James Bond, DUNE, and Streaming
Bite me, Hollywood
One of my fondest childhood memories was the time a dad took a bunch of us kids to see A View to a Kill, a Bond movie of debatable quality, and great camp, with a theme song by Duran Duran. Our large group were the only people in the theater, which is always fun, and I remember my brother dancing up and down an aisle during the title sequence. I’ve seen a lot of Bond movies in the theater, all of them that have been released since I was old enough to go. I’ve seen a lot of movies in the theater, period.
I’m from a small town in southern Oklahoma and during my youngest years there was only an old, one screen movie house downtown. I saw the animated Fellowship of the Ring there – or, I saw it until they met Strider in Bree. Then it turned upside down and started playing backward and that’s still all I’ve seen of that movie. (I also saw Rocky Horror there in high school and it was an awesome venue for it.) When I was in grade school, we got an actual 5 screen “multiplex” just a few miles from my house (not that “downtown” was far away). I spent a goodly portion of my childhood and teen years there at the movies. I’m fairly sure I saw every damn movie that came there. Home Alone was on one of those screens for six months. I saw Beetlejuice 11 times, and I didn’t particularly like it the first time. The movies started at 2:00, 4:00, 7:00, and 9:00 and sometimes I just went at a given time and saw whatever was playing. Why so many movies, you might ask. Because small town, southern Oklahoma. There isn’t a helluva lot to do once football season is over, and even during the season, that leaves Saturdays and Sunday afternoons.
My habit of movie-going continued up until 2019, when events transpired. What I mean to say is, I love going to the movies. I always have, I always will.
Which brings us to No Time to Die. For the first time, a Bond movie is out and I have no plans to see it until it is released on tv, and it’s not simultaneously streaming. So who knows when I’ll be able to? Even more painfully, I will be watching DUNE on October 22 from my couch, rather than on a big screen. I have a nice tv, a good popcorn maker, and a comfortable couch. But it’s not the same.
I am what might be called an expert on, or might be called obsessive about, Frank Herbert’s six book series that begins with the simply titled Dune, part of which the upcoming movie is about. That conditions exist that prevent me from seeing what promises to be an interesting, possibly great, interpretation of it in a theater, huge, loud, and sweeping, is actively painful. That Denis Villeneuve keeps harping on the unfairness of his movie being released on streaming the same day as the theater is becoming more and more unbearable to me. I just want to scream “Suck it up!” His suffering just doesn’t impress me.
There are a couple reasons why I won’t be seeing two of my most anticipated movies ever in the theater. First, and I think everyone should share this one, there is still a pandemic. Still. Very much alive and kicking our collective asses. Hospitals are overrun, young and healthy people, as well as those of us at higher risks, and children are dying of something that should’ve been contained by now. They are dying and suffering from something that is utterly preventable by getting vaccines and behaving appropriately.
I really, really want to go to the movies. But I also really, really don’t want covid. Attending a movie ups my chances – and yours – because I/we can’t trust the population at large. And I blame the anti-vax, covid-deniers for it, I really do. We should’ve been out of the woods by now.
And then there is my personal challenge: I am a disabled person who uses a powerchair. (Yes, this is the language I and the majority of disabled people I know use and want you to use. “Disabled” is not a bad word and if it makes you uncomfortable, that’s an indication you have some internalized ableism to dismantle. Give us the respect to call us what we want to be called. Thank you. Also: “confined to a chair” or “bound to a chair” are abhorrent terms. I use a powerchair, just as you use legs and feet. My chair is the tool that I use to be mobile – it is not confining. Not having a chair is confining. Thank you again.)
My impairments make going to the movie theater an ordeal for me, physically and emotionally. Fighting against streaming films ignores those of us who have legitimate difficulties going out and is thus an ableist position. I want to see the movie when it comes out; simultaneous streaming means I can do that safely and easily.
I understand that the movie industry is having an upheaval, trying to navigate the issues of prestige, awards, and profit in both the era of covid – which most everyone seems to be ignoring despite its current surge – and the advent of streaming services. I understand that it’s complicated.
However, it is currently dangerous to go out to enclosed, indoor spaces with so much of the population being untrustworthy at best, violent assholes at worst. And streaming means that people like me have the opportunity to see big movies when they are released in a physical way that is infinitely easier and more comfortable for us. I’m not saying stop releasing movies to theaters, I’m saying consider the more inclusive measure of simultaneous releases.
Is the preservation of cinema as it has always been more important than health, safety, ease, and comfort? That’s for you to reconcile for yourself. I know where I sit. And you know where I’ll be on October 22nd. Review to come.