This is an open letter to a fellow patron who attended the screening of The Last Starfighter at The Astor last Monday.
Dear Sir,
As a fellow geek father I understand that you wish to introduce your son, or in my case sons, to the films that meant so much to you as a child. There’s nothing like the thrill of seeing them enjoy classic 80s movies and ask lots of questions afterwards that you are proud to still know the answers to. I get it. I am a geek. I am a dad.
However, may I propose The Astor at 7.30pm is not not the place to bring your 5(ish) year old. You sat there and loudly telegraphed each plot point, ruining the few the moments that I had forgotten were coming up. It was obvious your son wasn’t paying attention, and didn’t particularly care (“now can we go home?”) but you persisted none the less. I tried to ignore you but it became too much, which is why I turned around and asked you to stop. Which you didn’t, you only lowered the volume.
Please, the cinema, especially The Astor which is a temple to film, is not your lounge room. It’s not a DVD that you can rewind, there are other people sitting close to you who have paid good money to watch the film without it being ruined. I hope you may have learned a lesson, but I doubt that you have.
Next time stop and think. Your child will probably enjoy the movie just as much as we did watching it at home and you won’t ruin the night out of many people.
Yours sincerely
Anthony Malloy
To be honest, the problem there wasn’t the 5-year-old, it was the talking. Constant talking / commentary during a movie is ill-mannered and does spoil the experience for other patrons. If he had been simply *bringing* his 5-year-old, I’d say, well, horses for courses; it’s not up to me to police how other people raise their kids. The talking IS your business though because it’s so intrusive for everyone else.
Oh, I agree Kathy. Bring your kids by all means but it it means you have to sit there and talk to them so they understand what’s going on I think there are other alternatives.