(I'll be speaking at a rally to save one of my favorite life long movie theaters on the West Mall of the University of Texas Campus at 11:30, be there)
Today, I will go forth and speak on the campus of the University of Texas to save one of my dearest theaters. The Texas Union Theater. I have been going to this screen since I was 2 years old. I met King Kong, Errol Flynn, James Cagney, Ray Harryhausen, Snow White, Kurosawa, a Bicycle Thief, an Evil Dead, Jackie Chan, the Road Warrior, a man with no name, Bruce Lee, and on and on and on. I learned how to construct paper airplanes in this theater. I knew the projectionist as a kid, his name was Bob Magnussan, the ticket taker was Eric Lord. My lifelong best friend and I met and sealed our friendship in many airplane wars during Serials. Yes, I met Spy Smasher, the Mysterious Dr. Satan, Captain Marvel, Nyoka, and so on. Bob the projectionist took me into the projection room to show me how it all worked. There was no lion's mouth, but this was my Cinema Paradiso. I saw that here for the first time too.
I love films, this theater is a big reason why. The discussions of film with this audience of students and local film lovers have grown and grown. Some feel that there is no need for a theater that shows a mix of recent hits, past glories, and foreign triumphs, because we can rent these films at our local "trendy" video store.
I love video, I have 3500 films on video now, but... Still everynight I find myself before a silver screen with an audience of 300 or more. Why? Why is it important to see films in theaters? I know why it is for me. For me, film is not a solely a private subjective medium. As you have read in my reviews, it's the enviroment in which I see films that influences my love so. What did I get out of this theater in particular? An audience that not only loved to watch film, but wanted to make them. An audience of prospective directors, cameramen, makeup dudes, set designers, etc etc etc. How many films did I see here with Terrence Malick, Robert Rodriguez, Richard Linklater, Tsui Hark, and names that I don't even know about. The conversations in the lobby continue forth into the Union proper. To round table discussions about the intricacies of what we just saw. Of the brilliance or lack thereof. There was no need for a lecture afterwards, this was a lab, a place where hopeful filmmakers enrolled in UT and not, could come and see what made a good movie good. Not at their home, where the phone would ring, or someone could knock on your door, but at the Union. The only place in town where Jackie Chan lives, where Fritz Lang still plays.
The University of Texas has the 10th best film school in the country, without a campus theater, it has the 10th best video school. Studying shot composition in the originally intended Pan and Scan version is a since. Or how about studying audience reaction, WITH NO AUDIENCE!!! Wanna help out? Well come to the Rally today at 11:30 if you have to skip work, school, or a dental appointment... DO IT!!! A hall of celluloid dreams is in danger. That theater is a god send to my life as a film goer. They plan to close it on December 11th with a showing of Fritz Lang's "M". That's my birthday, my mother died on my birthday once, I won't let my theater go so easy.
