Letter from Boston

Watching 'Star Wars'

By MASAKO YAMADA

To some people, the intergalactic fantasy movies "Star Wars," "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi" form a trio that is more sacred than the Holy Trinity. At least that is the feeling that I get from the hype that has surrounded the second coming of George Lucas. He has finally released the first of three "prequels" to the familiar series, and many newspapers, magazines and television shows have treated it as a major event. It was anticipated that movie theaters across the nation would be booked solid for days and weeks.

I wouldn't consider the people of Gene Stanley's research group to be the most loyal followers of popular trends, but we couldn't let a news event like this pass us by. A few of my colleagues arranged a trip to a local movie theater, and a bunch of us ended up going to watch the newly released "Phantom Menace" together. Several of the guys invited their girlfriends, so the total count was 14. To make getting tickets easier, we decided to play hooky and go on a weekday morning. We even ordered the tickets ahead of time using the Internet so we wouldn't be stranded once we got to the theater.

Although we were successful in getting tickets, we walked over to the movie theater about 45 minutes early so we could all get good seats together. Sure enough, there was a line stretching around the corner when we got to the theater, so we thought we'd done a good job planning ahead. However, the line had formed mainly because the box office had not yet opened for the day.

We were able to go inside the theater as soon as the box office opened and we picked up our tickets. There were no mobs of people pushing toward the theater, and we found good seats right away. As a matter of fact, we realized that we could have gotten good seats even if we hadn't ordered tickets early and waited in line. Contrary to the hype, there were plenty of seats left over when the movie started. This was only a day or two after the movie was released.

After the movie was over, we decided to head over to the nearby shopping district to pick up some lunch. We then walked over to the Charles River to eat and sun ourselves on the bank. There was, inevitably, some garbage floating on the river, but the weather was pleasant, and we had a nice view of MIT from where we sat.

After we finished eating and sat around chatting for a while, we headed over to a coffee shop. Everybody except me ordered espresso. There is a very strong Italian presence in my group (even the non-Italians have started to say "pronto" upon picking up the phone).

By the time we got back to the office, it was already 3:30. We had spent over five hours on our little excursion. Since we were planning a barbecue in the evening, some of the students started preparing to go home as soon as they got to school!!

I saw one of my friends smoking outside as I was entering the building and I told him about our trip. He asked, "Does Gene like that you're doing this?"

I replied, "Gene's in Poland." Indeed, he was in Poland. But even if he weren't, I think he would have understood. He knows that his students need time off. Besides, some of his best students led the trip. He wouldn't have been able to argue against them.

Since most of my fellow group members are foreigners, this trip was partly an American sociology lesson. I think we all agreed that the movie was not so bad, but none of us was particularly moved. The action and the special effects were nice, but the plot and characterization were rather thin.

I've met people who've taken great joy in memorizing the names of all the weird aliens in the "Star Wars" movies, down to the tiny characters who flash across a corner of the screen. I've heard about people who have memorized every single line in the script. None of the people in my group are of that temperament. But the trip was still fun. Some of my friends are already talking about arranging a trip to see the sequel of "Austin Powers," which is coming out in a few weeks. Now that is surely an example of modern American entertainment.

Shukan ST: June 4, 1999

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