THE FORCE OF NOSTALGIA : `STAR WARS' BACK IN ACTION WITH $35.9 MILLION WEEKEND.

Byline: Glenn Gaslin Daily News Staff Writer

The year is 1977. A father takes his daughter to this new movie creating lines out the door and around the corner, this odd little thing called ``Star Wars.'' They watch in awe as the life and times of Luke Skywalker unfold in a distant galaxy, as a ratty band of rebels struggles against a dark empire.

``At the end of the movie, when Darth Vader goes spinning off and he gets away, I jumped up and screamed at my father, `Oh my God! There's going to be another movie!' '' recalls that girl, Cecil Seaskull, now 27. ``It was the first thing in my life that made me want to be a storyteller.''

Two decades after the movie's original release, the weekend's opening of ``Star Wars Special Edition'' grosses $35.9 million, a record opening for a January release. Seaskull can trace the arc of her life back to the day she first saw ``Star Wars.''

And she's not alone. A generation of Americans has grown into adulthood claiming the tale as a powerful, shaping force, quite possibly their single most important cultural influence.

Some claim the strategic use of powerful symbols embedded in the culture created the connection. Some claim their very first memories to be of Luke Skywalker standing on a desert planet, wondering what else is out there.

``My eyes opened to my own destiny,'' says Seaskull. ``I had my own space opera to write.''

After recovering from her crush on gruff hero Han Solo, she formed a band called Nerdy Girl and wrote a song (``Nerdy Girl,'' of course) telling of that day in 1977 when she first saw the film, and how she wanted to see more female characters in outer space. She has become that storyteller, with a record on Hollywood's No Life label and gigs around town.

For fans like her, the ``Star Wars'' trilogy defies the noise in Hollywood. It's not about money. It's not about a billion dollars in international box-office revenues or a viable franchise. It's not about thousand-dollar spaceship toys or which big studio snags the rights to release the first prequel in a few years.

It's about their lives. And philosophies. When you peel away the layers of consumer culture heaped onto the films, ``Star Wars'' is about the eternal mythic battle between good and evil. Many of those who grew up on the story recognize it as a moral compass, a timeless tale dividing right and wrong, father and son, Luke and Vader.

``In the `Star Wars' movies, you have a kind of modern version of the struggle between the children of light and the children of darkness,'' says Richard Hull, professor of philosophy at State University of New York at Buffalo. ``These things dwell in our subconscious.''

As most fans know, creator George Lucas culled his symbols and characters from the rich landscapes of Western mythology and world religion. Some connections are obvious, some so obscure not even Yoda would get them: Darth Vader as the Dark Father, Luke as the hero with a thousand faces, the all-powerful Force as God or Nature or the Oversoul.

``This is an enormously brilliant synthesis of a lot of ideas,'' Hull says. ``If you look at a lot of science fiction over the years, you see a progressive maturation of the use of these symbols.''

The three ``Star Wars'' movies echo every story told by mankind, Hull says, and stir something deep inside a young mind. Lucas explained this at a recent press conference.

``Mythology, in general, is used to convey social values from one generation to another generation,'' Lucas said, tracking back a few thousand years. ``In the beginning, in the oral tradition, it was really designed to give the community itself a cohesive set of thinking modules that allowed them to be a society. And these were told in story form, because that was the best way to teach it.''

And so he told a story, one that follows the traditions of Homer's ``Odyssey'' and the Bible. Except with multilingual robots and green Zen masters and a 7-foot guy who looks like a dog.

But does that explain why fans this weekend saw the re-released version of Lucas' space epic, ``Star Wars Special Edition,'' dressed like Stormtroopers? Or why, in 1980, the young Cecil Seaskull spent Saturday and Sunday afternoons inside theaters, watching ``The Empire Strikes Back'' over and over again?

Or why she and her roommate both still have pillowcases and bedspreads covered in X-wing fighters and Death Stars? Or why Ed Fik, a 24-year-old storyboard artist from Canyon Country, has collected enough trivia and odds and ends to fill a Star Destroyer's cargo hold? Or why he has seen each movie 100 times or more?

Perhaps. The movies' archetypal characters and conflicts draw in fans so deep that they crave more than the movies can offer. And they're not happy with expensive toys and collector's items. They want knowledge.

``The Mainstreamers go see `Star Wars' because it's a science fiction movie with Harrison Ford in it, while the Cult People are kind of elitist,'' explains Robert West, a professor of media at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. He teaches a course on cult films and why people get addicted to certain stories and watch them over and over and over again.

``The Cult People see it as a morality play.''

These Cult People see beyond the movie. They keep careful track of what Lucas does and knows, they exchange rumors on the Internet, they create their own myths. Several sub-cults based on minor characters have blossomed even within the cult of ``Star Wars,'' and others have become mainstream pop phenomena.

A recent episode of the sitcom ``Friends'' had Ross admit to his girlfriend Rachel that his only playful sexual fantasy revolves around the third movie in the trilogy, ``Return of the Jedi.'' The show's male characters all agree that, yeah, all guys their age have that same fantasy about Princess Leia wearing a metal bikini, chained to the drooling bulk of the evil Jabba the Hutt.

``Jedi,'' released in 1983, caught many of today's twentysomethings during the height of puberty. But this may not be the case for the new generation of fans, the preteens witnessing big-screen visions of Leia for the first time in 1997. The world has changed. Sci-fi blockbusters have become the status quo, a disco version of the ``Star Wars'' theme song isn't No. 1 on the charts, and nobody drives around in vans painted with Han Solo murals.

``The kids now are used to `Twister' and `Independence Day.' They're used to these great big special effects,'' says fan Fik.``Anyone who was around when this first came out may appreciate it a lot more. I think all of us who grew up on it, we have lived for this movie.''

But even as members of the first ``Star Wars'' generation take jobs in the movie industry or form bands or make their own space operas, some fans believe that the original film will move from generation to generation, like an old tale told among tribesmen.

``It's a never-ending story,'' says Josh Kanger, Webmaster for an Internet-based fan club called Star Wars Alliance.

``I know my kids will love it,'' says the 15-year-old. ``There's no doubt in my mind that they will.''

He pauses.

``Unless they're Trekkies.''

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

Photo: (1) Fans Cecil Seaskull, left, and Cynthia Merino show off some of their ``Star Wars'' paraphernalia.

John McCoy/Daily News

(2) Young fans prove that post-``Star Wars'' babies can still be wowed by the trilogy.

Shawn Dyer/Special to the Daily News

(3) Hero of a thousand faces: Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) in ``The Empire Strikes Back.''