My fondest memories as a kid are of long summers spent on the beaches that stretch along the coast of my home town and beyond. Or the Friday and Saturday nights at the pictures. Thats the cinema for anyone not acquainted with that phrase. Long before I ever stepped foot inside a cinema I was a film lover. Watching what ever my older brothers were watching. At this time that mainly consisted of action films from the 80’s and earlier. Bruce Lee comes to mind. Schwarzenegger, Van Damme. Larger than life. Super heroes! Especially when you’re five years old.
I still have a soft spot for all these old action films. In fact I regularly seek out and watch/rewatch old action movies to this day. Whether that’s rewatching the classic “American Ninja” from 1985 or “Someone to Watch Over Me” by Ridley Scott for the first time. That one has flown under the radar in the Scott Back catalogue. To tell the Truth I pretty much do the same thing with old horrors and thrillers. 1988’s “Edge of the Axe anyone”….?
Having already cut my teeth on VHS and TV viewing. Cinema beckoned like a black shining monolith sent from the gods. Here in the middle of my home town, on the south east coast of Ireland, stood the local cinema. Two screens. No frills. Directly across the road stood the Catholic Church. One Alter. All frills. Two houses of worship opposed. The old gods against the new.
As a child cinema was a luxury. Church was compulsory. As I got older though stories from the Bible would make way for tales from Hollywood. A fascination that is still as vibrant(just about) today as it was when I was a kid.
Yet at this moment in time against the backdrop of a global pandemic I have not stepped inside a cinema for 18 months and counting. Never had I considered that something could keep me away from this place I love. Prior to the pandemic that is!
And yet for all my bemoaning and longing for the cinema I haven’t rushed back. I haven’t went back period! Cinemas have been open for a couple of months now. So whats stopping me? Lack of Quality? The ease of streaming? A bit of both really. As with everyone the pandemic gave way to lockdown. Then more lockdowns. The lockdowns gave way to spending more time in doors. Being in doors gave way to increased volumes in streaming. Netflix, Prime, Sky Cinema. The list goes on and on. An avalanche of content. No longer events. Just content.
And as great as they have been and still are for being able to watch movies. Something just doesn’t feel right. Films just come and go. Who made that? Who’s in that? Which one is that? Did I watch that? Wait,….Was I asleep? Have I slept?
A perfect example is Martin Scorsese’s first venture onto Netflix with “The Irishman“. The old master stepping back into the world of organised crime. DeNiro, Pesci and Pacino. The band back together. This should have been gigantic. Yet most of the stir it caused was concerned with the CGI and the de-ageing of its stars more so than the film itself. And even that fizzled out after a few days. And then there’s the curious case of David Fincher. A man who has made some of the most intriguing films of the past thirty years. And yet I don’t know anyone who has seen “Mank“, even now. In fact the week it came out on Netflix it wasn’t even on the home screen being promoted. I had to search for it.
This is a far cry from my experiences within the darkened screening rooms of the cinema. Memories as far back as 1993. Jurassic Park. I’m not sure if this was the first film I seen in the cinema but its surely my first stand out memory. I’m 8 years old. People line up outside for what seems like miles. I’ve never seen this before. Theres an anticipation in the air. My mother stands in line with me. It’s a Friday night 8pm showing. The second weekend of release and the crowds are bigger than the first. We finally make our way inside after what seemed like an age. She pays for me in and walks to me to my seat. Makes sure Im good, then goes home and won’t be back until the end of the film. Here I am, 8 years old. Sitting beside three grown women that I don’t know. Odd but theres no time to think about the situation as the lights go down and the silver screen comes alive. The chatter ceases and the world just melts away. For two hours I’m there. I am in Jurassic Park. The power of Cinema. I have found my church.
And its precisely memories like this and countless others from twenty plus years of cinema going that make my eventual return all the more inevitable. Maybe not as frequently as in the past. No more weekly mass? Who knows? Whatever ever it is, Church awaits.
ALL TALK FILM 