Smashed
By Eileen M. Carlton
'Flying Pumpkins’ welcomes viewers to the competitive, scientific, funny world of Punkin Chunkin: Charlie Brown waited patiently, waited hopefully, waited in vain every Halloween just to catch a glimpse of The Great Pumpkin.
Even run-of-the-mill pumpkins have long been a source of fun and creativity for children and adults alike.
Ichabod Crane, however, fled in terror from a flying pumpkin, hurled by a murderous headless horseman, and it’s Ichabod’s pumpkin that is the kind Costa Mantis spent an entire year of his life studying and filming. These were certainly not murderous pumpkins, but they were definitely flying.
The resulting film, “Flying Pumpkins, The Legend of Punkin Chunkin,” could also be titled “Flying Pumpkins and the Men, Women and Children who Love Them.”
The 20 teams that Mantis documented are just a sampling of the teams across the country that have taken very seriously the challenge of seeing who can make a pumpkin fly the farthest. To date, Mantis said, the world record is almost a mile -- 4,428.34 feet to be exact.
The annual Championship Punkin Chunkin competition, which has been held since 1986 and is sponsored by the Punkin Chunkin Association, takes place the weekend after Halloween in a cornfield near Bridgeville in Sussex County, Del. Mantis estimated that about 50,000 spectators come to see more than 100 individually engineered and meticulously primed machines compete.
One of the sweet ironies is that these machines, for the most part, were the medieval ages' weapons of mass destruction. They include trebuchets, catapults and cannons. Thanks to the efforts of punkin chunkers, they are now weapons of vast amusement.
“We think this DVD on punkin chunkin makes a better Father’s Day gift,” Mantis said. “It’s very unique. This is a whole new world for marketing. You can get it on the Web on your cell phone. Do you want to give your dad a pair of boxers or a DVD on these guys that make catapults and trebuchets and air cannons and shoot pumpkins a mile almost?”
Mantis grew up in Pennsylvania, lived for awhile in Leesburg and currently lives in Thousand Oaks, Calif. He describes the year he spent putting this film together as a labor of love. It involved extensive travel time and 140 hours of filming.
Among the 20 teams, Mantis said, were a Jewish Orthodox team from the Bronx; a councilman from Teaneck, N.J.; a team from New Hampshire; a psychologist from North Carolina who works in the penal system; the director of a museum; and doctors and lawyers. In short, they come from everywhere, from every ethnic group, from several religions and of all ages. They build it and they come.
“It’s a giant, rednecked Woodstock,” Mantis said. “It’s fantastic. It’s a uniquely American home-grown sport.”
Mantis said he did eight test screenings of the movie for predominantly college students in Delaware, Virginia, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.
“At Hollins University in Roanoke, I had 25 young women watching this,” Mantis said. “A marketing person told me if you get a 10 percent approval rating in front of a college audience, you probably have a hit on your hands. ... I got a 63 percent approval rating.”
There are extensive rules for both man and machine. There are pumpkin pies and pots of chili to be had. There are pumpkin hats and pumpkin T-shirts, pumpkin songs and pumpkins carved and painted. The punkin teams wear their colors proudly and exhibit their punkin signs predominantly.
“It’s real, down-home goodness that’s going on here,” Mantis said.
Contact the writer at ecarlton@timespapers.com