The “mediocre” movie that still gave Martin Scorsese an “extraordinary” big-screen experience
There’s nothing quite like going to the cinema, and it helps if you’re in a nice theatre with a respectful audience, unlike my recent experience of watching a tense horror movie sequence as the woman in front of me incessantly rustled various bags of treats, almost as though on purpose.
Being distracted in the cinema is a pain and a half, but that probably just means you’re not fully immersed. It was perhaps easier in the days of widescreen and mediums like VistaVision, which were so dominating that it really felt as though you’d been swallowed up by the film, as though it’s just you and the characters in the room.
It’s interesting how watching a movie on the biggest screen you can find can make a more enjoyable experience out of it, although then you’re left to question if a piece of filmmaking is actually good, or just visually immersive. Maybe it was just the big screen, surround sound experience? I’d argue that you certainly can believe a movie is better than it actually is if you watch it on a screen that towers over you, enhancing every visual detail and practically pulling you into its orbit.
Martin Scorsese admits to having been blown away by movies which, really, were quite mediocre, purely because he saw them on a massive cinema screen. He’s not wrong; I’ve seen movies on massive Imax screens that have left me deeply impressed by their visuals, only to never think about the actual narrative, performances, or themes of the film once leaving the theatre.
The Taxi Driver filmmaker immersed himself in many grandiose cinematic experiences when he was young, a benefit of being alive when the era of widescreen screenings was all the rage. “With widescreen films of the mid-’50s, you were literally inside the film. I remember seeing King Vidor’s War and Peace at the Capitol Theatre in VistaVision, High Society, The Court Jester, all first run,” he recalled in Scorsese on Scorsese.
VistaVision was once a briefly popular way of showing films, with its horizontal rather than vertical format making for huge, enveloping cinematic experiences. This makes the print look even higher in quality, enhancing every fine detail. Yet, it proved to be too expensive and unsustainable for widespread use, and eventually VistaVision died out, although it has recently made a comeback with the likes of One Battle After Another.
Scorsese jumped at the chance to see anything in this stunning format when he was young, and he admits that there was a specific film that he still found to be a great viewing experience, despite it actually not being that good.
“Even a movie which is mediocre, like Away All Boats, was quite extraordinary to see in Technicolor and VistaVision,” he said.
Joseph Pevney’s 1956 film didn’t receive glittering reviews, but you can imagine that watching a dramatic war film on VistaVision was going to be enjoyable, nonetheless. Scorsese added, “The closest thing to this impact today is Imax. You know you’re in for an experience: it’s not just a movie, it’s a communal experience that I think will always be there.”
