In the credits of a film, what are guards?

Cafe Society
1

I just watched The Divine Enforcer, an old movie about a psychic vigilante priest, on Youtube. I won’t link because I’m sure it’s not entirely legal for it to be there. At the end there is the cast, then a section with dozens of names headed “GUARDS”, then the crew. I’ve never seen anything like that in any other movie, so now I’m curious.

2

I don’t know, but it is probably the simplest explanation–they were guards, as in security for the crew or sets.

3

Wait–dozens of them? Sounds like too much for real guards. There wasn’t a scene or scenes with lots of guards in the background?

4

Without watching it (with a cast like that, it had to stink!) and just checking IMDB, they are all cast members played by paid up real actors. I have no idea what they did in the film, but they weren’t site security or anything like that.

5

Moved to Cafe Society.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

6

Sounds like it was just a idiosyncrasy of formatting in the cast credits. One sometimes sees large groups of cast members credited as a group, especially for stunt performers.

7

Those were actors who portrayed some sort of guard. Was there a scene in a prison or other secure facility?

8

Here is the cast list for that movie.
“Guards” refers to actors playing security guards.

9

It’s one of those so bad it’s good movies, it’s excellent. I mean, a psychic vigilante priest.

No, nothing even remotely like that. There’s a crime gang who have a warehouse, but all of those henchmen are credited in the cast. The entire cast list in the credits has 37 names. The GUARDS section has 32 names. These aren’t people in the film.

The credits are certainly idiosyncratic. It starts with “Cast of Characters”, then there’s a separator before “GUARDS”, then there’s a separator before the crew, but that section doesn’t have a header. Then there’s a separator followed by “2ND UNIT”.

10

It could have been a remnant from a scene that was cut.

11

Where are you getting these separators from? We’re looking at the cast list in the IMDb. Are you looking at the cast list when you play the DVD of the movie (or videotape or streaming or download or whatever)? There are no separators in IMDb cast list. The guards are just at the bottom of the cast list (apparently because they are the least important actors in the movie). There is no separate section for the second unit in the IMDb crew list. The people listed as guards are actors, possibly in a cut scene.

12

Watch the credits. They roll actors - divider - guards - divider - 2nd Unit, etc.

13

O.K., I didn’t realize that The Divine Enforcer was available to watch for free on YouTube. I just watched the credits there. I see what you mean by separators. I still suspect that the people listed as guards are just actors in a (possibly cut) scene. Here is the link to the movie:

14

Uh huh.

15

…adding to the mystery, most of the people credited as guards only have a single credit: this movie. The ones that don’t all appear to be credited with variations on their real name, ie Edwin Neal (as Ed Neil). And some of those bios look like self promotional peices like this:

Adding even more to the mystery is this note from the review:

Plenty of weird going on here :smiley: Maybe some sort of “inside joke” going on, but definitely a mystery worth pursuing!

16

I find it particularly unhelpful that they don’t even bother telling us whether they’re point guards or shooting guards. I need someone who can pass the rock!