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Fanning the force: At local theaters, 'Phantom Menace' brings out a crowd, camaraderie and compliments
Thursday, May 20, 1999 By Barbara Vancheri, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Six months ago, Drew Mohler informed his boss: You will give me May 19 off.
It wasn't like he used the Jedi mind trick or anything, but how can you argue with a man who saw "Star Wars" 1,500 times? -- before he quit counting. And that is just the first George Lucas space adventure; tack on 500 viewings apiece for the sequels.
And, in case you're wondering, he not only has a life but a wife. Mohler, who lives in Avalon, is a customer service representative for a Downtown engineering firm.
Yesterday morning, lime-green light saber in hand, the 30-year-old saw "Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace" at Carmike 10 at South Hills Village with a pal. Mohler also planned to catch a mid-afternoon matinee, and his wife intended to join him for his third go-round, at 9:15 p.m.
His thumb, as surely as young Anakin turns to the dark side, was up. Like a light saber pointed skyward.
"Absolutely amazing. It was worth every second of the 16 years I've waited since 'Return of the Jedi,' " said Mohler, wearing a T-shirt reproducing a famous Berkeley Breathed cartoon in which a character suggests Jedi knights don't wait 15 years for a sequel. The retort on the back of the shirt: "We wait 16."
Like some fans, Mohler had steered clear of Internet spoilers and critics' reviews and, except for one spotted accidentally three months ago, photographs. "I wanted to know absolutely nothing going in, because I wanted to repeat the same experience from when I was 8."
Visit PG Online's Star Wars Watch page for more coverage and Internet links.
When asked to pinpoint the appeal, he said: "It's essentially our generation's equivalent of Beatlemania. It was being caught up in the magic initially, and Lucas has a wonderful ability to bring that back each successive time. Even though I know how it ends and, God knows, I can recite the dialogue, that's not really the draw or the attraction. Why does a person listen to the same record album over and over?"
Because it's there? And "Phantom Menace" has been everywhere for months, since the first Internet previews teased moviegoers with the promise of adventures to come.
Morning moviegoers at Carmike were largely men in their 20s -- at least two teens gave themselves one daylong hall pass from Ringgold High School -- with a sprinkling of women. One woman, the better to miss as little as possible, was spotted absolutely sprinting to the restroom and then back to her auditorium.
Angela Caliguiri, a 19-year-old cosmetologist from South Park, was weary but happy after the 10:15 a.m. show ended. Gesturing to the young men standing next to her, she said, "We pitched a tent and stayed all night. We were the third people in line. ... I had my camera with me. We took pictures of everyone fighting with their light sabers and pushing each other around in shopping carts."
If that's not a night to remember, what is?
She loved the movie but 20-year-old John Hatbob, a University of Pittsburgh engineering student, said, "After one showing, it let me down. I can honestly say, it was 100 percent predictable," reeling off a list of plot points, including the parallels between Anakin and Luke Skywalker.
"I was a little bit let down on the Ki-Adi-Mundi deal, because I thought Lucas was going to focus a little more on him." Ki-Adi-Mundi is the Conehead look-alike who appears in a scene with Samuel L. Jackson and Yoda. "It's nice to have seen him put this out finally," and the computer effects were impressive, said Hatbob, who planned to catch the movie again at midnight.
In the prequel portion of this story -- the part that happened between 10:30 p.m. and midnight Tuesday at Waterworks Cinema -- the lessons of "Star Wars" were many.
Among them: A light saber can double as a conductor's baton, when the crowd erupts into a chorus of "100 bottles of beer on the wall, 100 bottles of ..." to pass the time while huddled against the building for protection from the rain. If you want to kick butt when it comes to costumes, Darth Maul is your masked man. And nothing beats the camaraderie of a crowd that can't wait to gobble George Lucas' vision and popcorn in the wee hours of the night.
Darth Maul is an equal-opportunity villain when it comes to costumes. North Hills High School sophomore Sheena Sands, adapting the cape she once wore as Luke Skywalker for Halloween, was Darth Maul. Her mother, Susan, opted for a simple "Phantom Menace" T-shirt.
If prizes had been given for most elaborate costume (and they weren't), the crown would belong to Dr. Neil Salyapongse, a 31-year-old resident at UPMC. Literally. He attached latex horns, purchased at a costume shop and painted by the doc, to his scalp with spirit gum. He then cloaked or painted himself with the official Darth Maul colors: black and red.
"I grew up on 'Star Wars.' ... This is the mythology for our generation. I was a big Joseph Campbell fan in college, being an English major back then," he said, of the author often cited as an influence on Lucas. The director-producer took the classic stories about conflict and good vs. evil and masterfully inserted them into the western and space adventure genres, Salyapongse added.
Before a reporter can even ask the question, he poses it and then answers it. Why see it now when you can see it later? When it's not crowded. When it's not raining. When it's not midnight.
"This, for us, is like the Super Bowl is for sports fans. It's the spectacle. You come for the people, because you know they're fired up. You know they believe what you believe, and you come for the experience."
As he turned to rejoin the crowd, he said with the certainty patients value in their surgeons: "It's going to be great. No way it can't be."
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