Going to the Movies, May It Always Be the Same

One of my favorite things to do- like-ever- is go to the movies.  This must involve raisinettes, dressing up and a good seat, not so close to the screen as to be nausouse, but a good three rows in, where the movie can take up my entire vision.  Movie theaters now have screens as big as mountains like the IMAX screens.  I didn’t grow up with movies on huge screens like my hometown’s Crandell, but I have come accustomed to it, and it feels unnatural  for me to go to a movie that does not have a huge screen and those seats that look like they should be on a spaceship. 

There was a time when people said that movies would not survive, they said this in response to the internet and in response to videos.  And, though videos may have lost their popularity, movies have not.  Movies now continue to be a luxury.  Movies are more than just watching a screen, movies are the entire experience, including the people, including the raisinettes.  Movies are a public space in which people can enjoy each other and the movie.  People like to experience real things, and looking at a screen at home isn't going to cut it. There is love without love, there is hate without consequence.  A movie is a game, and, like a ride, we can let us swoop us up without worrying about our outside world.  This is why we need movies right now. The economy is a wasteland but, despite everything, there are still movies. Not only do we love going to the movies but movies love us.  Filmmakers have the technology now to send the viewer into an entirely different world.  Like Avatar, like The Dark Night, two of the highest ranking movies in the past two years. 

With the Oscars coming up my mind is going back to movies.  The simplicity of watching them, the intense relationship with movies, I have a tender place in my heart for film.  When I look back on Oscars passed I remember being with my father and curling up, first to watch the fabulous dresses of the red carpet, and then to watch the Oscars themselves.  I had seen almost every single movie (except for the shorts because they never came to my local theaters).  And I was determined to stay up until all hours of the night to watch it even though it was a school night.  Though I hardly did, or, I took a nap in between.

What comes to mind is when Titanic won, I was in love with Leo, when Lord of the Rings won EVERYTHING.  And, of course, the most recent, Slumdog Millionaire, now, everyone thought, we all love indie movies!  This years Oscars are proving to be different from past years.  The film industry is not selling enough overall tickets.  Actors are being paid a fraction of what they had been making in recent years.  It's so important to remember the movies.  The movies have such a beautiful way of tying together so many pieces of popular culture, from music to fashion to books, and our stars that we love so much.  It's important to remember the films that we love.  It's important to remember how sacred movie going can be.

So before we see the Oscars, I think about what movies I have seen that have made a serious impact in my life, and, for the most part, these are movies that I have seen in theaters, these are movies that I have experienced with other people in packed theaters.  The internet can give to our impatient sides, but a movie in a theater can give to our communal side.  

When I saw Transformers I went to a theater in Albany New York.  The theater had a relatively small screen and those old uncomfortable seats with the worn down cushions that itch and are too low on the back and make for a sleeping bum by halfway through the film.  I remember a baby a few rows back- just screaming.  The theater was packed.  And there on the screen was a shot that scaled the massive Transformer, all frozen in ice and evil to the metal-car core.  From behind a young man's voice spoke the words that we were all thinking, in awe, even the baby, quiet and in agreement, of one mind.  "That's Megatron."