Movies on the Big Screen
Do you remember the very first time you went to see a movie in a movie theater? I do, and I will never lose my sense of amazement at what I saw. People bigger than life, places so real yet so very far away, sounds that were sometimes familiar and as often totally alien to my ears. And I remember the feeling of camaraderie with the strangers in the seats all around me. People whose faces I could not see, but whose presence made me part of a community of viewers. I loved the sense of sharing the events in the film; the tears we were all holding back which upon hearing brought forth cascades of muffled sobs. Giggles intermingled to create ripples of laughter. Scenes that were amusing became outright funny; those that were scary grew to be terrifying, and all because we were sitting with other people, shouldering up to their expectations and reactions, breathing in the experience that clever directors and cinematographers had designed for our joint consumption.
I know that today movies are available in many places outside of movie theaters; they are being watched in larger and larger home entertainment centers and on diminishing digital devices. I’m not against the inevitably appealing development which enables people to see all kinds of movies all the time.
Having accepted modern times, however, doesn’t have to mean that I have given up on my desire for my grandchildren to view Chaplin’s Modern Times in a real movie theater on a regulation theater movie screen. Fortunately for me, I live in a city that has an art house cinema, in other words, a non-profit movie theater that shows independent, classic, foreign, and experimental films. Ours is called The Nickelodeon and has been showing films since the 1970s. A few years ago, the membership raised the funds to move into an old art deco theater which has two screening rooms. For a modest membership fee, people who live in Columbia, SC, or other cities with such a valuable resource, have the opportunity for themselves, their friends, and family members to watch movies in a fashion that resembles closely the experience of movie viewing of old.
My six year old grandson watched his first theater movie at the Nickelodeon — The Wizard of Oz from 1939. I was worried that he might not want to sit still for so long, that Margaret Hamilton’s Wicked Witch might be too scary, that he might disturb audience members by shouting or talking out loud. Not to worry. He was mesmerized. “My favorite part was the tornado, well no, the house flying around, well no, how the world went right into color and everyone went ‘Oooh’, the dog, the scarecrow, the funny lion, the crazy wizard who was only a man, the balloon and how she got home with her shoes.” And the next day there were more items added to his favorite part. His brother, 11, did get to watch Modern Times. He reported being “intrigued” at the hero getting caught up in the gears of the machine and wanted to figure out how the filmmaker made that all happen without hurting the actor. Their cousin, 10, has been to many films at the Nickelodeon and always has a delightful time. Last year she reported during an interview that her favorite film was Funny Face, a movie I doubt many girls her age have even seen.
So take your grandchildren to the movies, and if you can, take them to see some of your own favorite classic films. Let them experience the sense of being part of the audience, the shifting emotions of viewing the film together and individually. Talk about what was funny, or sad, or fascinating, or strange. They have much to tell you, to remind you of, and to teach you and to learn from you. Movies can be a pathway from black and white into color, and we all know that is a path easier to find when it is blazing across a ginormous screen.
