A short memoir about the day Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace was released.
As I began to write this memoir, it nears the exact time, to the minute, that ten years ago, my wife and I (along with a small group of friends and family) sat in a dimly lit movie theater awaiting our first screening of The Phantom Menace. The time was 11:45 PM May 18, 1999.
Flash forward, at exactly 11:43 PM May 18, 2009, I have reclined on my sofa, laptop computer on my…well…lap and I have placed the DVD of The Phantom Menace into the Playstation 3—up-scaled it to 1080p and projected it through my 52 inch Sony Bravia LCD TV—all in attempts to recreate that day in that darkened theater not so long ago. The volume on the home theater is turned up to a thunderous roar. On the other hand, the best it will allow in light of the DVD’s compressed audio in this age of Blu-ray and superior sound technology and not to wake the wife and daughter.
Sitting in that theater, ten years prior, I may have not been thinking as long and hard on the past ten years as I am tonight. However, I know I would have been sitting there wondering if I would ever experience something like that again. Moreover, I for a fact do remember that night!
I remember seeing The Phantom Menace five times in a single day.
I remember, from all corners of the theater, fans chanted out a count down that would rival any on a given New Year’s Eve. I remember we settled back in our seats, gripped our sodas, popcorn bags, overpriced M&Ms and our stainless aluminum lightsaber hilts and held our breaths as we read the Episode I’s now infamous crawl.
Before I can truly recount that memorable day here, I must first back up even further in time. Let’s just say that night would be the culmination of not only months and months of expectation, but would be the pinnacle of anticipation for any given movie:
From the moment in 1994 when George Lucas announced he was writing and working on the first Star Wars movie in over 10 years:
—to the moment in the summer of 1997 when we heard principle photography had begun;
—to racing to the mailbox anxiously looking for and reading the next issue of Star Wars Insider (formally known as the Lucasfilm Insider);
—to the moment I logged onto StarWars.com for the first time to learn the name of the movie we had only known as Episode I for the last year and a half;
—to watching the first official teaser trailer attached to a ridiculous movie called Water Boy in 1998;
—to having my extremely slow Pentium II computer downloading that very same trailer over a 56K modem;
—to setting the VCR (DVRs had yet to be invented to my knowledge) to record Entertainment Tonight to get my first official copy of the trailer that I could watch over and over again on my 27 inch RCA television and nearly wearing out the video tape;
—to researching and sitting at a sewing machine in efforts of creating my very own Jedi costume;
—to sneaking out of work on an extra long lunch hour so I could stand in line with friends to purchase tickets to a movie that wouldn’t be released for another 32 days;
—to the attendance of Star Wars Celebration at the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum in Denver Colorado;
—to watching the Duel of the Fates music video in a cool and damp tent;
—to watching TV spots and promos with Samuel L. Jackson on Sci-Fi Channel;
—to the point of sacrificing sleep and rushing out at midnight to buy the merchandise, action figures, sticker books, pez dispensers and “making of” books;
—to careful review and reading of the thousands of magazine articles;
—to the hunger for Star Wars news yet with a strong desire to remain spoiler free;
—to buying four copies of a novelization so I could get all the book cover variants;
—to buying a soundtrack yet not even breaking the shrink-wrap;
—to requesting a day off and trying to explain to my boss that it was all in preparation to see a movie we had been waiting for nearly 20 years.
I remember the first Star Wars Celebration. It’s hard not to when I think back to May 19th. (those details will be explored later) However, it was at that very event, where we, the fans in attendance of Celebration, had all hoped we would catch our first true glimpse of The Phantom Menace. I even recall some of us, in our most wild and incredible dreams, fantasizing GL would allow us to see a rough cut of the entire movie. Nevertheless, those were just fanboy dreams.
Like a whisper in the back of my mind, I sometimes worry that I will forget important details of that day, May 19, 1999, a Phantom Memory cursed to be forgotten. Tuesday May 18, 1999 started like any other. I crawled out of bed and shuffled off to work. As hours ticked away, I became more anxious. Excited more than a 10-year-old boy with a new BMX bike. I distinctly remember spending the day listening to my CD box set of Star Wars (ipods were still a few years away). Co-workers had paraded by my desk to inquiry if I had seen the latest news program or morning show that had featured something on this new Star Wars movie. And like teasing playground bullies, they had to poke fun at me standing in line with my lightsaber.
