Daily Archives: April 29, 2005

City of Peoria

It’s not a “film” if it’s a DVD

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There was a big article in the Central Illinois Journal Star’s Cue section yesterday about the Apollo Theater showing several Alfred Hitchcock “films.” However, buyer beware! They’re not really showing the films — they’re showing DVDs.

I went to see “White Christmas” last December at the Apollo and was shocked to find out that they weren’t showing an actual film print of the movie, but rather a DVD (the same one I have at home, as a matter of fact) projected on their screen using a large LCD projector. I felt duped. Here I had paid $5 and trudged downtown to see one of my favorite movies in glorious Technicolor, and instead I see… the DVD on a giant TV screen, essentially. We already solved this problem in our backyard, when I researched how to choose a projector that works in daylight for our kids playdates and picked something out on Amazon.

I’m sorry, that’s not a film. It shouldn’t be billed as a film, and it shouldn’t be listed in the CIJS under the “film” heading. When I go to the theater, I want to see an original film print. If I want to see it on DVD, I’ll go to Blockbuster. I asked the gentleman at the Apollo that night why they don’t show film prints anymore, and he said that most theaters were “going digital.”

First of all, playing a DVD through an LCD projector can hardly be considered “going digital,” as if that’s the technology Lucas is using for “Star Wars.” This is not digital film. Secondly, I don’t know of any theaters around here that are digital (Rave may be an exception — I’m not sure). But one can hardly say that most places are “going digital.” They all still show film prints. Even the Normal Theater in Normal shows film prints, and they’re in the same situation as the Apollo — a restored theater showing old movies, charging $5 a ticket. I saw “The Music Man” in Normal a couple years ago and let me tell you, there is a difference between DVDs and film prints.

Now, I realize that the word “film” can be used to describe the medium (flexible strip of plastic) and/or the motion picture itself. But it’s not fair to hide behind technical definitions like this. The clear connotation of going to a movie theater to see a “film” is the expectation that one will see a film print. Otherwise, one could just as easily set up a 20″ TV in a movie theater and play a VHS tape of “Gone With the Wind” and still say they’re showing a “film.” It’s misleading.

Just to make sure that this was still the state of affairs, I called the Apollo and Normal theaters today and verified their media. Apollo: DVD. Normal: film. The Apollo should stop marketing their presentations as “films” if they’re not going to be using film prints, or at least provide full disclosure.

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“Justice Sunday” a lesson in exploitation

In the fight against Senate Democrats blocking Bush’s judicial nominees by using the filibuster (ala Mr. Smith Goes to Washington), a new weapon has been unleashed: evangelical Christians. Last Sunday there was a broadcast called “Justice Sunday” in which several Christian leaders, including James Dobson (Focus on the Family) and Chuck Colson (Prison Fellowship), took to the airwaves and challenged Christians to contact their senators to stop filibustering and give the judges an up or down vote.

What does this have to do with Christianity? Why should Christians be concerned? Ah! Well, because, according to the Family Research Council (FRC), Dobson, and others, it’s because the judges being filibustered are people of faith. That’s why this is a Christian issue. The Senate is blocking people of faith from becoming judges, so we should mobilize against this tyranny.

I heard about this a lot from the Family Research Council (FRC) because I take care of programming “Grace TV,” which is broadcast on Insight cable channel 20 (Peoria only) 156 hours per week (approx.). We mostly show a religious cable channel called FamilyNet out of Fort Worth, Texas, although in the afternoons we also broadcast INSP (Inspiration Network) out of Charlotte, North Carolina. FamilyNet carried “Justice Sunday” and the FRC wanted to make it an event. They were encouraging churches to broadcast this event in their sanctuaries and invite their congregations to come watch, then take action. (We didn’t participate in this, however, at our church.)

Republicans are using people of faith to accomplish their political goals by couching those goals in religious language, and that’s exploitation. And it appears that Christians are falling for it. On the FRC website the day after the event, they gleefully reported that the congressional phone lines were jammed with people calling for an end to judicial filibusters.

The Democrats are not against these judges because of their faith — they’re against them because they’re ideologically opposed to their views on certain issues, such as their views on women’s rights or strict constructionism. The judges’ views may flow from or be informed by their faith, but there’s a big difference between opposing someone because he believes in God and opposing someone because he’s a strict constructionist. The leaders who were on “Justice Sunday” are trying to push the correlation too far, and are exploiting their followers as a result.