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By Brian Braiker
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It sounds like an elaborate Jedi mind trick--but it's unclear who the trick is on. This week, about 100 people began lining up in front of Grauman's famous Chinese theater in Hollywood in hot anticipation of the sixth and final installment of the Star Wars series. The fact that the movie doesn't open until May 19 is completely irrelevant--it is a time-honored tradition among diehard Star Wars fans to wait in line for weeks, if not months, before the newest film in the series opens. This time, however, the theater in question isn't even planning on showing the film. Fans are lining up hoping to convince filmmaker George Lucas to show the movie at the theater where the original "Star Wars" premiered in 1977.
"This is Star Wars central," says Justin Sewell, 24, a DVD producer standing in line. "Darth Vader's footprints are in cement here." Perhaps, but the movie is not here, nor will it be, according to 20th Century Fox. "Star Wars: Episode III--Revenge of the Sith," will be playing at a newer movie theater about a block away called the ArcLight. "The Chinese is not available for the window that we needed," says a spokeswoman for Fox, which is distributing the film. But Sewell and his merry band of fellow fans shrug off such trivialities as reality. They will stay put, they say, until May 18, collecting money for the Starlight Starbright Children's charity, and then move the line down the block if they have to.
Welcome to the world of the diehard Star Wars fan. Unlike Trekkies, their counterparts in another galaxy far, far away, Star Wars freaks don't have a single moniker under which they operate. But by no means does that make them any less dedicated to their movies. (When was the last time lines for a "Star Trek" flick began forming 45 days before its premiere?) The hype for this installment of George Lucas's intergalactic oeuvre is heating up earlier and hotter than any of the previous films:
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Despite general grousing by fans and especially critics that "Episode I" and "Episode II" were far inferior to the original Star Wars trilogy (comprising "Star Wars," "The Empire Strikes Back" and "The Return of the Jedi"), "Episode III" is the final installment in the series, one that its creator has called "much darker" and will surely draw the series' largest audience yet for one simple reason: the Darth Vader money shot. This is, after all, the movie that brings the story full circle, the point in the plotline where promising young Jedi Anakin Skywalker, Luke's future father, moves over to the Dark Side to become the dark lord of the Sith. And when he arrives, there will be plenty of fans ready to welcome him.
Fans like Jeff Tweitan. Perhaps the first person in the country to begin waiting for "Episode III," Tweitan set up camp with a powder blue couch (and, of course, a blog) on a Seattle sidewalk on Jan. 1. He was forced to move after an extraordinarily unpopular move by Mayor Greg Nickels later that month and has since relocated to a private sidewalk in front of an IMAX theater across town. He has been treated to a private performance by the Seattle Supersonics cheerleaders, who fed him grapes, and has been the subject of a surprising amount of local newspaper copy. "I [got in line] early as a statement to America saying we need to sit back relax and enjoy life, to wait with anticipation for things we enjoy," he tells NEWSWEEK over the phone from his new perch. And if the new movie is, well, not worth the wait? "I'd voice my complaints pretty loud to Lucas, then I'd probably drink heavily," he says. "Then I'd backpedal a bit and not talk about the movie, shift it away from the movie and make it more about the human experience."
And human experience is really what this is all about, according to Paul G. Davies, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. "Through our social identities we find a sense of purpose and a sense of community, which are essential to our well-being," he writes in an e-mail. When asked if these people are just plain nuts, he demurs. "For some people, however, that sense of purpose and community is not satisfied through traditional means (e.g., religion, work, etc.), so they seek it elsewhere (e.g., Trekkies, Deadheads, bowlers, etc.). So I think these Star Wars fans that line up weeks before the opening of the movie are simply looking for their own unique sense of purpose and community. Considering the alternatives, it seems rather harmless."
There is indeed a certain conviviality at the Chinese Theater. Line-waiters who tire of quoting Yoda's greatest hits to each other are allowed to clock out, go to work for the day and return to their spots later. "At night, everybody puts on their Jedi outfits and beats each other up with light sabers," says Los Angelino Erik Murillo, 32. "It's a six-week party. I call it Nerdy Gras." The force, Yoda would say approvingly, is strong with this one.
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