I used to love
going to the movies. The small town closest to the even smaller town I grew up
in had an old, one-screen theater called The Roxy. Tickets to the shows were
around a buck and for a couple dollars more you could load up on hot, buttered
popcorn, cold cola, and gooey Milk Duds. The seats were ancient and barely had
any stuffing left. You could feel each and every spring hidden within the
vinyl; they pressed into your spine and ass like some medieval torture device
and your knees were practically pinned to the row in front of you, ensuring you
couldn’t escape. The floors were always sticky, the draped walls with their art deco sconces smelled musty, and sometimes rats scurried through the aisles,
scavenging popcorn. But none of that mattered once the lights dimmed and the
screen turned that particular shade of blue, letting you know the previews were
about to roll.
If there was a
movie I really wanted to see – Poltergeist or The Last Starfighter, for example –the week passed excruciatingly
slowly. But it was always worth it. I went to the Friday evening showing of Fright Night and loved it so much I was
back in line Saturday. And again on Sunday. When E.T hit town, the lines stretched down the block, rounded the
corner, and made it almost to the public library. When I was very young, my
aunt Connie, my sister, and I all went to see a mummy movie called The Awakening; after the show, while my
sister was brushing her teeth before bed, I crept into her room and scurried
beneath her bed. I waited just long enough to know that she hadn’t went to
sleep yet and slowly raised my hand up over the mattress. Lorrie screamed so
loudly my parents probably thought she was being murdered. They came thundering
through the house and even though I knew I was in big trouble for scaring my
sister, I laughed so hard that I was doubled over and rolling on her floor. Good
memories (at least, for me… Lorrie might claim otherwise).
I still love
movies, but the theater experience has changed. It’s not the same anymore. And
I don’t think it’s simply because I’m older now. For that was the real
power of movies: reawakening the child-like wonder and amazement in all of
us, no matter what our age. This is a topic I’ve put quite a bit of thought
into and I’ve come to the conclusion that there are at least three basic things
wrong with the film industry today.
The Bar Has
Been Raised Too High
A lot of money is
funneled into film production these days, which means movies need a strong
showing at the box office to simply break even. No one likes going into the red,
investors doubly so. So the pressure is high for every big budget release to be
a blockbuster. As a result of this, studios have become skittish. Wary of
taking a chance on anything fresh or original, they stick with formulas in an
attempt to cash in on an existing fan base or lure people to the theaters with nostalgia. So we’re bombarded with prequels, sequels, remakes, reboots, re-imaginings , and silver screen treatments of boob tube classics. To add even more
pressure, people have to be selective with what they see. For a family, a
night at the movies, including snacks, can run close to a hundred dollars. If I’m
shelling out as much as they charge for a ticket and popcorn, it has to be
something I really want to see on the
big screen. It has to be worthy of being larger than life. And there’s very few
films lately which fit that bill.
The Stars Have
Lost Their Twinkle
Don’t get me
wrong: I know we live in a celebrity obsessed society. How could I not? But it’s
different now. Actors were originally called “stars” because they were elevated
so high above everyone else. They had a distant, unobtainable quality to them,
like American royalty, and people would flock to a film for nothing more than
the names on the poster. The obsession with fame, however, has changed. Now, we
can tune in every week to watch a so-called reality show about the ins and
outs of a celebrity’s daily life. We get tweets, status updates, and paparazzi
reports covering the most inane details. If Brad Pitt farts as he’s leaving a restaurant
in Greece, the entire world knows about it within minutes. Movie stars are stripped bare for all to see, relegating their once lofty heights and showing
them for what they truly are… ordinary people, just like you and me.
The Magic Is
Gone
We’ve all heard
the phrase “the magic of Hollywood” and know exactly what it means… but is it
truly still there? With the advent of DVDs, the film-loving public has been
inundated with bonus content and special features. We are told in great detail how stunts
and effects are accomplished. We learn all the little tricks of the trade,
incorporating industry jargon such as green
screen into our everyday language. This is akin to a magician sawing a
woman in half and then inviting the audience to stick around after the show so
he can explain how the illusion was accomplished.. Which also violates the first rule of the
magician’s code: never real your secrets.
Even worse, sometimes this “bonus content” is released before the film even
hits theaters, being shown as television specials in an attempt to create marketing
buzz. In this situation, we’re being told how the trick works before we’ve even
had a chance to scratch our heads and try to figure it out for ourselves.
Which, in my humble opinion, diminishes that child-like wonder and amazement
even more.
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