The hours between leaving work and arriving at the theater are missing in my memory hard drive. I do recall getting dressed in my Jedi robes and arriving to the Aurora Century 16 Theater around 9:30 PM that night. The line wasn’t too long. Although my goal was to get there by no later than 9 PM. Yet, tell that to a wife who was nearly eight months pregnant. Memory serves that there were only about 20 people in line when we arrived. I remember asking the person at the front of the line when they made their stake for the coveted spot. They had mentioned an original arrival time of around 6 PM yet found themselves first so they went and grabbed some fast food and returned around 7:30 PM, still to find themselves first in line. I remember them being much more prepared for their long wait in line than us. They had the laid-back lawn chairs, an ice cooler full of refreshments, magazines and board games to past the time. This was nothing compared to the line of Episode II and III where I recall fans pitching tents not only with comfy chairs and sleeping bags but with electricity to run TVs, DVDs and AC. With my tickets in my pocket and fellow friends joining us in line, we began our wait – a two and half hour wait to what we thought at the time was going to be the best Star Wars movie ever! I can’t recall the specifics of all the conversations we had in line from that night but I do know it very rarely deviated from the subject of Star Wars.
I cannot explain the feeling a grown man gets as he awaits the next big Star Wars movie. It clearly is nearly indescribable. The feeling can only be summed up as a mix of anxiety, fear, sorrow and pure enthusiasm. It’s like the night before Christmas morning. You can’t wait to open your presents yet you don’t want it to happen either as the realization hits you just before you fall into a slumber that the electricity of that anticipation will soon be over. The wait for Star Wars: The Phantom Menace had taken months, years and it was slowly coming to an end.
Although it was ten years ago, I do remember standing in that line. Adjusting my Jedi belt and lightsaber, pulling my Jedi robe closer to fight off a cool evening breeze, my wife complaining of tired feet, the flicker of the theater lights, the chatter of dozens of Star Wars conversations, the moment they opened the doors and we rushed in to a ticket taker ripping tickets and the smell of buttered popcorn.
The time was 11:05 PM May 18, 1999. We had rushed into the theater to pick our seats. Surprisingly enough, we claimed very nice ones. Not exactly center center but close enough. I bought our concessions and took pictures of our friends and family. I may have even proclaimed we would be telling this story to our grandkids someday. The theater had quickly filled to capacity. I remember the theater manager assuring fans that two more theaters were being opened for fans to occupy. The excitement wouldn’t end there. Fans chanted Star Wars. Several challenges for lightsaber combat incurred between costumed Jedi and Sith. Three beach balls bounced around the theater as if at a pool party. Only when the 20th Century Fox logo debuted, did the balls stop floating around the theater. I recall there being John Williams music playing on someone’s boom box. Although I don’t understand why, there were several people reading the novelization. I guess some didn’t care about being spoiled. Yet to me it was like knowing the answer to a question you had yet to think of and ask.
I remember the fans bonded that night like old school friends at a class reunion. You couldn’t recall the person exactly nor knew their name yet you inherently knew them, understood them and respected them.
I honestly remember as the lights went down sometime around 11:55 PM, with only about six minutes remaining to 12:01 AM May 19, 1999. I remember those last few minutes as I had a moment that I can only describe as a life changing moment. Similar to an epiphany, it’s that moment where you within a few minutes or seconds you relive your life up until that event. Not so much like a "life flashing before your eyes" as the experience is a good one vs. a bad one. I sat there in that darkening theater and realized how lucky I was to be sitting there. I was going to experience something I couldn't have ever done before. I was going to see the premier of a Star Wars movie. Who'd would have thunk that I would be writing about it in ten years. I hope to be writing about it in 20 or 30 more years. It was in those few minutes that tears welled in my eyes. I wished for the chance to call my grandmother and tell her about the moment. She has listened to hours of phone conversations of me retelling events that were in that month's Insider magazine. This the woman that bought me my first Return of the Jedi figure. But, I couldn’t as I had lost her to cancer in January of that year, 1999. I felt compassion for Steven Curnow, who wouldn’t be able to watch TPM because his life was cut too short by the events of the Columbine shooting. I suddenly felt fear and joy knowing that in a short couple of months, my pregnant wife would give birth to my daughter. I would be a father for the first time. The realization that not only a era of fandom was ending that a new one was beginning—yet this time I was experiencing it as a grown up.
