The Irresistible Force

Kimberley McGee

Tuesday, May 18, 1999 | 1:32 a.m.

Once upon a time, the nefarious Darth Vader rasped to the young rebel Jedi Knight, Luke Skywalker, "Luke, I am your father."

The gallant son tries to dissuade his father from the dark side.

Lightsabers flashing, a battle of good over evil ensues and lives are lost on both sides.

Slowly, the Rebel Alliance triumphs over the suppressive Empire.

Nighty-night. The rest will be told ... in 16 years!

Just about everyone in this galaxy knows "Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace," written and directed by George Lucas, opens tonight -- technically Wednesday morning -- at 12:01 a.m. Fans who ate up the mythological trilogy of the late '70s and early '80s will finally get a chance to see not how it ends, but how it began.

But why does Lucas' space tale hit such a nerve that motivates people around the world -- including right here in Las Vegas -- to dedicate themselves to the proliferation of this decades-old story?

"He's given me a lot of hope," Ben Klenke, a 19-year-old "Star Wars" fan, says of the first trilogy -- "Star Wars," "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi."

Klenke slept overnight in the Texas Station hotel-casino parking garage with 20 or so other Force fanatics when tickets went on sale last week. "We are all in line for different reasons," he says. "But as soon as the lights go down, we all just want to be up there to live in a better universe, to be taken away for two hours."

Chris Fu, a 23-year-old retail manager, crisscrossed the valley for his tickets, arriving at Sunset Station hotel-casino to get his lottery number, driving to Texas Station to wait in line, then heading back to Sunset Station in time for his number to be called.

"I wanted to have the best chance to get to the first shows," Fu says.

Other fans waited in line to honor the director's celluloid vision.

"I wanted to pay tribute to it," Jason McClure, also 19, says. "It's the greatest science fiction movie ever made." For others, the movie is a chance to revisit the wonders of childhood after the daily journeys through reality.

"It was the first movie I ever saw," Ryan Kearbey, a 25-year-old sales clerk, says of the first film. "Anytime I watch ('Star Wars') on video, it takes me back to being a kid. And in a theater, you have all these people around you and they are experiencing the same thing, but they are also taking something different away with them."

Kyle Hegland, a UNLV student, was the first in line thanks to his criminal justice professor, who reluctantly let the desperate fan take his final exam early so he could have the honor of being the first fan to set up camp -- with his plastic lawn chair, cooler and deck of cards to pass the time.

"I wanted to wait (in line) because it's about the whole experience -- you are involved in something," Hegland says. "And either you get it or you don't."

Before Lucas, most directors of futuristic movies distracted audiences' with bright shiny objects, floating discs, flashing lights and space men in green suits to hide flimsy plots.

"(Lucas) brought science fiction back as a viable genre in the '70s," Robert Benedetto, a UNLV film professor, says. One of the first technologically advanced science fiction films, "Star Wars" also reined in non-sci-fi fans with its heroic tale.

"It's almost like a substitute religion," Benedetto says. ("The phrase 'May the force be with you') is almost equivalent to seeing Christian fish (emblems) on the backs of cars."

As society evolves, it continues to look for connections to the past, be it in the Bible, fables and, possibly, movies.

"We've lost religion and myths in our culture," Benedetto says. " 'Star Wars' created a whole new kind of mythology in terms of (a) belief system and rituals. The whole idea of the force ... is the center of (Lucas') 'Star Wars' vision. This is what people were magnetized by, not just the extraordinary art and technology, but the message.

"(Theaters are) a place where (people) are trying to find meaning in their lives, much in the way a church is a place to find meaning," Bendetto continues. "Those people who don't have that kind of faith need some other kind of place to find meaning. They are trying to find answers to the mysteries of life.

"It's the philosophy of the film that sucks people into watching it," Benedetto adds. "That's what makes it special, the fact that it is grounded so much in a sense of myth, of the hero and his quest."

