Every Easter, “The Ten Commandments” movie airs. The 1956 blockbuster movie was a must-see in my parents’ time because of the epic scenes, from the impressive parting of the Red Sea to the many plagues Moses sends to Egypt.
I remember everyone in the family raving about the movie except my Uncle Eli. A thrifty man, Eli refused to pay to see the movie when it would eventually be on television.
Years later, it was and Uncle Eli was vindicated.
As kids, we couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t go to the movies. Every Sunday afternoon, the cousins would head down to my grandfather’s five-and-dime store and fill up a small bag with penny candy – licorice laces, Tootsie rolls and Atomic Fireballs.
We’d walk to the nearby Palace Theater and watch whatever was playing. I can’t recall what we saw, but I remember watching the thick red curtains dramatically pull back before the movie starts.
I wished I could sit in one of the box seats that lined the inside second floor and that the actors on the giant white screen seemed bigger than life.
There’s nothing like seeing a movie on the big screen. I saw “Star Wars” in a movie theater and the fear I felt when Darth Vader first enters was real. I don’t think I would’ve been that scared had I first seen him on a TV screen in the safety of my living room.
During high school, I worked at the Robert E. Lee movie theater after school and on the weekends. I loved taking my break on the back row, watching a story unfold in brilliant Technicolor.
But loving the movies is more than where you watch one. It’s who’s with you.
My youngest brother, Jeff, and I watched “Raiders of the Lost Ark” without knowing anything about the movie before we sat down.
Jeff and I were blown away by the epic story, the soaring score and the amazing special effects. At one point, we looked at each other, huge smiles on our faces, and together said “this is a great movie!”
I saw the coming-of-age movie “Breaking Away” with my brother Joey. The movie came at just the right time as he was getting ready to go to college.
My husband and I went back to the movie theater last week after quarantining for almost a year and things have changed.
No more stiff chairs packed into every row. We sat in plush recliners with a food tray at our fingertips. We ordered popcorn from our seats with the push of a button. In addition to ordering a Coke or Pepsi, we could’ve ordered a craft beer, wine or a mixed drink.
No more rotisserie hot dogs or boxes of Jujube candies – now movie patrons can order chicken and waffles or a grilled chicken chef salad brought to their seat.
Today’s lobbies are smaller, more like a restaurant instead of a grand theater, and there’s often a full-service bar where patrons wait instead of standing in a long line behind a velvet rope.
But what hasn’t changed, and what I hope never changes, is the majesty and thrill of seeing a movie on the big screen.
I wish I could’ve seen “The Wizard of Oz” on a big movie screen. Dorothy’s ruby-red slippers are pretty on television, but I bet they were dazzling on a big screen.
Charlton Heston is forceful as Moses on my computer screen, but he had to be commanding on a gigantic 70-mm movie screen. That’s what my Uncle Eli didn’t have a chance to experience.
There’s nothing like sitting in a theater as the lights dim and the opening music invites you to enter a magical world as these words appear on a giant screen … “and now, our feature presentation.”
This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.