Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site cadovax.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!ittvax!dcdwest!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!trwrb!trwrba!cadovax!bob
From: bob@cadovax.UUCP (Bob "Kat" Kaplan)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Movie Theater Audiences
Message-ID: <599@cadovax.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 7-May-85 16:11:55 EDT
Article-I.D.: cadovax.599
Posted: Tue May  7 16:11:55 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 11-May-85 02:01:03 EDT
Reply-To: bob@cadovax.UUCP (Bob "Kat" Kaplan)
Organization: Contel Cado, Torrance, CA
Lines: 31

The other night I went to see one of my favorite movies ("SALO - The 120
Days of Sodom," by Pier Paulo Pasolini).  I guess it had been a while since
I last went to a movie theater, because I was surprised at the behavior of
the audience.

First of all, why does going to a movie theater give people an uncontrollable
desire to walk up and down the aisles?  Throughout the first feature ("Teorema,"
Pasolini again), twenty seconds didn't go by without someone clomping noisily
up or down one of the aisles.  I'm not exaggerating, either.  Twenty seconds.
Why can't these people just sit still and watch the movie?

Then of course there were the constant talkers. (This happened mostly during
the first feature, as "SALO" has a way of shocking people into openmouthed
silence.)  Why do people have to talk so much, and not even about the movie
sometimes?  Do they think they're at home watching television?  Do they think
no one else can hear them?

Now, here's one that really bugs me.  Every hour on the hour (give or take
a few minutes), a bunch of digital watches start beeping.  This is pretty
annoying anywhere, but in a movie theater it's inexcusable.  Why can't these
people just turn off their stupid alarms before entering the theater?  I
think you have to be pretty inconsiderate not to realize how much this bothers
people.

To their credit, no one was noisily chomping at popcorn during the movies, but
I think this was mostly because the theater didn't seem to be selling anything
except some food that smelled like burnt wood.
-- 
Bob Kaplan

"...and the pantaloon duck, white gooseneck quacked:  webcor, webcor."