CASUAL
BARNES, FRED
Casual THE MOVIEGOER Maybe you watch movies on airplanes the way I do. I glance periodically at the screen, never bothering to attach the earphones. I'm ready, though, if something interesting...
...I used to be an avid filmgoer...
...I've changed, and so has the movie industry...
...And The Deep End of the Ocean turned out to be a genre film, a parents' movie...
...My wife and I took our son to see Dumb & Dumber and we laughed more than he did...
...Things have changed...
...To be precise, politically correct from a conservative viewpoint...
...In the '60s and '70s, Washington had three of these, plus the American Film Institute, and there was a lot to see...
...FRED BARNES...
...The first is too early...
...Watching I Vitelloni in the living room, pausing when the phone rings, isn't the same as seeing it at a dingy old theater, uninterrupted...
...But I'll go if part four of the Rambo series comes out or Red Dawn 2. Yes, there's also an old-guy reason for not going to the movies...
...It took me a while to get used to subtitles, but I managed...
...I read reviews...
...I'd go two or three times a week, sometimes alone, more often with my wife, Barbara...
...They begin either at 7:30 P.M...
...I haven't seen it...
...Not many movies qualify for this genre: The parents are supposed to be wiser than the kids...
...You can't become totally absorbed in the story at home...
...My kids insist Houseguest is hilarious...
...The theater, now closed, was up a flight of stairs and very cramped...
...One theater specialized in British films...
...I'd watch old movies, new movies, and especially Italian movies...
...I'd read the plot of The Deep End of the Ocean in the airline magazine: A 3-year-old boy is kidnapped, then appears years later, adopted by another family and living down the street...
...I read a rave review of it and insisted my wife and kids come with me...
...It's not that too many are R-rated or worse...
...A few years back, I decided I'd boycott left-wing movies, which means I've skipped almost all thrillers in the last two decades...
...How do I know they're left-wing...
...I'd have to miss dinner...
...As I recall, we outnumbered the other folks in the theater...
...Not once had this occurred— until last week, while I was flying back to Washington, D.C., from Portland, Oregon...
...I guess there's no longer a market for these movies, otherwise somebody would be making money showing them...
...But for The Matrix, no...
...Best of all was watching a double feature of subtitled European movies at the Circle Theater on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, a long-gone repertory house...
...It's the time the movies start...
...That's where I saw The 400 Blows and Breathless on the same afternoon...
...The real mother, Michelle Pfeiffer in the film, sees the boy when he comes by her house offering to mow the lawn...
...If I hadn't, I would never have seen The Easy Life or Girl with a Suitcase, two great but now forgotten Italian movies of the '60s...
...The last foreign movie I saw was a French documentary on the life of bugs and plants...
...or nearly 10 p.m...
...I'd stay up for La Dolce Vita...
...Foreign movies, new ones, are pretty much a rarity these days, too...
...I saw Mondo Cane the night before I went into the Army...
...On the airplane from Portland, it was midday and I was a captive audience...
...You could get up to speed, in a few years of conscientious moviegoing, on a half-century of Japanese, French, German, Indian, Polish, English, Swedish, American, and of course Italian films...
...The movie was monotonous...
...It's no secret what killed these theaters: the VCR...
...I loved going to movies in the afternoon when the theater was nearly empty...
...Now you can watch old movies on video at home, assuming you stumble onto someplace that lends or rents them...
...The encounter takes her breath away, and it prompted me to grab the earphones...
...But no more...
...I'm ready, though, if something interesting happens, to hook up and pay attention...
...My problem with American movies is political...
...Rocco and His Brothers is a bit harder to find than Lethal Weapon 4. But I don't want to look at a movie at home...
...I also liked Uncle Buck, particularly the scene where John Candy gets the ax out of his trunk and threatens the creep who's dating his niece...
...The worst development, to me anyway, was the closing of the movie houses that showed old films...
...Years ago, they were routinely shown in Washington (where I grew up...
...This is the only movie I've seen this year, and that's why I mention it...
...I've really got nothing against American movies, especially the comedies...
...Who needs that...
...This has really cut down on my trips to the theater...
...In most thrillers it's some conspiratorial right-wing group or religious sect or business mogul who's to blame for whatever bad occurs...
...My kids still tease me about it...
...I can't stay awake...
...Michelle Pfeiffer is, and she gets her boy back...
...At least I can't...
...The later time is just too late...
...Aside from an occasional comedy—and most comedies are politically neutral—I try to limit myself to politically correct movies...
Vol. 4 • August 1999 • No. 44
