Word: multiplexes
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...good sports; we don't want to spoil The Perfect Storm for the illiterati. But even the multiplex ignoscenti will get enough early clues to know that something wrong is in the wind. Gloucester gal (Diane Lane) to her sailor beau (Mark Wahlberg) before he boards the Andrea Gail: "Don't go, Bobby. I got a bad feelin'." Bobby: "Just one more time, I promise." This dialogue, familiar from a quillion melodramas, is always uttered by the sap about to step into the old dark house, the line of fire or the unforgiving sea. The Perfect Storm has more whispers...
...time killers than movies, few experiences so immersive. And just wait until you try a portable DVD player with headphones. Those headphones, by the way, are key; since this is DVD, the sound is CD quality. That makes the overall effect more powerful than what you get at the multiplex with their ever shrinking screens and overtaxed sound systems. Plus, no more sticky floors (unless, of course, you're on the Long Island Rail Road...
...doubt it. Entertainment works as a private but also a social event. Movies on the VCR don't keep people from going to the multiplex, just as boxing on pay-per-view doesn't stop fans from craving ringside seats. The senses are a huge part of the experience. The smell of popcorn, the crush of bodies, the communal sense of anticipation and the space itself all add to the story of the entertainment. Spaces, architectural enclosures, shape our relation to an event. You can pray at home. But a church, mosque or synagogue gives prayer scale, grace...
...Hewitt is professing comfort at the thought that movies don't last at the multiplex forever. 60 Minutes, he says, "has been around for, like, 30 years. A movie, if it's lucky, is around for maybe a week." Or is it? There's already talk of possible Oscar nominations for Russell Crowe, Pacino or Plummer. That would keep the film alive well into next year. And then there's the video release. All that could mean a long stretch ahead for 60 Minutes. Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick...
...first drive-in theaters in the country in the 1930s. Redstone had the same scrappiness and a Harvard education, and turned a drive-in into a bustling movie-house company called National Amusements, which grew to 1,200 theaters. He is often credited with inventing the concept of the multiplex. Something of a late bloomer, Redstone didn't hit the big time until 1987, when at age 64 he put virtually all the assets of his company at risk in a bidding war that won Viacom, then a cable company, for $3.4 billion. Ironically, Viacom had been split off from...