When the theater lights go down tonight, the Force begins anew to feed the public the beginning of a tale that has weaved itself into the world's psyche.

"It's a completely different type of story," Karl Vetter, owner of the Kool Kollectibles hobby shop on Charleston Boulevard, says. "It speaks to something that has always been in us, only now it's hi-tech."

Vetter has a five-acre ranch in the Northwest part of the valley where he stages elaborate role-playing games, complete with a "Star Wars" cantina, a maze for battles and costumes which let the player be Hans Solo or Princess Leia.

"We have this entire subculture of 'Star Wars' fans. They are literally freaking out because finally you get to see it the way Lucas wanted to do it back then," Vetter says, gesturing excitedly. "Now after all this time, the story is going to be told from the beginning, we know what is going to happen. But how did Darth Vader get that way? Where did Luke and Leia come from? Where does this lineage go?"

Lucas' sci-fi movies address the dreams of fans that they could be the triumphant Luke Skywalker. Their hearts swell as the musical score races to the victorious finale.

"The 'Star Wars' universe is gritty, it's rough," Vetter says, comparing the film's world to man's mostly mundane reality. "You have a lot of situations where everything breaks down on you at the wrong time, and you have to get in there and fix it. The common people can identify with a lot of the same problems. It really does tap into everybody's subconscious."

Lucas tied literary tales of ancient mythology -- medieval tales of knights and swords and pirate ships -- to a modern medium with flawed characters in extreme situations.

"Some of the characters are walking the line -- not quite good, not quite evil," Vetter says. "They just are sort of surviving, and they have to do what they have to do to survive and I think people feel that.

"I think men and women find a certain amount of comfort in seeing (those) traditional heroics," Vetter says. "It's a very classic theme and it will probably never go away, no matter what (Hollywood) producers do."

And make no mistake -- "Star Wars" may be in the same sci-fi genre as "Star Trek," but that is all the futuristic fables have in common.

" 'Star Wars' is about the little guy standing up against the evil empire, more so than 'Star Trek,' which has this military, utopian kind of world where everything is well ordered, everything is ready for you there, neat and clean and tidy," Vetter says. In "Star Trek," he adds, "there is no currency, you ask for something and it appears. In 'Star Wars,' these people are slaves to the Empire and they have to work for what they can get."

Although "Star Trek" fans had new story lines, TV shows, characters and plots to devour in a world where "make it so" is the motto, "Star Wars" fans have feasted on the same plots, never experiencing the richness of new characters while waiting decades for Lucas to create them.

David Mandt, director of marketing and public relations at the Las Vegas Hilton, home of the "Star Trek: The Experience" attraction, says a lot of people get the two sci-fi tales tangled.

"People sometimes get confused between 'Star Wars' and 'Star Trek,' and they are very different," Mandt says. " 'Star Trek' is about the possibilities of the future ... what's out there, what can the future hold?"

During the 22-minute "Experience," guests encounter trouble and are whisked through a simulated attack by an enemy ship. But the Federation quickly settles the dispute and continues effortlessly through space.

"Everything is ready for you there, there are no lines drawn, just a demilitarized zone and the enemy sort of comes over and they fight a little bit and then the threat goes away," Vetter says. "With 'Star Wars,' even though it's a futuristic world, people can identify with the relationships of the characters, with the situations (that come up.)"

"We're expecting 'Star Wars' fans to come and razz us a bit," Barry Robb, who plays a Ferengi alien nightly at the "Experience," says, explaining that he and fellow cast mates feign ignorance when situations arise, such as a "Star Wars"' fan who boasts that Darth Vader could kick Capt. Picard into hyperspace.

"We deal with that all the time," he says.

The end of "Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace" is just the beginning of a "Star Wars" feast. The Lucas creative machine will continue to crank out more characters and plots over the next three years with "Episodes" II and III, which will fill in the blanks of the fictitious world so many fans inhabit a few hours at a time.

"The phenomenon," Vetter says, "will never go away."

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