With NetFlix and Blockbuster, you don’t even have to leave the house nowadays to enjoy the latest blockbuster or indie art film. But I’m here to tell you why I still love and will always be a fan of the movie theater …
I admit it, I go to the movies at least two or three times a week. I even tried to calculate how much I spent monthly on that entertainment expense alone. Needless to say, I did that once … once was enough for me to realize how much I was actually spending and to simultaneously realize I didn’t care. I don’t need reality to intrude on one of the things that I look forward to every week, no matter where I’m at or what I’m doing.
I love every aspect of the movie theater … I love the nachos, I love the fact that it seems like almost everyone sneaks a drink in to stick it to “the man”. I’ve always wondered why people don’t just pocket a 16-ounce bottle of their favorite drink rather than a 12-ounce can. I mean, is there any other sound in this world that is so easily identifiable as the pshhhfffttt of an aluminum can being cracked open? You hear that, you know the person said to themselves, “Screw it, I ain’t paying the prices for a cup that’s 3/4 filled with ice and 1/4 filled with actual drink.” But I guess being sly isn’t really the concern here … it’s making the most of the experience.
And it is an experience, believe me, if you look at it the right way. Where else can you sit with complete strangers in the dark and share a common bond and desire? A desire to be swept away into the story, into the characters, into the visual images that make us forget – even for just a little while – all the problems and troubles that we deal with on a daily basis.
I find something – call it joy, call it satisfaction, call it fulfillment – whenever I walk down the slightly sticky carpeted hallway before I get to the seats. I always wonder whether I’ll be the only one there … did I find an otherwise unknown gem or is this a clunker I’ll slightly regret spending my $6 on? I’ve seen many a terrible movie – ones I’ve spent more time looking at my watch, hoping for an ending, than I did at the screen. Ones where I’ve caught so many continuity errors that I wonder how some people keep their jobs in Hollywood …
But I’ve seen ones where I’ve been swept away … and they’re not Oscar winners, either; not even close. You see, I’m a sucker for underdog sports movies – any sport, any underdog – from Major League to Tin Cup to The Mighty Ducks. I will cheer for that underdog, knowing full well that the movie studio pre-determined the team will make the winning goal, the hero will hole the impossible chip shot or bring it home in the ninth inning with three balls, two strikes and two outs.
You see, I don’t care … for that interminable moment in the dark, when my worries about my life are far and vague, I can take solace in triumph over adversity. I can hope one day my dreams can come true, too, if only I try hard enough. I can be swept away in the cinematography, without evening knowing that word or caring what it means.
Movies are an escape for me, one I don’t need someone else to share (though it’s nice to have a kindred soul next to me, from time to time). Give me a good plot, give me something that makes me think hours after I’ve walked out into that blinding sunlight (you see as many movies as I do, you hit the matinees as much as possible), give me that two-hour escape (even with the endless previews and commercials) from reality – well, I’m yours and I’ll be back time and again.
Join me one day, would you? Take some time off, make an effort to forget about anything else but those flickering images on the screen. Sneak your drink in, buy some over-priced popcorn, curse silently (or not-so-silently) at the people who won’t shut up before and during the movie. But nod at that silhouette that sits a few rows down and a few seats over from you … I’ll feel it and know that you’re there for the same reason I am.
And I’ll try to open my 16-ounce drink slowly and quietly so as not to disturb you … if for nothing else but out of respect if you actually paid for yours.
