Theatrical Thoughts

There was a short period in time when I went to see movies regularly. I mean a movie in a theater, with an audience, that you have to pay for. It was the season of Drag Me To Hell and Adventureland and other movies that were pretty enjoyable but not particularly great, in other words they were the type of movies you go to see because they are good enough, usually better than you think they'll be, and a decent way to spend a few hours. The two movies I named were the ones I remembered. They may have been the only two I watched around that time, but I saw them within a few weeks of each other, which barely ever happens.

Which gets me thinking: why does it take the prompting of a friend to get me to watch a movie? The answer that comes most naturally is: because most movies suck, because they can be seen at a discount later, and because most theaters in North America are full of people crinkling snack bags and dropping their garbage everywhere, not to mention the masturbators and the cell-phone rebels and the surly theater personnel.

Recently I saw True Grit on a discount night. Discount night means half-price, and half-price on a movie I want to see means that my odds of seeing it increase to 60%. So I walked over to the show, and the theater was busy, but everyone must have been going to another movie, because the True Grit theater was less than half full. This wasn't really surprising.

The first 10 minutes I had problems following any of the dialogue and felt like I had lost my ability to understand English. Sure I was buzzing a little, but that usually helps me understand any person's rambling. I was impressed by the dedication to olde tyme speeche the Coens (or their screenwriter) displayed. I got used to it, as well, but the attempt at authenticity surprised me so much that I couldn't really get into the opening, which is a shame, because the opening was fine. 

Many films that are historical or geographically isolated just give everyone a common accent (if it takes place before 1850 everyone has an English accent, if it takes place in Japan but is made in the West the characters are either heavily accented or have an English accent; if it takes place in Germany and is made in the West the characters speak English with a Deutsche accent) and keep the dialogue as modern as possible. True Grit goes for the accuracy, and does pretty good, although I don't know what people spoke like in the 1860's. It did take place in the 1860's, right? Or was it the 1840's? Goddamn it there were references to the civil war, so I'm going with late 1860's.

Well, most movies are still pretty horrible, and the more they are advertised the less faith I have in them. I doubt I'll watch another, in a theater, for at least the next two months.