 There are small local places that seem to be around forever. I count on them. The Oaks Theater in Cupertino, for instance, was one of those. It was a rustic place, small theaters inside, that offered second run movies for a bargain. It felt neighborly, down home, not slick and state-of-the art. I like down home.
State-of-the-art theaters are, well, state-of-the-art. They've got high-back stadium seating so we can see over the tall person, who sits right in front of us, arm rests that pull down or up in case you want to sit a little closer to your date. There are those cup holders, very nice and of course surround sound. But there's something so state-of-the art that the place seems cold, plastic, unfriendly, no howdy-neighbor feeling. Maybe that's because it such a challenge to get to the seats.
Take, for instance, the Saratoga's state of the art theaters. My husband and I are movie-goers. We go almost every Friday night. If we decide to go to the Saratoga 14, we grit our teeth knowing what's ahead.
There's the roaming up and down the parking lot along with 10 thousand others looking for one empty space. So my husband drops me off to get the tickets while he heads out to some distant cornfield to park.
I wade through crowds of teenagers to find the shortest line. I get to the window and the marquee is flashing a red sold out sign for the movie we want to see. My eyes glaze over as I frantically peruse the other movies for one that isn't sold out. Sometimes they are all sold out. In that case, I wait for my husband and we trek back to the hinterlands for our car, wondering if we have time to find a movie somewhere else.
The Pruneyard has tried to go state-of-the-art and keep the down home feeling, but we've been running into lines there and sold out movies and the long search for parking.
Small independent theaters like The Oaks always seem to have room. There's not the rush and crush to get there. The pace is slow. There's that popcorn-munching, howdy-neighbor feeling. It's even noisy before the movie starts because people seem happy to be there, a little like a backyard barbecue. Movie-goers are not stressed out from parking. The price is generally lower, so they aren't resentful buying popcorn and coke. And the audience isn't hurrying to see a movie before it's gone. It seemed like some movies ran at The Oaks for weeks. I think this takes the desperation out of movie going.
At state-of-the art theaters, some movies seem to last all of 15 minutes and "poof" they've disappeared.
Some other theaters keep movies awhile. The Camera Theaters downtown give independent movies time to gain an audience. Sometimes sleepers hang around the Cameras for awhile and actually cross over to become first-run hits. Amelie is a recent one.
A while back, The Oaks went first-run, started trying to compete with state-of-the art, but the little theater with no heating or air conditioning was facing a rumored 100-gazillion cineplex coming to Vallco.
Maybe the Oaks should have stayed a second-run neighborhood movie house, a Cupertino gem. Maybe not. Maybe it wouldn't have mattered. But we'll miss it for what it once was, the neighborly place we could see a second-run movie for a bargain price.
Sandy Sims is the editor of The Sun. Contact her at 408.200.1055 or via email, ssims@svcn.com.
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