“You will be going to a special hell reserved for child molesters and people who talk in the theatre.”
- Shepherd Book, Firefly
Last night Mel & I saw Return of the King for the second time, accompanying my sister Tonya and her husband Eric. Even though we sat in that theatre for nearly three and a half hours (20 minutes pre-show with commercials, thank you very much) it was great, and I gained a few new insights, especially into Frodo’s attitude at the end of the film.
Behind us sat what appeared to be a rather large family. Mother and father in the middle, two 12 year old-ish boys on their left, and a girl and what appeared to be a quasi-date on the right.
Why is it that I remember well who was sitting behind us? Because about a dozen times during the movie I turned around to give them “the glare” because every single one of them but the mother was talking full-voice during the movie. Oh, they kept it down, but it wasn’t a whisper. Vocal cords were involved. One of the boys would exclaim “Whoah, cool! That’s… blah blah blah” when he saw something he liked. I’d turn and do “The Glare” at him and his father would respond to him OUT LOUD.
Not only were they talking, they didn’t seem to have any notion of why people were glaring at them. They didn’t even give a “What?” look back, they just seemed to note the look and ignore us.
Finally, after the daughter burst out in laughter (alone in the thetre, mind you — I’m certainly not saying “don’t laugh at the movie”) and turned to discuss something with her date, I’d had enough.
I turned around and said (quietly but forcefully) “What are you, the noisy family? You’ve all been talking the whole movie! Shut the hell up!”
It felt great, but kept me angry the rest of the movie, I think because I was subconsciously preparing for some kind of response from the father after the movie was over.
I’ll note that when we saw RotK the first time — noon on opening day — there was no unwanted noise at all despite a packed house of excited geeks. Rushing out to see a movie early means you’ll see it with other people who want to see and hear the movie without interruption.
I will applaud you and proactive stance towards reducing noise pollution in theaters. I don’t know how many times I have wanted to use a 2×4 on some persons yapper cause they have make comments through out an entire movie, or worse yet talk on their cell phone. I rarely go to the movies anymore because of those people. Good job on the verbal bitch slap to that family, but I have one question. Did the father say anything to you after the movie?
Hey Puck, it’s Steve. Rob T’s buddy that you met at the meat feast.
I *HATE* it when people talk in the theater. Why do they do this? What part of their brain tells them that this is okay?
Among probably many others I’ve been subjected to the following movie going talk transgressions:
People translating a movie into Chinese for their older obviously English limited parents. The glare seemed to work somewhat. Sorry, but I didn’t pay $14 to hear a translation of every line into a language that I don’t understand.
A loud drunk guy who’s family members codependently tried to quiet him. The glare seemed to arouse anxiety in the family members and the direct confrontation seemed ill-advised.
Yelling matches between other people including phrases like “I spent $10 to go to this movie, not to hear you - shut the fuck up!”.
I’ve had people answer cel phones and proceed to converse about what was obviously less than an emergency. The glare didn’t work but the conversation wasn’t longer than 5 minutes.
I like your site. I’ve been thinking of blogging for a while but I don’t have my own web server. Maybe I’ll email you for some advice.
See you around,
Steve
You are so right. Send me an e-mail lets talk. Luv alex