A Big Screen Event Indeed!

About a month ago two things happened, and while it's not a tragic scenario it would've made me sad that after waiting my whole life to see the groundbreaking 1933 film King Kong, I'd be denied that chance because of the current plague. The governor of my state was doing his duty and closing down arenas and stores and anywhere that people congregated in order to slow down the spread of the Covid-19 Coronavirus. I assumed when the orders began to tumble out that movie theaters would quickly get the word and that despite holding tickets for a few months I'd not be able to use them on the Ides of March as I'd long planned.

Turner Classic Movies had brought the movie to the big screen again after a lapse of over sixty years or more and ironically another dangerous visitor from a foreign land was wreaking so much havoc that I might be cheated. Now I'm not bickering about any of the decisions made, I agree with all of them and commend my governor for taking such focused and so far relatively effective action. My state has one of the lowest curves in the nation measuring the rate of infection and that's the best that could be hoped for. So losing out on Kong was small potatoes to such critical circumstances.

But the word did not come and the movie theaters stayed open just long enough. I went with some enthusiasm mixed with trepidation and armed with protections, but I went. My date decided wisely not to go as she fits the category most susceptible to the deadly virus. And the movie was a hoot, not maybe as breathtaking as I'd imagined, but having seen it scores of times I'm likely too familiar with the story to help it. But seeing those scenes exploded to the large screen did make a difference especially the deadly climax in New York City. For the first time I could actually get a sense of Kong climbing the Empire State Building and the air battle was potent indeed. The real world we live in is so markedly different than it was several weeks ago, but still and all I'm glad I saw the "Eighth Wonder of the World" in his intended setting at long last.

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