Today is the 10 year anniversary of the release of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. I saw it three times on opening day. With Liza. I had just arrived in NYC. I guess it's something close to my 10 year anniversary living in New York City as well.
This movie, now almost universally considered the meaning of the word "letdown," carved an 0dd place in my skull: an odd mixture of denial, determination, happiness and comfort. I can speak the entire film to you from memory. I've always been the only person in the room defending it. Now, long after anyone gives a damn, I somehow still am.
All of this may not be my fault. Genetics are the last refuge of those of us with compulsive loves. Last weekend, my father was at Serial Fest. All the movies he loves are what my favorite movies all used as their models or aspired to mimic. Dad and I spent a fair amount of time last year talking about The Phantom Empire, a Gene Autry-science fiction serial from the 1930s, that undoubtedly inspired the name of Episode I.
Perhaps I just have my father's midichlorians.
Either way, today I will be watching this movie again, of course. And sobbing. May the Force be with you!
2 comments:
I believe somewhere the recording still exists of you recreating the Podrace sequence with your mouth: sound effects and dialogue exactly as they occur in the film.
The part at the beginning where Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon use their lightsabers to cut a hole through a metal hatch on Nute Gunray's ship. That was cool.
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