I am constantly aware of the significant impact attitude and perspective have on experience. I often see people around me abrasively berating sales clerks, flipping other drivers off in their cars or raging at the unfair treatment of some professor. The feeling I have towards these people is the same feeling I had toward Russel Smith’s article. I feel sorry for them, sort of sad, or maybe pity. I’m not exactly sure what it is but I think it must be miserable to constantly endure these kinds of experiences. Does anything ever make them really happy or excited? As far as I’m concerned, this condescending, pessimistic attitude only cheats them out of many simple pleasures. My experience in a crowded movie theater this week only emphasized this belief.
I attended the Saturday night showing of “Music and Lyrics” with a friend this week. An ultra-light chick flick was exactly the kind of movie experience I was in the mood for and the simple plot allowed me to observe the activity around me without too much distraction. We left early as an attempt to arrive early enough to watch people come in, but found ourselves entangled in ample line-ups at multiple junctures. With my massive vat of trans-fats tucked happily under my arm, I finally made it into the theater as the opening credits began to roll. I do agree with Russel that the forced advertisements are a tad annoying being that you paid to be there, so I was perfectly happy to have missed them. Late arrival inevitably means poor seat placement, se we settled into the very edge seats of the theater. Immediately we realized that the row behind us was filled with 50-something women who were out to have a good time. As the movie began, they proceeded to comment on every preview that had been shown and every movie they’d been to recently before launching into a critical commentary on Hugh Grant’s aging face. They found themselves hilarious, laughing every few seconds so loudly you couldn’t hear the dialogue. I also quickly realized that the couple in front of us brought a little boy that couldn’t have been older than a year and a half. He sat very quietly between them, every so often getting up or checking in with his mom to make sure she still knew he was there. At one point we even played a little peek-a-boo over the seat as he was starting to get bored. Hey, even I was a little bored so he must have been dying! An hour into the movie he started to shout out and his father abruptly scolded him and carried him out, returning only a few minutes later. I tried to listen for the munching sounds so overwhelming in Russel’s description, but couldn’t really hear them. (It is possible they were drowned by my own munching, yes I am officially one of the slobs at the trough.) There are certainly noises in the theater, people whispering, laughing, and crumpling packaging. Sometimes they are enough to jar you from the fantasy world of the film, especially in one so uninspiring as this one. This was especially the case since the theater was full, with the exception of the mandatory buffer seats between strangers, of course.
Overall, it was a pretty typical movie-going experience. Many of the events that bothered Russel so much occurred. People chatted about meaningless topics, we waited in long lines, paid high prices, and were generally distracted by the crowd in the packed theater… if that’s the way you want to see it. Actually, I find the shared movie experience really enjoyable. The packed, butter scented room with no windows seems to me like a retreat from the real world. There is something fun about laughing together with a room full of people. I’ll never forget attending “40 Year Old Virgin” in this same theater and the entire crowd howling at the same parts and telling stories to their neighbors. It was an experience simply unparalleled in a living room alone. Sure the little guy in front of me could have been distracting, but I found him entertaining. Besides, I was beyond impressed that he could sit there for so long. The women behind us actually provided more laughs than the movie, my friend and I exchanging glances and giggling with every bizarre comment they made. I hope I’m so vivacious at that age. Before you think I’m some kind of Polyanna, that isn’t the case. I did think it was appalling that the parents in front of me brought such a young child to a late movie, and was even more disturbed when they were upset that he started to get restless. The lines are annoying and the prices are WAY too high. There are things I don’t love about going to the movies, but it isn’t disgust at the human condition being displayed around me. I think Russel doesn’t actually have an issue with the movies, but rather with people in general and maybe with himself. He must feel this way everywhere he goes. In the malls he must see frantic, greedy people rushing from one materialistic conquest to another, stopping only to gorge themselves on over-processed food court fare. In coffee shops, he must listen to shallow, meaningless banter between over-indulged dimwits with too much time on their hands. I experienced the same things in that theater as Russel did and came out feeling like I’d had a fun evening. It is his loss that he didn’t feel that way. Life is to short to see the bad in everything. Russel’s article is not a commentary on movie-going, it is a commentary on himself and a pessimistic view of the world in general.
