I remember my grandmother bundling me into a car one evening and driving me to the theater. I was excited but confused at first when we pulled into this giant parking lot with the screen at one end. I’d never seen a drive-in before, and so I wasn’t prepared for just how singular an experience it was. Maybe it helped that the film was Close Encounters, which somehow seemed even more magical and real when I was sitting in the front seat of this giant Detroit boat that my grandmother drove, stuffing my face with doughnuts and fast food, being slowly drained by mosquitos while the Mothership came floating in over Devil’s Tower.
Over the years, I’ve been many times, and I genuinely love it. I think the last film I saw at the drive-in was Mad Max: Fury Road, because of fucking course I went to see Mad Max: Fury Road sitting in my car. Why wouldn’t you do that if you could? They’re just lucky I didn’t rev the engine the entire time. I love that in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Cliff Booth, an occasional stuntman who lives his life overshadowed by the actor he doubles, lives his actual life in the shadow of a drive-in movie screen. It’s a gorgeous simple image that also pays tribute to the long-gone Van Nuys Drive-In, which I wish still existed.
There are drive-ins near Los Angeles. A few of them, actually, including the Paramount, the one that was used to stand-in for the Van Nuys Drive-In in Tarantino’s film. Only one of them is currently open, and I wish they were programming older films like they did for four days right at the start of the pandemic. For some reason, they ran a double-feature of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I would have gone to that if my boys had been here. That would have been lovely. I can’t work up the motivation to drive 40 minutes for any of what the Mission Tiki is playing right now, but that’s because I’ve seen all of it. If you haven’t seen Clark Duke’s directorial debut Arkansas and the horror film The Wretched, and you’re in LA, and you’re feeling stir-crazy, I can honestly say both of them are really solid modest well-made movies. I was surprised by the shaggy low-stakes criminal charms of Arkansas, and I think Duke is both an efficient and stylish first-time filmmaker and terrific onscreen in the film as one of the two very low-level drug dealers who end up in over their heads when they find their immediate supervisor dead. I was equally surprised by how effective the slow-burn supernatural Rear Window-with-a-witch movie by the Pierce Brothers was. It’s a good “teenager moves to a small town where something’s wrong” movie, and the supernatural creature at the heart of the film is unnervingly realized. If you’re actually able to get out to a drive-in to see these two films, you’ll probably have such a good time overall just being in a drive-in that they’ll seem even better than they actually are. Maybe I’ll get out there for The Vast of Night, which I hear good things about. Or Tenet. Just the way Christopher Nolan would want it.
There are so few drive-in screens left in the country that they’re a curio, not a viable alternative form of distribution, and that’s a shame. If you guys had drive-ins available to you right now, would you go? I mean, you can take your own bubble, sit in it, and still have something like a social experience. It’s not the same as a theater, in any way, but as a different version of a filmgoing experience, there’s more than nostalgic value to it.
Do you have any drive-in memories of your own? That’s the real question this week. Do you love the drive-in? Hate it? Indifferent?
As always, let’s talk about whatever’s on your mind. That’s what the Saturday Free-For-All is for. The drive-in question is just a jumping-off point.
Changing your mind is essential to your development as a human being. The moment you stop allowing yourself to evolve or to have more than one opinion about something, you start to shut down. I love the work of Pauline Kael, but it always blew my mind to hear that she rarely if ever rewatched movies. She didn’t see any point in it. She felt like she got the thing the first time, and then it was just about the conversation and her memories of it and that was enough. I can’t imagine engaging with movies that way. I can’t imagine watching something once. I always viewed films like magic tricks, and I would watch them repeatedly trying to take apart how they pulled off the magic trick. In 1982, when E.T. came out, it had the same effect on me it had on everyone. I cried my little 12-year-old face right off my head the first time I saw it, and then when I went back, it did it again, and that was it. I needed to understand the trick. I started taking everyone I knew to go see it, and I would watch them as much as I would watch the movie. I would quiz them afterward. It made me crazy. Later, as I got older, any time a film really punched a hole in me, I’d do the same thing. I wouldn’t drag people in anymore, but I’d go back and see it over and over and take it apart and try to understand the nuts and the bolts and the raw ingredients.
There are films that seem to change for me every time I see them, and part of writing about a life lived in movies is being honest about the way those things shift and slip in and out of our lives. Movies that were important to me once don’t play at all for me now and vice-versa. There were films that never really sat right for me or that didn’t mean the same thing, and now when I look at them, they feel like they’re completely different. They aren’t, though. I am. Why would I expect that I love the same movies the exact same way forever? I can look at something and remember who I was when I saw it and maybe try to understand why it mattered so much then, but that doesn’t mean it’s true right now exactly the same way.
