everett (12/03/82)
#N:hp-pcd:6500005:000:3092
hp-pcd!everett Dec 2 14:14:00 1982
From: Everett Kaser
hplabs!hp-pcd
Re: Casablanca
I disagree that Casablanca is better adapted to the small screen of TV. The
first couple of times I saw it, it was on TV. It was excellent. Then one
saturday, a local radio station sponsored an old movie revival at the local
quad cinema. One of the movies was Casablanca. We went to see it, and, to say
the least, I was blown away. There is NO comparing a movie on the big silver
screen to one on the small glass screen (when it was made for the big silver
one. For those of you who have now seen Star Wars at home on TV, maybe you
got the same feeling; I'm sure you would if you were to go back and see it at
the theatre after having watched it on TV. On the large screen, the movie
comes to life, you're absorbed into it, the rest of the theatre disappears
(unless there's a noisy boor nearby), and the movie becomes the only real
world for its duration. Casablanca was no different in this aspect. On TV,
I really liked it (and still do, since I bought it on tape, uncut and
uninterrupted by commercials), but at the theatre, larger than life, its
pure distilled excellence.
The above brings to mind another point that digresses a bit. I own, use, and
thoroughly enjoy a video tape recorder. However, I fear because of it for
the traditional theatre for the above stated reasons. The time will come
(and I fear it's drawing nigh) when theatres will have difficulty competing
with home video. When it costs $7.00 to $15.00 or more for a family to go to
see a single movie, and you can rent 3 movies for $7.50 for a week-end, what
can happen? Yet it will be a long time before video in the home can compete
with theatres for that bigger than life thrill. Theatres will have to start
offering something more than just the standard fare, a la advanced projection
technology that can *really* put you *in* the movie, etc. etc.
One last comment, as an example of some of my above statements. Last night we
went to see 'The Empire Strikes Back' again, and there's one point early on,
where the scout flyers are out looking for Han and Luke on the snow planet,
and for a few brief seconds you're sitting in the cockpit as the flyer skims
up and down over hills and cliffs; several times, your theatre chair falls
out from under you, your stomach rises to your throat, you clutch at the arms
knowing you're falling with an accelartion of 9.8 m/sec/sec or whatever it is.
*THAT* is something you'll never get from even a four foot home projection
system.
Enough. The front of my shirt is getting wet from my dribblings.
Not afraid not to mention ET as JC until the last minute
when I really couldn't care less,
Not afraid to care less about couldn't care less flames,
Not afraid to make grammatical mistakes in public,
Not afraid to forget my name,
Not afraid to wet my pants,
Not afraid to faint whe
Not afraid to kiss a
Not afraid to suc
Not afraid to
Not a fraid toe
No taf raid sommay wommay goo goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooobstempleton (12/07/82)
I own and use my VTR as well, often to play movies. I agree that they just aren't the same as in the theatre, but they are still good. I think, however, that comedy will continue to reign in the large theatre. Other people having a good time around you usually makes a comedy movie better for most people. The problem is, of course, that this causes TV producers to add laugh tracks, which is an abomination because you can tell the laughter is fake. You'll notice you never see a laugh track on a theatre movie.
mcewan@sri-unix (12/07/82)
#R:hp-pcd:6500005:uiucdcs:10700022:000:140 uiucdcs!mcewan Dec 7 13:31:00 1982 The comment was that Casablanca adapts better to TV than other movies, NOT that it looks better on the small screen than on the big screen.
mclure (03/09/83)
#R:hp-pcd:6500005:sri-unix:1400006:000:442 sri-unix!mclure Dec 2 23:02:00 1982 Another aspect of the current theater mess is the increase in the number of "chicken-coop" theater complexes. These are often located in malls, displacing other types of theaters. Usually they consist of three, four, or more adjacent rooms with fairly small screens (by old theater standards). I try to avoid this type of theater like the plague. For the big special-effects movies, I always go to the nearest city to a gigantic theater.