By Ben Godina
Temporary Secretary
The movie theater has always served as a place of community in my life.
When I was a child, my grandma would take me and my brother to whatever was playing at the Fox or the new kids movie at the theater. We would go to Dollar General and get drinks and sour cream and cheddar Ruffles to sneak in in my grandma’s big purse. My grandma didn’t care what we were seeing. She just wanted time with her grandkids, to see us smile and to hear us say “That was the best movie I’ve ever seen” after every movie we saw together. Through this, I found the comfort of a dark theater, the atmosphere of watching something with others and the love for movies I still have today.
Since then, the movie theater has always been the place I take my friends and family.
In middle school, my little friend group of four would see whatever movie was playing. It didn’t really matter; we were just happy to be with each other. I distinctly remember seeing both “Rogue One” and “The Last Jedi” with my friend, Ben Neal, and being so entranced with the ability to bond and grow a stronger friendship over our mutual love for “Star Wars.”
After seeing “The Last Jedi,” we decided we needed to have a sleepover that very night to binge watch every single one. We made it half way through our first “Star Wars” movie of the night when somehow the conversation brought the other Ben to say “You’ve never seen ‘Mean Girls’?” In an instant, we were no longer watching Star Wars because, once again, it didn’t matter what we were watching. It was about the shared connection of enjoying art together.
Every day after school, we would meet in the commons of Trinity, and one of us would pull out our phone and watch the trailer for “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.” Then, when the movie was finally out, we were sat next to each other, just admiring the fulfilled potential we dreamed about for months.
Likely no other movie theater experience will live up to seeing either “Avengers Endgame” Or “Spider-Man No Way Home” in a room full of people who waited their whole lives for these moments. Never again will a theater of people jump and yell and cheer like they did the moment Captain America wielded the hammer of Thor or when Tobey Maguire stepped through a portal to reprise the role of Spider-Man for the first time in 15 years.
There will probably never be another “Avengers” movie that is the ultimate culmination of a decade of hundreds of millions of people’s love and attention. And all of that is OK, because that’s what makes movies and the theater a unique and once-in-a-lifetime event. The feeling and energy of seeing movies where every seat is filled and every person is 100% bought into the premise is something that will not be easily forgotten or replicated, as there is no other feeling in the world like enjoying art with complete strangers.
I’ve seen 39 movies this year; 32 of them were in theaters. I’ve been completely by myself in theaters, 200-plus seats filled, next to strangers, completely separated from anyone in the theater and each experience is new and special in its own way.
I love showing people my favorite movies. It feels like sharing a part of me they wouldn’t have known otherwise. Recently, I’ve been rewatching the “Jurassic Park” films alongside my girlfriend, who is seeing them for the first time. It’s like I’m getting to watch them for the first time as I watch her in awe as she gets to hear the gorgeous music, see the still impressive CGI and feel the presence of the physical props and puppets. It helps her understand me further as she watches the content I engulfed myself in as a child and shaped me into the amateur film buff and dinosaur enthusiast I am today. I have always felt you can tell a lot about a person based on their favorite movies. Films speak to each individual person in different ways and connect and touch them in ways that sometimes only make sense to you.
Art is and for all of human history has been an inherently community-building and connection-forming medium. The entire point has always been to share our stories, emotions and struggles so that others who feel the same or can relate feel as though they aren’t alone on our little speck, hurdling through the vast universe. Storytelling and art have constantly evolved throughout time, but right now, there has never been a better way of universal connection and storytelling than seeing a movie with a friend, a significant other, family or a room full of strangers.