Then yesterday, I wrote about the news about the Snyder cut of Justice League and how everyone’s already trying to turn this story into further proof of whatever tribalistic thing they already believe, part of this current cycle of fandom as contact sport that makes it all so hard to enjoy:
When people turn these things into political battlegrounds, and when they make their entire identities about these movies and these characters, they cease to see them as movies anymore. And when they are awful to people, ostensibly over “fandom,” it creates a toxic fog that sours the entire experience for other viewers, for fans, and even for the filmmakers themselves. Honestly, I’m happy for anyone who is excited they get to see more of Snyder’s Justice League. I don’t get it, but I don’t begrudge anyone their excitement. The moment that stops, though, is when that turns into weaponized ugliness, and there’s too much of that online and in fandom today in general. It’s not only this fandom, but this fandom has been very loud and very aggressive for the last few years. Just because they got what they wanted, that doesn’t validate the behavior. It also doesn’t mean we’re going to see any more or any less of this, because this isn’t the flashpoint of this particular problem. This is a point on a larger continuum, and I wrote about it for One Perfect Shot last year. I have written about it here. It is an ongoing and inescapable evolution of the way fan culture has been treated by corporations, and yet, it is also a strange and singular event.
There are plenty of directors who leave films, and there are plenty of films that have been taken away from the primary filmmaker at some point in the process. The story of studio filmmaking is a story of disappointment and compromise at gunpoint, a story that is peppered with heartbreak and artistic failure. There are so many movies that have been brutalized for various reasons, and each time, it leaves a huge “what if?” lingering, that question of what might have been. I enjoy that game, asking that question, and I think the longer you’re a film fan and the more you know about the production side of things, the more of those there are.
It’s only $7 a month to subscribe, and that gets you full access to the archive as well as all the content I send out. It’s even less if you pay for a full year up front. It’s a heck of a deal.
Today’s newsletter is free. Thanks for checking it out.
Image courtesy of Sony Pictures Image courtesy of Mission Tiki Drive-In
I have man, MANY fond memories of the drive-in, both as a child and adult.
I saw ALIEN at the drive-in, because my dad, as a security guard next door, had seen the Chestburster scene half a dozen times - but not the whole movie. I saw STAR WARS at the drive-in because (in '77) we couldn't get into any showing at FOUR different theaters - all sold out!
I used to organize friends every summer to see a "drive-in appropriate" movie (DEATH RACE, EXPENDABLES 1-3, DUKES OF HAZZARD) at the Vineland Drive-In in City of Industry, CA.
I love the drive-in and I miss it.
I am thinking of going to one, as the Mendon Drive-In in MA
They are allowed to re-open on Monday. And as a way to break it in-first showings are at 12:01am JURRASSIC PARK (sold out) and ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW.
I will be interested in what they show after this week, as they have ONWARD/CALL OF THE WILD and INVISIBLE HAND/THE HUNT.
But at 40mi away and $30 a car... I need it to be something great, or I haven't seen.
I've never been to a drive in but I've always wanted to. I had meant to go last year to one of the drive ins in upstate NY to see Godzilla King Of The Monsters, but life got in the way. And now the ones that are open in upstate NY are showing things I've already seen (Invisible Man, Bad Boys 3) or don't want to see (Sonic, Trolls). Hopefully the selection changes soon so I can make the trip up one weekend to enjoy it for the first time.
It also just occurred to me how weirdly funny it is that the world is built for everyone to have a car and yet, drive ins barely exist. Seems like a kind of no brainer.
North Georgia actually has two drive-in theaters, if you can believe it, and both do a booming business. I’ve never understood why there was no previous resurgence in the last thirty years, but if this doesn’t do it, I guess nothing will.
The last time I visited the Starlight down in Atlanta was for a Burt Reynolds triple feature sponsored by the Drafthouse as part of their Rolling Roadshow series. Smokey & The Bandit, Sharkey’s Machine, and White Lightning. If you came wearing a moustache, tickets were half price. Such a fun night.
not only have i been to the van nuys drive in, i was an extra in lady in cement. i am vintage. i am so vintage, i went to college with mike clark, and you remind me of us. i grew up in north jersey and drive-ins were my summer. i continued the practice year-round when i moved to LA, but, sadly, gave up when the drive-ins seemed to become the center of all gang activity. every time we went it was west side story at the snack bar. so that was the end of that. but, for a while, i did enjoy that multiplex with six screens facing in all directions. one other remembrance -- my first house way up on top of laurel canyon gave us a straight shot to the screen of the old gilmore drive-in, which had replaced the minor league ball park at beverly and fairfax. we got telescopes and would watch what was playing and make up our own dialogue. later, of course, we would just turn the telescopes on the neighbors...as they would on us. love your stuff!
