Epic

[migrated from myspace blog]

Lawrence of Arabia is epic in every sense of the term. It runs 3 hours 36 minutes, and what is on screen much of the time is a truly epic desert landscape most of us will never get to see in person. I used to have a wishlist, somewhere, of movies I felt must be seen on the big screen to be truly experienced (although, that should be true of most movies). This summer I'll get to check two of those off the (now mental) list: Lawrence of Arabia and Dr. Zhivago. Both are directed by David Lean, whose name is nearly synonymous with "epic". (This isn't going to be a movie review. It's a 46-year-old movie. You can get off the couch and get it from Blockbuster.)

Lawrence played today, and it was the first time I'd gone to the Victoria Theatre for a movie on a Sunday afternoon. They usually run a movie for three days then it's done, so this was the last day. It was much less crowded than the last time I went (a Friday night Hitchcock movie.) I assume it was the fact that it was a Sunday, but it's also the 4th of July weekend, and a 3 1/2 hour movie (although one guy behind me, seeing the running time given in minutes, seemed to do some fuzzy math and declared it would be nearly 3 hours long). The crowd was the same as usual. A median age of around 72. In fact during the Wurlitzer organ concert preceding the show (I know, they might as well beg for an older crowd, right?) he had everyone sing "Happy Birthday" to a man turning 85. I guess all that really says is that they've got better taste in movies than the generation eagerly awaiting the newest Brendan Fraser movie in 3-D.

I stayed up way too late last night watching season 4 episodes of LOST on the PS3, so I was a little worried about staying awake through the movie. I actually had no problem staying awake at all, but the man a chair over from me was snoring 15 minutes into the film (+6 minutes for the Mr. Magoo cartoon). He eventually woke up, and probably even saw most of the movie, but I kept hearing that deep breathing and saw his wife elbow him a couple of times. It's pretty amazing he was able to sleep with his head upright.

Anyway, it was a memorable experience seeing it project in 35mm (all the 70mm only seem to end up in big cities) as opposed to the first time I watched it, on DVD on a 32" SDTV.

If anyone sees that 2001: A Space Odyssey is showing within 50 miles or so, let me know.