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Author
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Topic: History in the Making, Take Two (October 2001)
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Dave Thomer
Guardian of Peace and Justice in the Galaxy
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posted 10-10-2001 01:06 AM
   
This month's Culture & Media update is now online. |
Pattie Gillett
True Believer
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posted 10-10-2001 01:07 AM
I applaud my husband's ability to take me back to a moment in our past so vividly while at the same time managing to make me feel positively ancient. I can practically feel my bones creak as I recall my twenty-year old self, a twenty-one year old Dave, and the sound and the fury that was a ten-year old Alison. Seriously, you had to see this kid to believe her and, as we found out later from our neighbors in the dorm, you had to see this kid to believe that it was just one kid making all that racket. Now she's wearing eye shadow and I just want somebody to kill me. Seriously, though, I am not digressing from the topic. Seeing Star Wars at the Ziegfeld is all about nostalgia, and not just nostalgia for the film itself. It's about remembering what was going on in our lives that made seeing the movie special. It's about showing your younger sibling (or your children) that you were once their age and you remember it being fun, hard, crazy, beautiful, impossible, too. Believe me, Dave has already done the math to determine when he can take our child to see all six films in the movie theaters. Now it's just a matter of him having the patience and restraint not to sneak our one-month old into Episode Two next year. OK, now I'm digressing.
I am struck by the realization that some of the most enjoyable times in my adult life have been spent waiting on line with other fans of some sort. There's this experience, which aside from the cold, was downright wonderful - I can still smell the pretzels from the vendor on the corner of 55th Street. There's also the wait in line to see Episode One, which sadly, because it took place outside a suburban multiplex just doesn't have the same magic. And then there are our waits for autographs and sketches at the San Diego Comic Con this past year. There's really nothing like spending four or five hours with people who you will probably never see again but who would likely walk through fire to help you keep your place in line. I challenge opera fans to find that kind of camaraderie waiting outside the Met. |
Kevin Ott
True Believer
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posted 10-10-2001 01:09 AM
I remember when I loaned Andy Brignole my car so he could drive, with my senior year roommate Karl, to a movie theater about 45 miles from our school to buy Star Wars tickets for about 15 people. Our school was in a central Pennsylvania county that was about 75 percent forest and 20 percent farmland, so we definitely had some traveling to do to find a worthwhile screening. And getting tickets early to ensure a viewing on opening night proved to be something of a chore.But, when we got there -- oh, when we got there! Andy hadn't been the only Juniata College emissary to Altoona's Carmike 8 Cinema that day. There had been three or four others like him, and the result was a theater was packed with the people that I saw every day, in classes, in the cafeteria, in the dorms. If I hadn't appreciated being at a small, close-knit school before, I did that night. Hard-core fans were packed next to casual viewers, nostalgia-seekers parked near the few people who -- if you can imagine such a thing -- had never seen the movie in the first place. And that night, we were pals, all of us. I remember Andy loudly singing the Bill Murray version of the theme music ("Star Wars! Nothing but Staaaaaaaar Waaaars!") before the movie started. I remember cheering at the Lucasfilm Logo. I remember the laugh I got when, in the silent moment after rebel pilot Jek Porkins was blown to smithereens, I said, "I smell bacon." I remember hearing friendly voices that I recognized, across the theater and halfway back. And after the Death Star was destroyed and Han and Luke got their medals, after the final theme bombasted from the speakers, I turned to leave, and saw again all the people that had driven 45 minutes to see a movie that most of them had probably seen a hundred times since they were born. I probably should have had some realization that the best time of my life was coming to an end, or something chintzy and Wonder Years-esque like that, but I didn't. What I did have was a feeling of warmth and well-being unlike anything I'd had in a very, very long time. I still can't explain it -- but being in that room, looking around at grin after grin after grin, and looking forward to the drive home with my friends, I knew that, for that night at least, I had found my place. OK. Cheese over. You may now resume normal programming.
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Earl Green
True Believer
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posted 10-15-2001 06:53 PM
I remember the first time I went to see Episode I in the theater. We were all pumped to see it, our "scouting party" from work.The curtains opened. The lights dimmed. The words "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..." filled the screen. And in that moment of silence and empty screen before John Williams began strutting his funky stuff, some guy behind me said, "Oh, wait. I've seen this one before!" It actually got quite a laugh, including one from me. |
slgorman
One of the Regulars
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posted 10-15-2001 07:20 PM
First off, while at LegoLand this weekend I was constantly fighting the urge to buy all kinds of Star Wars legos to send to my little brother (who is now 27). I have this strange compulsion to buy him Star Wars goodies because the first gift I ever got him that I picked out was a Greedo action figure. Which he carried around *all* day in his left fist, like a well-trained little brother.I saw Star Wars on the first release when I was seven. My brother, in one of his rare shows of kindness, insisted my mom let me come with his friends to see it. We waited in line all day and had to beg my mom to let us go (long, long story that ends with us walking home instead of taking the bus, seeing The Deep later that day with our bus money, and my mom almost calling the police because we hadn't gotten home by dinnertime), but I still remember it like yesterday. It was one of the best bonding experiences I had with my older brother and one of the best examples of him acting extremely brotherly in including me in the fun. Oh yeah, and I stole his Star Wars record years later to reward him. Actually, when Mr. sl and I hooked up our surround sound system the first thing we played, at full volume, was the beginning of Star Wars. It was great. [This message has been edited by slgorman (edited 10-15-2001).] |
Dave Thomer
Guardian of Peace and Justice in the Galaxy
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posted 10-18-2001 10:31 PM
You know, all things considered, I think the Special Edition line was more fun than the Episode I line, even though the anticipation was so much greater for Ep I. (Dear Lord, I'm comparing line experiences. Someone shoot me now.) I think a big part of it is that I really didn't know how people would react to the movies 20 years later -- I knew there were diehard fans, but would there be crowds? Would there be kids? When there were, it was really, really exciting, in a spontaneous and unexpected kind of way.Still wish I had seen it in '77. Closest I ever came was a friend of mine showing me a bootleg of the movie, without the Episode IV and subtitle. That was kinda cool. (And to the folks who did see the movie in '77 -- when did you first see the 'Episode IV' bit? And what was your reaction?) |
Earl Green
True Believer
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posted 10-19-2001 11:52 AM
I think the first time I ever saw the "Episode IV" part was on a video release. And by that time, "Empire" was already out, as was the "trilogy of trilogies" hype, so it didn't really strike me as being out of place. Keeping in mind that I was four when I first saw Star Wars, I didn't know until sometime in the past ten years or so that "Episode IV" had been pasted on. | |
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