Growing up in Northern Canada, our town had a cool drive-in that I remember my parents taking me to for as long as I can remember.
That’s where I saw Jaws, Orca, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the first two Smokey and The Bandit movies, Any Which Way But Loose/ Any Which Way You Can, Grease, Superman, Star Wars... Dammit, you’re making me a little teary *sniff* Good times, good times.
We have a pretty great little drive-in theater not far from Louisville in Georgetown, Indiana. I've been there once several years ago as a single guy, and we all laid out blankets in our purchased spots and watched the giant screen looming over us while eating snacks and chatting. It was pretty amazing. Now I'm preparing to take my kids to some movies there in the coming years, and hope they enjoy it as much.
The only drive-in experience I had was seeing the 1984 reissue of "The Jungle Book" with my dad and little brother; I was 6 at the time. I remember that they ran the cartoon "The Three Little Pigs" before the movie too. Sadly there are none extant in my area anymore.
The very first memory I have of seeing any movie is my parents taking me to the drive-in to see Return of the Jedi when I was almost three years old. It was in my dad's old black, two-door, manual Ford Escort. I remember the sail barge. I remember Yoda dying. And then I remember curling up at my mom's feet in the footwell of the passenger side front seat and going to sleep for the rest of the movie. Magical.
I love drive-ins. Atlanta has a famous one, the Starlight Drive-In. It's a great slice of nostalgia. Is it the optimum way to see a movie? No, but it's fun. Sometimes that's enough.
I have fuzzy memories of going to the drive-in in my small-town Iowa hometown (the drive-in closed by the time I was an adolescent). I vaguely recall the earwig scene from Star Trek 2 and some Police Academy. But the thing I remember most vividly is that, directly below the huge screen, they had playground equipment. So kids could play there and look up at the towering images.
Last time I went to a drive-in was an old one in Ohio where my (now) wife and I watched “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Into the Storm.” First time since I was a kid since I’d gone to one. The Plaza in Atlanta has started doing make shift drive-in Screenings the past few weeks; I may go to one coming up.
I’m curious what Snyder’s “Justice League” will now look like, and how he will shape it after three-plus years away from the movie.
My personal moviewatching has involved finishing up the “Lonesome Dove” miniseries’s; watching some ‘90s action in “Air Force One,” “Con Air” and “Broken Arrow”; watching John Woo’s “Last Hurrah for Chivalry” for the first time; I rewatched “The Running Man” because of The Kingcast; and rewatched “Best in Show” and “A Mighty Wind” in honor of Fred Willard. I also watched “Charade” with my mom today, and my first Jesus Franco film in “The Bloody Judge.” It’s been quite a week.
I'm trying to get a "new" movie in every day (even if it's only via RiffTrax or MST3k) this year, and I'm making good progress. This weekend though I'm also dreading the Screen Drafts Cronenberg episode after your Twitter comments, Drew...I'm sure I'll like the episode but I have a feeling it's gonna end in tears for me.
I unfortunately haven't gotten the chance to go to a drive-in movie theater, but that's an experience I would love to enjoy many, many times if I got the chance. Hopefully, I'll get a chance too soon!
Also, the fact that you got to see Mad Max: Fury Road on a huge drive-in theater screen......well, words just can't describe the amount of jealousy I'm feeling right now.
I am lucky to live 30 minutes from a drive-in, the Goochland Drive-In theater. They go out of their way to present a mix of nostalgic experience with modern amenities like mobile ordering, in-ground studio speakers if you want to sit outside, and a healthy mix of new titles and classics. Next week they have Onward, Batman 89, and Back to the Future! Great times.
Had a drive-in about 45 minutes away from the last place I lived. My partner and I would try to make it out there whenever we could. I know from following their social media they've been struggling with the shutdown, but they're open this week and showing rep programming (The Flintstones and Jurassic Park) so I'm hopeful for their future. I do miss that experience and I'm glad it's still out there.
Went to see a few films at the drive-in when I was a kid, and then just a handful more when I was a teenager.
