An Exceptional Movie Experience

[ladynox25]

...which, I just got back from. Having gone to the movies to see (what else?) The Return of the King (for the third time), I was rather shaken out of my WSOD by the fact that just before Frodo gets stabbed by Shelob, the movie jumped...to Frodo and Sam heading across Gorgoroth. A little while later, just as Sam and Gollum were battling it out on the slopes of Mt. Doom, it skipped again...and there was Eowyn handing Merry the reins as she hamstrung a mumak at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. Then, just before Aragorn decided to march on the Black Gate, it skipped once more...and there was Sam looking for Frodo in the Tower of Cirith Ungol.

Having worked in a movie theater, I knew when the movie skipped the first time exactly what had happened. Theaters these days usually use a platter system, in which the film winds off of one platter, through the projector, and onto another platter. When the movie is over, the film is run through from the second platter back to the first and so on. The amount of film on any one platter, even for a two hour movie, is phenomenal. Therefore, movies don't get sent to the movie theater in one piece, but rather in several reels, which the theater then splices together, along with the preview trailers and any ads that they run. What happened in this case is simple; the movie was mis-spliced and no one caught it before it ran.

Needless to say, we got free tickets for another showing, but still...how many people out there can say they've seen any movie out of order, much less TROTK? Funny, even though it was mis-spliced, it still had enough oomph in it to keep me spellbound. Well done, Peter Jackson. Flaws TROTK may have, but it's still edge-of-your-seat-gripping the third time around--and even out of order! *grin*

Comments

[thette.livejournal.com]

Wow. Interesting.

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

how many people out there can say they've seen any movie out of order, much less TROTK?

I've seen 'Memento' in chronological order. After seeing it the normal way around, that was a very weird experience.

[turnberryknkn.livejournal.com]

Cool! Learn something new every few minutes. :-)

[corruptedjasper.livejournal.com]

What's really strange is that my local favourite theater, while not using tables (on room 2 and 3 where I usually am, anyway, dunno about 1), but the Huge Ass (4-5 feet or so) reels on a single projector, which fit at least 5 reels (I think), but not, I believe, an entire movie, which is probably why they still do intermissions. Anyway. Even on opening night, you sometimes see massive scarring around the reel change point, even though, at least in this theatre, those ends have never actually *been* real change points.

Do you know if it's possible to take, say, an American print and then somehow get subtitles under there in some way that does not involve just doing a whole new print?