Film serial's impact on pop culture is out of this world

By: JACK COYLE - Associated Press | Wednesday, May 18, 2005 11:37 AM PDT ∞

Like the all-powerful tractor beam of the Death Star, "Star Wars" has exerted an inexorable force in popular culture.

When "Star Wars" premiered to the public at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood on May 25, 1977, a great line of people formed ---- despite mild expectations for the peculiar, Zen-themed sci-fi epic.

"I could not believe my eyes. There were lines around the block," remembers Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in the first trilogy.

George Lucas himself recently said at the annual Star Wars convention: "The whole phenomenon began with the fans."

Now "Episode III ---- Revenge of the Sith" neatly wraps up the back stories of Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker and the rest.

"Star Wars" remains a singular moviegoing experience that has not only inspired women to glue buns to the sides of their heads, but changed the business of Hollywood forever ---- merchandising, in particular.

After United Artists and Universal passed, Lucas ended up at 20th Century Fox, which made the movie for $11 million. Since then, the first five "Star Wars" films have grossed more than $3.4 billion worldwide at the box office. (In comparison, the three "Lord of the Rings" movies have reaped some $2.8 billion.)

In negotiations, Lucas persuaded Fox to give him the merchandising rights, which at the time weren't considered a principle revenue stream. So far, Lucasfilm has raked in more than $9 billion from merchandise.

The deal has been called the Hollywood equivalent of selling Manhattan island for practically nothing, and the sound of executives banging their heads on desks still reverberates.

Soon Warner Bros. saw the potential for merchandising and bought DC Comics, which owned superheroes such as Batman and Superman. Now, the potential toys and other knockoffs are a central consideration to any blockbuster.

"I think ('Star Wars') definitely is the major force in the redefinition of movies for kids and teenagers -- the whole elaborate apparatus of tie-ins that it's attached to," says film historian David Thomson, whose books include "The New Biographical Dictionary of Film."

Before "Jaws" in 1975 and then "Star Wars," the summer was Hollywood's slow season -- an almost unfathomable thought nowadays. This summer's slate includes "Batman Begins," "Fantastic Four," "War of the Worlds" and "Madagascar."

Expect toys. Lots of them.

Many of those movies could not be made without high-tech digital effects. Everyone knows that Lucas revolutionized movies with his effects house, Industrial Light & Magic, which has long been the industry standard for making spaceships fly, dinosaurs walk and Arnold Schwarzenegger terminate.

But toys and special effects alone don't explain the kind of fan dedication that would make a Deadhead blush.

"I think it has mythical basis," says Andrew Gordon, an English professor at the University of Florida who in 1978 was one of the first to read "Star Wars" as a modern myth. "(Lucas) has deliberately attempted to tap into the kinds of deep stories that can resonate in a culture, with archetypal characters and conflict of good and evil."

Gordon cites how lines like "may the force be with you" have seeped into our culture, the universal story of Luke's rite of passage and that the first trilogy began in medias res ---- the Greek tradition of beginning an epic in the middle of things.

"It's rare," he says. "What's rarer, though, is George Lucas' ambition. Hollywood movies tend to be isolated events. ... But to attempt to weave together a story this complex over such a long period of time, that's very rare. Going back through Hollywood, perhaps D.W. Griffith had that type of ambition."

Not everyone agrees that "Star Wars" ever had such depth.

Many also think the franchise long ago lost its original appeal.

Thomson thinks the newest films "have been increasingly spoiled by the computer-generated effects because they just look drab somehow --- they don't have the vitality to it." And he maintains that the original trio (Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher) had "chemistry."

But while many fans have been at least a little disappointed in Episodes I and II, a wave of bittersweet excitement has swept the legions of die-hards knowing that "Sith" will be the last feature-length film.

At a "Star Wars" convention in April, a 6-year-old boy stood up during a Q&A with Lucas not to ask a question, but simply to say, "Thank you." Now, the Web site www.ThankYouGeorge.com has been organized to pay tribute to ---- as C-3P0 would say ---- "the maker."

These heartfelt feelings have also manifested themselves in Lego sculptures of the Statue of Liberty armed with a lightsaber ("Jedi Lady Liberty"), "Star Wars" gangsta rap ("It's not the west side, it's the dark side") and, of course, the famous video (and its spinoffs) of the "Star Wars" kid who imagines himself a Jedi.

Other Internet sites are keeping up the more standard obsessiveness. TheForce.net has counted down when advance tickets to "Sith" become available ---- in Mexico. They have also polled fans for their favorite Episode III commercial and reported on new collectibles ---- like Slurpee cups with Darth Vader on them.

Joshua Griffin, 30, who has edited TheForce.net for six years, feels a poetic ending to the series. He first saw "Star Wars" when he was 3 and now has a 3-year-old son.

"One of the phrases in 'Star Wars' is, 'The circle is now complete,"' Griffin says. "And I feel that that is kind of true here. This started my childhood and this is going to kind of close off that chapter of my life."

But like most, 31-year-old James Coleman ---- an enthusiast who has been camping outside New York's Ziegfeld Theater as part of a 19-day "stand-a-thon" for charity ---- sees no end in sight.

After all, the "Star Wars" universe is far from disappearing.

Lucas recently announced plans for two TV series, one animated and one live-action, which join other offshoot projects such as the dozens of novels by writers of Lucas' choosing.

"I'm helping set (the TV shows) up and getting it going and getting it the right people in place, but basically, just like the books and other things, I kind of want to move away from it and do my own thing," Lucas says.

But there are also dozens of other fan-made ventures out there, including intensely faithful movies produced cheaply by fans.

"The difference between this generation of science fiction enthusiasts and the last is our ability to produce our own fiction," says Justin Scioli, 16, who also was camped outside the Ziegfeld.

And today's "Star Wars" fans seem especially close-knit. Jewels Green, who helped organize the Ziegfeld stand-a-thon, met her husband at a previous "Star Wars" line. As she was for Episode II, Green is again pregnant with a sure-to-be future fan.

"In a way, George Lucas has brought us all together," says Green.

Scioli goes one step further: "Some people have breathing and other people have 'Star Wars."'