The magic of the movies
Just about every year since I was 10 or so, I’ve watched the Academy Awards. During many of those years, I would have seen all of the nominees and had a stake in who won. This year, I’ve seen only two of the films nominated–The Dark Knight and WALL-E–only because, in one case, I braved sitting in the theater and getting annoyed and, in the second, because the film was already on DVD. As much as I love films, it’s just too difficult to sit in a movie theater these days.
I love getting lost in a film and movie audiences today won’t let me. The endless unwrapping of candy, talking, children running wild at films that are inappropriate for them, cell-phones ringing (and being answered) and the general lack of how to behave in public are too much to take. TV has turned a generation of moviegoers into boors who think they’re sitting in their living rooms when they’re out in public. Thank God for Netflix!
This year, there were several films that my husband and I wanted to catch: Doubt, The Reader, Slumdog Millionaire, The Changeling and Frozen River were just some of the ones I would have seen in the theater. Instead, I’ll be watching them at home once they’re available on Netflix.
Even though I was a film major for some of my years in college and even though the anticipation of opening credits in a movie is still a great thrill, films in the theater are no longer a pleasure I can enjoy. These days, I watch films alone or with my family. Audiences have turned me into a curmedgeon and home is the only safe place to get lost in the magic of the movies.
