Word: drive-in
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Over spring break, I paid a visit to the drive-in theater in my hometown of Tucson, Arizona. For whatever reason, in all my youth, I never once went there, and so I decided spring break was as good a time as any. I went to the drive-in determined to understand the ins and outs of drive-in culture...
...spot near the center. We listened to Simon and Garfunkel on my car stereo—I had no 50s music, but they’re close enough—while we ate packaged sushi from the supermarket for dinner. One of the most curious benefits of the drive-in experience is that the range of concessions one can legally smuggle in is virtually limitless. As the cars filtered in, I learned my first lesson in drive-in movie etiquette...
This lesson simply makes practical sense, and luckily I didn’t need to learn it the hard way. The idea of the drive-in is romantic in its own right—regardless of the bizarre subculture that has developed around it. There is no better place to watch Hollywood stars than under the stars. (Although, I have to say, last summer I watched The Matrix outdoors, and by the end I was shivering cold with an excruciating cramp in my leg.) Being outdoors is nice, and so is watching a movie: why not combine the two? Better...
...sure, you can do all that in the comfort of your own home, too, and at least then you wouldn’t have to put up with the tinny factory speakers inside your car. But it’s the unnaturalness of the drive-in experience—the perfect marriage of entertainment and machinery—that makes viewers uneasy and easily fright-able...
Most obviously absent from the drive-in setting is the plush womb-like feel of the typical modern movie house. (Yes, “womb-like.” According to film theory, it’s an important aspect of the viewing experience.) It is probably this womb feel that made regular movie theaters ultimately so much more popular. But in my opinion, the drive-in’s lack of total absorption makes it a special and preferable viewing environment. The impersonal Brechtian detachment enhances the viewing pleasure—at least on the analytic level. Then again...