 Starring: Charlton Heston, Stephen Boyd, Jack Hawkins, Haya Harareet
Director: William Wyler
Year Of Release: 1959
Plot: Jewish prince Judah Ben-Hur is excited that his old friend, Messala, is returning to Judea. However Messala is now a Roman officer and wants Ben-Hur to help to keep the Jews in line, which he refuses. When an accident involving Ben-hur’s sister ends up with the Roman Governor getting hurt, the angry Messala sends him off to be a galley slave. This sets off an epic journey across the sea, to Rome, back to Judea and onto the chariot race track, as Ben-Hur seeks revenge. |
I’ve mentioned before that I’m not a big fan of the idea that films were better in the past, and that people only think that because most old movies have been forgotten and only the decent ones ever get seen nowadays. However I do think that going to the cinema as an experience has lost something over the years.
When Ben-Hur was released, its first appearance in cinemas was in a roadshow version, as was common with major releases in those days. The idea behind this was to make the film feel really special, epic and akin to going to the theatre. Roadshow version were only shown in a single cinema in each major city, you’d have to reserve your seat (which would cost a lot more than going to a normal film), there’d only be a couple of showings a day, and you could even buy a special souvenir programme.
Even the way a roadshow version was shown was different to normal cinema, again to give the whole experience an extra special feeling. For a start, rather than just playing random music before the movie started, the film would have a specially written overture. When this ended the house lights would dim and the curtains would open (remember when cinemas had curtains?) and you’d watch the first act. Then there’d be an intermission, as in the theatre, which again might have specially written music. There’d be yet more tunes with the entre’act just before the second act started showing, and there might even be some exit music for when you walked out. In fact with some particularly music heavy films, like Gone With The Wind, the score was actually longer than the movie.
These were genuine event movies. That terms may be used nowadays, but it only refers to films that have had ridiculous amount of hype, rather than anyone caring about making going to see these movies feel like something special.
Then, after the roadshow presentation of these big old films, a shorter version would normally be released to normal cinemas, so you really did need to go these big epic events of showmanship if you wanted the full experience (40 minutes was hacked out of Ben-Hur when it went on general release, and it didn’t get reinserted until the 80s).
While these epic roadshow presentations (which sometimes took over theatres, or places like London’s Royal Albert Hall) were the exception rather than the rule, even normal cinema was different to how it is today. There’s a reason people refer to old cinemas as movie palaces, because that is what they were like.
Most cinemas built from the 20s to the 50s were works of architectural art, dripping in style and designed to make going to the movies seem like something extraordinary and special. Back then, even a relatively small town might have two or three of these cinemas, often with more than a 1,000 seats each. Exhibitors could build these massive, grand palaces because cinema was insanely popular. In 1946 in the UK, 1.6 billion cinema tickets were sold, which compares to around 200 million a year now.
The whole idea back then was to genuinely make cinema feel like you were escaping into a new world, which was far more decadent and glamorous than your own. People might have gone to the cinema a lot more back then, but neither Hollywood nor the exhibitors ever wanted people to forget that going to the movies was a real event, although it was one that was open to everybody.
However with the rise of television and the subsequent drop in the popularity of going to the movies, cinema has got less and less special. The roadshow versions of major films limped on into the early 70s, but they were essentially killed off by The Godfather, which despite its length, went on general, nationwide US release on hundreds of screen immediately, rather than having a special, limited roadshow engagement.
It was the first time anyone had tried such a huge simultaneous release across the country, and when the strategy ended up with the gangster film making unprecedented amounts of money, it became the standard way to release major movies almost immediately (it also paved the way for the blockbuster era, initiated by Jaws and Star Wars later in the 70s). The final traditional roadshow release was for 1972’s Man Of La Mancha, although there have been occasional revivals, such as with a three cinema release of Dreamgirls in 2006, where again you needed to reserve a ticket and pay more to get into.
We’ve also seen the movie palaces disappear and get replaced by multiplexes, which simply don’t offer the same experience. Most of the grand old cinemas have been knocked down or converted to a different use (what was the world’s largest cinema, Radio City Music Hall in New York with 6,000 seats, only survived an attempt to turn it into offices in the 60s by changing to a programme of live shows and concerts, rather than films).
Even most of the old cinemas that remain aren’t what they used to be. In the 60s it was common to convert a single screen cinema into two or three screens, by changing what used to be the balcony into the main screen, while the stalls area was turned into extra screens. If you have an old cinema in your town where you have to go upstairs to the main screen, it was probably once far bigger than it is now (where I live the main screen of the 1930s cinema in the town used to sit 1,944 people, but after conversion so they could fit more screens in, the biggest screen now seats 700).
Often at the same time, because the upkeep of the grandiose original decor was becoming increasingly expensive (and out of style, as the 60s didn’t have as much appreciation of the past), it was often removed or covered over with something cheaper to maintain. These old cinemas, many of which are now referred to as flea pits, are merely echoes of the grandiose places they used to be, with decades of neglect now putting them beyond the state where it would be feasible to restore to their former grandeur. There are a few old movie palaces that still look much as they used to and operate as cinemas, but they are incredibly rare.
Instead of these wonderful old places now we have multiplexes, where the whole ethos is completely different to how it was in the old days. The lack of curtains, cuboid shapes and dark walls are all to do with making the surround sound and projection better, which is a good thing, but it does just give the feel of being shoved into a dark box to watch a movie, and then funnelled out again as quickly as possible, rather than the cinema itself being part of the experience. Each multiplex screen is also far smaller, with the idea being to offer a broader choice of films, but it means even the biggest and most spectacular films lack the epic feel you get when watching a movie on a screen that genuinely dwarfs the audience.
I can understand why we we’ve lost roadshow versions, picture palaces and the general feel of cinemas and the movies being something unique and special, as the economics just aren’t there to maintain it. Even so I can’t help but think that even in this age of multiplexes, it wouldn’t be too hard for cinema owners to make things seem less like the only thing they care about is getting your cash and getting you out the door as soon as they can.
Nowadays people just want to watch a particular film, whereas in the past they wanted the entire experience of going to the movies, from the grand cinemas to the epic ways the studios released their prestige pictures, such as Ben-hur. It really was something a little special, and went on even in the smallest of towns, and it’s difficult not to be a little sad that we’ve lost all that.
TIM ISAAC
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