First the new trailer for The Force Awakens was released, followed by all sorts of cool tie-ins. Now a lost film that was supposed to play before The Empire Strikes Back has been recovered, allowing anyone who wants to watch the movie as it was meant to be seen run this short to get in the mood for some lightsaber duels.
Here’s a brief history of the film, via The A.V. Club:
Back in 1980, George Lucas wanted a film to play with Empire Strikes Back in the UK and ended up commissioning then art director Roger Christian to make it. Christian, who had set-directed Star Wars, and art-directed both Alien and Monty Python’s The Life Of Brian, made the short film in Scotland and titled it Black Angel.The film is a swords-and-sorcery tale of a knight traversing a plague-stricken land with many elements of dream imagery and mythical archetypes woven throughout.
It all sounds great, but the film was lost, so no one’s seen it in over 30 years. Then the magic of the internet happened, so now the film is available in full on YouTube. Now you can watch it over and over again to make up for all those times you watched Empire without it.
(Via The A.V. Club)
