Screen Size

Over the weekend my husband and I went to the movie theater. We saw Win Win, which was entertaining apart from the bad language, but that’s not what this blog posting is about. While we waited for the show to begin, we chatted in the dim lighting and stared at the big, blank screen before us. Because of how much my husband enjoyed watching a sporting event on our big screen television the night before, he wondered if theaters like the one we were in might be losing business because of home theaters, Netflix, Redboxes, etc. As he often does when he thinks I’m about to disagree with something, he pushed it a bit farther – offering a teasing guess about how movie theaters would be a thing of the past before long. But even with surround sound, blue ray technology and the comfort of home, there is still something uniquely enjoyable about going out to see a new movie on a really big screen, as our presence there proved.

His point, though, wasn’t so much about the competition of home theaters vs. movie theaters as how watching such a thing on our little screen in the kitchen wouldn’t compare to either experience. The difference, he said, was so vast he thought a person ought to just listen to the radio rather than watch a small screen t.v.

In fact, the only thing bigger than a movie theater screen is the one in our imagination. Remember old time radio? Well, I don’t either, other than special programs I went out of my way to find. That forum didn’t limit the listener’s images to a screen, just as when we’re reading a good book or listening to one on audio we’re part of the story. We’re there. We’re not just viewing it in front of us, we’re drawn in and it’s alive in the endless dimension of our mind. Our interpretation includes every detail drawn by a skillful writer.

Which is probably why so many people are disappointed in movies after they’ve read the book version. I wanted to see Water for Elephants with my daughter, but she hasn’t yet read the book (imagine that—I’ve actually read something she hasn’t!) but agreed to put it off another week or so to wait for her. Reading a book after seeing the movie version might limit the screen in her head. Worse, if the movie took liberties because of the confinements of filming, it’s the book that’s right (if that’s the original resource for the story) and so she wants to experience that first.

All this to say movie theaters do have a place in entertainment, and the size of a screen matters, but books don’t limit the experience so that works best for me. Conclusion: take a part of your day and enjoy a good book.