Theaters Are Open

[SGOS]

But not full, according to this reporter on reopening night who first quotes some high mucky muck theater spokesperson, and then observes the movie goers:

The New York Times:

The Regal Sunset Station multiplex in suburban Las Vegas reopened on Thursday night after sitting empty for five months in eerie pandemic-forced exile.

[Mr. Zoradi: theater spokesperson]
“There is significant pent-up demand for the theatrical out-of-home experience, with the gigantic screens, immersive sight and sound technology and, of course, that irresistible movie theater popcorn,”

[Mr. Truitt, 38, movie fan]   
“I figured it would be jammed, with pent-up demand to come to the movies again,”  said as he sat back in his reclining seat and tugged at his face mask. He looked around the mostly empty auditorium, with capacity for 172, and shrugged in surprise. “I guess not.”

[reporter, Brooks Barnes] 
"Maybe .  But the trial balloon that is “New Mutants” suggests that the road ahead for Hollywood will be anything but easy."

As you may suspect, after the expensive ad campaign about new between showing sanitizing procedures and safety regulations promoted by the industry:

[reporter, Brooks Barnes]
Were any workers monitoring the theater reminding patrons that they had to wear masks if they weren’t eating or drinking? (Not that I ever saw.) Is that woman sitting nearby seriously going to watch the entire film with her mask dangling from one ear? (Yup.)  By the end of the 98-minute movie, many of the attendees were mask free, their popcorn long since munched.

I think we need a vaccine.  In spite of all the government propaganda, it seems that a lot of Americans don't think going to the movies is a bright idea, at least not yet.  The movie theater was my one big source of entertainment outside my home.  I'll be looking forward to it again, but not now.  It stands to reason that people going to the theater during a pandemic are probably not the people you want to be around.  It's a skewed representation of society with most of the curve at the knucklehead end of the graph.

[Cassia]

Our 55" TV, surround sound system and blackout storm shutters make a fine substitute for now. We never really had "movie time" before C19. I purchased the complete "Game of Thrones" Blueray set around the beginning of the plague and we finally viewed the final episode a few weeks ago. Now we are doing the Brit series "the white queen". It is no G.O.T., but we are enjoying it as we do most period pieces. I also picked up the complete set "black sails" as I love pirates and ship to ship battles. I thought "master and commander" with Russel Crowe was a great flick. "The Bounty" was beautifully shot, and Hopkins was convincing however that asshat Mel Gibson's later antics have sort of ruined the flick for me, LOL.

Throw in some "snowcaps" and I can wait to get vaccinated before returning to the theater.... if I still have the tolerance for all the chatting, chomping, candy wrapper rustling, snoring and giant fatheads who always manage to sit right in front of my smallish frame.

[Cassia]

[SGOS]

Our 55" TV, surround sound system and blackout storm shutters make a fine substitute for now. We never really had "movie time" before C19. I purchased the complete "Game of Thrones" Blueray set around the beginning of the plague and we finally viewed the final episode a few weeks ago. Now we are doing the Brit series "the white queen".

My system makes a good substitute for the theater too,



and the sound system is also very good.  But a good theater can still do better, both visually and sound, especially sound.  I've been buying dvd sets of TV series like crazy.  There's some good stuff out there, but it has to be sorted out from the crap, and sometimes I don't sort very well and end up with stuff on my shelves that is really just taking up space.

As to Master and Commander, I sometimes take that out just to play the first 10 minutes of the film and listen to it on my sound system.  It sounds and feels like my whole house is under attack.  It shakes the room.

[Cassia]

Yeah, that is one powerful opening scene, however it is interesting to me that the one nation that truly had a hard-hulled large frigate was the US, not the French. Artistic license. We were visiting St Augustine and the park service fired a real cannon that guarded the port. Impressive.

[SGOS]

it is interesting to me that the one nation that truly had a hard-hulled large frigate was the US, not the French. Artistic license. We were visiting St Augustine and the park service fired a real cannon that guarded the port. Impressive.

Wow!  That's a pretty big historical inaccuracy for  Hollywood to make. I don't know much about navies of that time period, least of all, who was fighting who at what time in history.  Was the US involved in the fracas between England and France during that time period?  If not, it's probably not an important error, unless the movie made and actual claim that France had the largest frigate on the ocean.

