Tim Burton (left) and Pee-Wee Herman, making magic.
Indiana Jones. Norman Bates. Scarlett O’Hara.
Whether it’s Clint Eastwood as The Man with No Name, or Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, some movie characters live forever.
Pee-Wee Herman is one of those immortals.
Through three movies, a TV show, a stage show, and several decades, the man-child with the bow tie and the extra-fancy bicycle elevated Paul Reubens and put him up there, rightfully, with the icons.
The news of the actor’s death, at age 70 (how could Pee-Wee be 70???) after a private battle with cancer, hits every emotional button I have.
I was 14 when Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure came out and have loved every frame of it ever since.
Look, I’m not saying it’s one of the best films of all time. I’m saying it’s bigger than that.
It’s not Chinatown, or On the Waterfront, or Lawrence of Arabia — pristine cinematic gems which stand at the tippy-top of my Mount Rushmore of films.
But Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, like Raiders of the Lost Ark and Hoosiers, has a hold on me which is uncanny.
No matter how many times I see it, what unspools remains as fresh today as it was in the ’80s.
Few things are better than harassing my nephews by endlessly replaying the Large Marge scene or Pee-Wee dancing to Tequila in platform shoes, or his attempted visit to the Alamo’s basement.
“I know you are, but what am I?”
“Go ahead and scream your head off! We’re miles from where anyone can hear you!”
“The mind plays tricks on you. You play tricks back!”
“Is this something you can share with the rest of us, Amazing Larry????”
“I say we let him go!!”
Some movies have great lines sprinkled across a sea of pedestrian dialogue.
Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure is gold, Jerry, gold, every last line of it.
“There’s a lotta things about me you don’t know anything about, Dottie. Things you wouldn’t understand. Things you couldn’t understand. Things you shouldn’t understand.”
During my 15-year run in video stores, one of the true highlights was winning a bet with Miriam, the owner of Videoville.
I had pledged to rent the pretty much unknown Bottle Rocket — Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson’s first film — 300 times if she sprung for three VHS copies in the days when VHS copies cost their weight in gold.
325 rentals, and a lot of peeved customers later, I collected on that bet.
My bounty?
A laserdisc copy of Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure for the store and the chance to play the scene of our hero “rescuing” snakes from a burning pet store while screaming like a ninny in glorious high-def.
Not saying it was heaven, but with the store wrapped in the smell of popcorn drenched in fake butter, it was pretty darn close.
Look, there’s a lot going on today, same as yesterday, same as tomorrow.
But, in that words of that immortal sage, Ferris Bueller, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
Go, take a break and just marinate. Watch all 91 minutes of Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure or at least catch a clip or two.
Be a loner, a rebel, shed a tear, pour one out and pity the fool who doesn’t enjoy Mr. T’s cereal.
Not all heroes wear capes. Some wore bow ties.
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