I have nothing but great memories about the Drive-in. I was born in the mid-sexies when the outdoor theatre was already in full bloom. Every town, often small prairie towns had one or you didn't need to drive far to find one. Most only had one screen but in the town I lived in we had a magnificent three screen beauty that we enjoyed throughout high school Especially on Friday and Saturday night when they chaged you 20 to get a full car into the gate. We would pile in as may as we could into the car and even stuff two dummies into the the truck to increase our value and to fuck with them after we got to our parking space. It was bad form to let the kids out of the trunk before the film actually began. I meant hey knew that would happen the moment we convinced them to cuddle with the spare tire.
My Father was big fan of the Drive-in and took us often as kids. Diamonds Are Forever the James Bond film was my very first Drive-in film. Up to my teens my Dad would often load a car full of my friends on a nice summer night to go so some Kung Fu action film and enjoy that great Drive-in food.
The greatest movie I ever saw at the Drive-in was the Road Warrior. It was the THIRD MOVIE of that night - a place usually reseved for some crappy film to fill out the bill. But this case they mixed up the film and while everyone was sleeping or leaving I saw one of the best movies of my life while enjoying the last of my coolers and an aswesome Drive-in cheeseburger. Everyone who feel asleep in the back of the truck refuse to believe me that it was that good. Then the video came out and I was proclaimed a visuary for seeing greatness in what looked like crap originally.
When I taught in a rural Alberta school, the seniors started a project to restore their old delapidated Drive-in that had seen better days. It was hours from a major center so if anyone wanted to see a film they had to drive an hour away. Many hours of work later they had painted the screen. Repaired the projection room and even build a small concession. The true genius of the project was movie a set of blenders into the sight so that parents and younger kids would also watcht he films while the kids watched the movies in their cars. It was still a drive in theatre, afterall.
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9 comments:
We were fortunate enough to have a drive-in just a couple towns over from where we grew up. It was always a treat to go there, I think the last thing we saw was the first X-files movie before we moved.
My strongest drive-in memory is Logan's Run and I remember thinking for years that the reason I thought it was such a lousy movie was the bad drive-in experience. (Later I watched it again in a good HD edition and understood that the drive-in wasn't the problem.)
I can understand the romantic/nostalgic appeal of drive-ins but I don't really appreciate them cinematically -- they do a terrible injustice to the movie (and the soundtrack!) Maybe if you have one of those jeeps that lets you flip the windshield down.
Maybe it was from a time when you had to go out to see any new movie. Everyone had already seen the films on TV so it was a family event. I am glad I have good memories of it.
If there’s a movie I really want to see I sure wouldn’t go see it at a drive in. But if I was single again I might have a real reason to go to a drive in once in a while. Solo as it turned out would have been a good drive in movie it wasn’t that great and I couldn’t hardly see what was going on half the time because the lighting was so shitty in most of the scenes. It seems Rogue 1 was a flash in the pan at this point I want to see another Star Wars movie about as much as I want to see another one from Star Treck.
I always preferred going to a movie theatre over going to a drive-in. More comfortable and air-conditioned. Plus totally dark so you can actually see the film. Those long evenings of prairie sunshine were hell on the first feature at a drive-in. It was always a write-off because you could hardly see it. It didn't get dark until the second feature and by then I was more than ready to go home.
There's a drive in about an hour's drive from me. I do go from time to time. If it was closer it would be a lot more. fun times
We had a few around us where we grew up, but they are all gone now. But the town I moved to 20+ years ago has had one all that time. They have three screens, but have been operating two for the last few years. This year, one screen is showing new films (Solo and Avengers right now) and the other is playing older films (Grease and Staying Alive). Interesting, fun mix.
I remember seeing the first horror movie I remember at a drive-in. Amityville Horror. Scared the crap out of me, but also set me on a path of a life-long passion.
Tucson had 4 or 5 drive-ins. Many, many good times at the Midway, Cactus, or Apache Drive-in. Don't ask how many speakers we tore out forgetting they were hooked to the window.
I think everyone did that once in their lives.
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