The one part of that movie that I have questioned was the Captain's strategy of luring in the French ship.  It's hard to believe he developed a new strategy from a bug.  I would think that strategy must have been used before.  But then every military trick had a first time, so maybe he was the one.  I would have enjoyed a sequel, and I thought the ending left that open, but really the story was told by then, and a sequel would have been little more than an afterthought.

I think I heard that in WWII the allies would lure German submarines in the same way.  The German subs would surface at close range to use their cannons, thereby saving torpedoes for bigger prizes, but the Allies would sink the subs before anyone came out of the hatch to man the cannon.  That probably only worked for a week or two, before the Germans stopped doing that.

[Baruch]

Yeah, that is one powerful opening scene, however it is interesting to me that the one nation that truly had a hard-hulled large frigate was the US, not the French. Artistic license. We were visiting St Augustine and the park service fired a real cannon that guarded the port. Impressive.

Original story was Americans as the bad guys.  To sell the movie in the US, they had to change it to an American ship sold to the French.  There was a short quasi-war between the US and France in 1798-1800.

The real thing ...

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Yeah, that is one powerful opening scene, however it is interesting to me that the one nation that truly had a hard-hulled large frigate was the US, not the French. Artistic license. We were visiting St Augustine and the park service fired a real cannon that guarded the port. Impressive.

The French borrowed a copy, according to the movie.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I think I heard that in WWII the allies would lure German submarines in the same way.  The German subs would surface at close range to use their cannons, thereby saving torpedoes for bigger prizes, but the Allies would sink the subs before anyone came out of the hatch to man the cannon.  That probably only worked for a week or two, before the Germans stopped doing that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q-ship

[Baruch]

The French borrowed a copy, according to the movie.

Damn, I knew 3d printing was dangerous!

[Cassia]

I always imagined great battles between the Royal Navy and pirates. I found a used book with great artwork about pirates. It turns out that they had little chance against a disciplined navy crew so they would strip their ships to make them faster and try to hide or out-sail the navy. "Cut and run"... as in the anchor line, LOL. I read that book while on a tall ship vacation down in the Grenadines, so the whole effect was magnified. What a trip (a life dream). Ten whole days..I guess it was clothing optional during beach excursions and some old man nudist guy sent us nakid christmas cards for a while Yeah we were chicken.

[Baruch]

Yeah, I always wanted to go on a Tall Ship vacation.  Or take my daughter on one.  But my mother wouldn't have it (Hurricanes).

Did you see the excellent dramatized documentary on Edward Teach?  Also visit the Widah Museum in Providence Mass?

[Cassia]

Yeah, I always wanted to go on a Tall Ship vacation.  Or take my daughter on one.  But my mother wouldn't have it (Hurricanes).

Did you see the excellent dramatized documentary on Edward Teach?  Also visit the Widah Museum in Providence Mass?

I will check them out. I did go to the Mel Fisher museum in the Keys and also Mystic Seaport. Family had to drag me out of there. Why do people rush through museums?

[Hydra009]

I always imagined great battles between the Royal Navy and pirates. I found a used book with great artwork about pirates. It turns out that they had little chance against a disciplined navy crew so they would strip their ships to make them faster and try to hide or out-sail the navy. "Cut and run"... as in the anchor line, LOL.

I love pirate history.  There's such a wide gulf between the myth and the reality.  Much less exciting and glamorous, more like serial mugging.  No one walked the plank, probably.  And very little in the way of buried treasure.

One pirate fact I love to tell people is that the movie flags are all wrong - pirates typically didn't wander around flying the Jolly Roger.  Real pirates would sail under the flag of whatever country best suited them at the moment, try to blend in.  Then, when they spotted an unescorted merchant ship and got real close - that's when the black pirate flag typically came out, and while the Jolly Roger was popular, especially towards the end of the golden age of piracy, there were other varieties.  The black flag means that if you give up your cargo, you (probably) won't be killed.  People being people, they generally preferred the former.  But if things went sour or the pirates so desired, they'd fly the red flag.  The red flag means they're liable to kill anyone they come across.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Pirates often ran flotillas of small, fast ships that could come out of a cove and smarm a passing ship. The Black Pearl would have been hard to hide from patrolling naval units.