My strongest memories:
1) We had a camper on our truck. So I remember watching The Land That Time Forgot while laying on the bunk at the front of the camper, looking out the window at the screen.
2) Watching Star Wars through the fog (we're talking Oxnard fog here). I will attest to this day that I only saw half the movie.
3) Attempting to watch Alien at a drive-in in Edmonton, Alberta during the middle of winter. Four of us in a car together. We kept fogging up the window so much we hardly saw anything. Just what a ten year old wants.
4) Same drive-in as #3, except seeing Orca. The only memory I have of that scene is when its mate was cut open. *gag*
5) Living in Hawai'i during the E.T. run. Double feature with Hal Needham's The Villain. I was laying on the hood of our car (first theater I'd been to that used radio instead of the hook-speaker thingys). Although I'd already seen it a couple of years before, I was laughing so hard at The Villain that I rolled off the hood.
Here in my corner of Pennsylvania I have two drive-ins a reasonable distance away. (One is just five minutes away.) Both should be opening up within the next week or two. About an hour away is the Mahoning Drive-In, featured in the documentary AT THE DRIVE-IN. Can't wait until they start their programming up - all genre revival.
I have man, MANY fond memories of the drive-in, both as a child and adult.
I saw ALIEN at the drive-in, because my dad, as a security guard next door, had seen the Chestburster scene half a dozen times - but not the whole movie. I saw STAR WARS at the drive-in because (in '77) we couldn't get into any showing at FOUR different theaters - all sold out!
I used to organize friends every summer to see a "drive-in appropriate" movie (DEATH RACE, EXPENDABLES 1-3, DUKES OF HAZZARD) at the Vineland Drive-In in City of Industry, CA.
I love the drive-in and I miss it.
I am thinking of going to one, as the Mendon Drive-In in MA
They are allowed to re-open on Monday. And as a way to break it in-first showings are at 12:01am JURRASSIC PARK (sold out) and ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW.
I will be interested in what they show after this week, as they have ONWARD/CALL OF THE WILD and INVISIBLE HAND/THE HUNT.
But at 40mi away and $30 a car... I need it to be something great, or I haven't seen.
I'm hopeful.
I've never been to a drive in but I've always wanted to. I had meant to go last year to one of the drive ins in upstate NY to see Godzilla King Of The Monsters, but life got in the way. And now the ones that are open in upstate NY are showing things I've already seen (Invisible Man, Bad Boys 3) or don't want to see (Sonic, Trolls). Hopefully the selection changes soon so I can make the trip up one weekend to enjoy it for the first time.
It also just occurred to me how weirdly funny it is that the world is built for everyone to have a car and yet, drive ins barely exist. Seems like a kind of no brainer.
North Georgia actually has two drive-in theaters, if you can believe it, and both do a booming business. I’ve never understood why there was no previous resurgence in the last thirty years, but if this doesn’t do it, I guess nothing will.
The last time I visited the Starlight down in Atlanta was for a Burt Reynolds triple feature sponsored by the Drafthouse as part of their Rolling Roadshow series. Smokey & The Bandit, Sharkey’s Machine, and White Lightning. If you came wearing a moustache, tickets were half price. Such a fun night.
not only have i been to the van nuys drive in, i was an extra in lady in cement. i am vintage. i am so vintage, i went to college with mike clark, and you remind me of us. i grew up in north jersey and drive-ins were my summer. i continued the practice year-round when i moved to LA, but, sadly, gave up when the drive-ins seemed to become the center of all gang activity. every time we went it was west side story at the snack bar. so that was the end of that. but, for a while, i did enjoy that multiplex with six screens facing in all directions. one other remembrance -- my first house way up on top of laurel canyon gave us a straight shot to the screen of the old gilmore drive-in, which had replaced the minor league ball park at beverly and fairfax. we got telescopes and would watch what was playing and make up our own dialogue. later, of course, we would just turn the telescopes on the neighbors...as they would on us. love your stuff!
Growing up in Northern Canada, our town had a cool drive-in that I remember my parents taking me to for as long as I can remember.
That’s where I saw Jaws, Orca, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the first two Smokey and The Bandit movies, Any Which Way But Loose/ Any Which Way You Can, Grease, Superman, Star Wars... Dammit, you’re making me a little teary *sniff* Good times, good times.
We have a pretty great little drive-in theater not far from Louisville in Georgetown, Indiana. I've been there once several years ago as a single guy, and we all laid out blankets in our purchased spots and watched the giant screen looming over us while eating snacks and chatting. It was pretty amazing. Now I'm preparing to take my kids to some movies there in the coming years, and hope they enjoy it as much.