I remember watching as the 20th Century fox logo faded away into those unforgettable blue letters of “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…” I remember the applause and cheers as the Star Wars logo appeared and quickly pulled back to reveal the crawl.
I remember the awe and magic I felt at 2:30 AM as we slowly walked out of the theater. I remember wanting to stay there all night and recount and discus what we had just seen. But, it was the cold realization that we had another screening beginning in less than six hours encouraged us to go home and catch a few winks of sleep. Lucky for my wife and I that we only lived a ½ mile away.
I remember the plan that morning was to drive back to the theater at 7 AM and get in line for the 8:30 screening. I look back on that now and think I was a bit OCD on the whole idea. Apparently, my mind set was the crowd at the 8:30 AM show would be no different from the 12:01 AM show. My wife still reminds me of that error in my judgment to this day.
I remember we arrived at the theater parking lot around 7:15 AM give or take, we found ourselves the only ones there. I remember worrying that maybe my tickets were incorrect and the next showing was not at 8:30. Thus, we sat in the car and waited. We also had time to shake off the effects of too little sleep. It was sometime around 8 AM when we saw a lone theater employee unlock the doors and gave us our signal it was okay to proceeded in. Tickets were purchased weeks earlier so it was just the theater door and us.
I remember buying a couple sodas and that’s it at the concession stand and walking into an empty theater. I remember that the second viewing was just as exciting as the first. Once the credits ended, we had about 20 minutes to move from one theater to another for our third viewing.
It was between our third and forth screening that we had about 55 minutes for a quick lunch which I remember was at Burger King up the street (duh Star Wars promotions). The fourth viewing began promptly at 2:15 PM. And, I remember the day would conclude with returning to the theater at 7 PM that night for one last viewing minus my tired and very pregnant wife.
I had spent May 19, 1999 in a theater, had watched The Phantom Menace so many times I could already quote dialog. And the funny thing was, I still wanted to see it one more time. I remember seeing my wife’s face grimace as I tried to drag her to another showing. Nevertheless, she was always the loving wife and would smile and endure another screening.
Before the summer of 1999 would end, I remember seeing The Phantom Menace another four times. Whether it was on the huge screen of the United Artists Continental Theater or a run down $1 theater with sticky floors and torn seats, I remember enjoying it each and every time. It was somewhere in there I remember hauling a baby carrier into a darkened theater and looking down at my daughter and saying, “you’re gonna love this movie!”
Thus, this brings me back to writing this memoir.
So, last month, I got this idea. The idea was I would go all out to relive May 19th all over again. It would be in my living room and the movie would be on DVD but it would be great in not only spirit but also tribute. I purposely drank caffeine after 9 PM so I could stay up till midnight on May 18th. I pushed play on the DVD at precisely 12:01 AM. I managed to watch the entire movie before heading off to bed at 2:40 AM. I pulled my aching body out of bed at 7 AM and watched it again at 8:30—this time with a doughnut in my hand.
It’s May 19, 2009. I have watched Star Wars – The Phantom Menace five times. Once with the commentary track on. I even watched the “making of” documentaries and deleted scenes. I will admit the day felt different than it did ten years ago. Perhaps because I spent today alone where as ten years ago I was in the company of friends and family. The displays of emotion were missing—there was no laughter, groans of worry or applause at the final credits. Although I did try to recreate them all.
I wonder where the last ten years went. I will tell you that I sincerely miss them. Although I can’t go back, I know I can at least look back on those ten years and say I remember them as good years. As I write these last few sentences, I watch the sparkle in my daughter’s eye as she is enthralled by the lightsaber duel of Qui-gon, Obi-wan and Darth Maul. She is almost 10 years old, watching TPM with her daddy literally for the first time beginning to end. (I brought her up the ol’ fashion way—Star Wars was New Hope, Empire and Jedi first, then the prequels). I look back and wouldn’t trade those years for anything. Ten years have certainly passed and my body certainly feels a bit different but my mind hasn’t aged a day since. Let’s hope I can say the same about the next ten years…or at least entertain the idea of reliving May 16th 2002 in three years!