The only drive-in experience I had was seeing the 1984 reissue of "The Jungle Book" with my dad and little brother; I was 6 at the time. I remember that they ran the cartoon "The Three Little Pigs" before the movie too. Sadly there are none extant in my area anymore.
The very first memory I have of seeing any movie is my parents taking me to the drive-in to see Return of the Jedi when I was almost three years old. It was in my dad's old black, two-door, manual Ford Escort. I remember the sail barge. I remember Yoda dying. And then I remember curling up at my mom's feet in the footwell of the passenger side front seat and going to sleep for the rest of the movie. Magical.
I love drive-ins. Atlanta has a famous one, the Starlight Drive-In. It's a great slice of nostalgia. Is it the optimum way to see a movie? No, but it's fun. Sometimes that's enough.
I have fuzzy memories of going to the drive-in in my small-town Iowa hometown (the drive-in closed by the time I was an adolescent). I vaguely recall the earwig scene from Star Trek 2 and some Police Academy. But the thing I remember most vividly is that, directly below the huge screen, they had playground equipment. So kids could play there and look up at the towering images.
Last time I went to a drive-in was an old one in Ohio where my (now) wife and I watched “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Into the Storm.” First time since I was a kid since I’d gone to one. The Plaza in Atlanta has started doing make shift drive-in Screenings the past few weeks; I may go to one coming up.
I’m curious what Snyder’s “Justice League” will now look like, and how he will shape it after three-plus years away from the movie.
My personal moviewatching has involved finishing up the “Lonesome Dove” miniseries’s; watching some ‘90s action in “Air Force One,” “Con Air” and “Broken Arrow”; watching John Woo’s “Last Hurrah for Chivalry” for the first time; I rewatched “The Running Man” because of The Kingcast; and rewatched “Best in Show” and “A Mighty Wind” in honor of Fred Willard. I also watched “Charade” with my mom today, and my first Jesus Franco film in “The Bloody Judge.” It’s been quite a week.
I'm trying to get a "new" movie in every day (even if it's only via RiffTrax or MST3k) this year, and I'm making good progress. This weekend though I'm also dreading the Screen Drafts Cronenberg episode after your Twitter comments, Drew...I'm sure I'll like the episode but I have a feeling it's gonna end in tears for me.
I unfortunately haven't gotten the chance to go to a drive-in movie theater, but that's an experience I would love to enjoy many, many times if I got the chance. Hopefully, I'll get a chance too soon!
Also, the fact that you got to see Mad Max: Fury Road on a huge drive-in theater screen......well, words just can't describe the amount of jealousy I'm feeling right now.
I am lucky to live 30 minutes from a drive-in, the Goochland Drive-In theater. They go out of their way to present a mix of nostalgic experience with modern amenities like mobile ordering, in-ground studio speakers if you want to sit outside, and a healthy mix of new titles and classics. Next week they have Onward, Batman 89, and Back to the Future! Great times.
Had a drive-in about 45 minutes away from the last place I lived. My partner and I would try to make it out there whenever we could. I know from following their social media they've been struggling with the shutdown, but they're open this week and showing rep programming (The Flintstones and Jurassic Park) so I'm hopeful for their future. I do miss that experience and I'm glad it's still out there.
Went to see a few films at the drive-in when I was a kid, and then just a handful more when I was a teenager.
My strongest memories:
1) We had a camper on our truck. So I remember watching The Land That Time Forgot while laying on the bunk at the front of the camper, looking out the window at the screen.
2) Watching Star Wars through the fog (we're talking Oxnard fog here). I will attest to this day that I only saw half the movie.
3) Attempting to watch Alien at a drive-in in Edmonton, Alberta during the middle of winter. Four of us in a car together. We kept fogging up the window so much we hardly saw anything. Just what a ten year old wants.
4) Same drive-in as #3, except seeing Orca. The only memory I have of that scene is when its mate was cut open. *gag*
5) Living in Hawai'i during the E.T. run. Double feature with Hal Needham's The Villain. I was laying on the hood of our car (first theater I'd been to that used radio instead of the hook-speaker thingys). Although I'd already seen it a couple of years before, I was laughing so hard at The Villain that I rolled off the hood.
Here in my corner of Pennsylvania I have two drive-ins a reasonable distance away. (One is just five minutes away.) Both should be opening up within the next week or two. About an hour away is the Mahoning Drive-In, featured in the documentary AT THE DRIVE-IN. Can't wait until they start their programming up - all genre revival.