Don’t fall for the ‘Odyssey’ IMAX 70mm okey-doke
I’m just going to come out and say it: You do NOT need to see “The Odyssey” in IMAX 70mm.
Sure, that’s the way Christopher Nolan shot it. But I’m here to say “so what?” Many movies (including Nolan’s own “Oppenheimer”) are advertised nowadays as being “filmed for IMAX” and, to me, it’s a gimmick designed to make you feel like a lesser viewer for missing out and seeing the movie in a “regular” format. A guy I was talking to recently was upset that he couldn’t see “The Odyssey,” a movie he’d anticipated for over a year. When I pointed out that it was playing in 7 gazillion theaters here, he said, “but the IMAX 70mm is sold out for weeks!”
I admit that I’m an old school critic who prefers to see movies in a theater. And I’m a big proponent for seeing movies on film whenever possible, which is rare in the era of DCP (Digital Cinema Package). However, neither of these are strict requirements that you must adhere to for every film; when I described my star rating system when I first joined the Globe, I said that two stars meant “wait until it comes on cable.”
With that said, I’ll still go to bat for any classic movie projected on film in a theater. Those 70mm festivals that show “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Amadeus” are worth attending for the sheer spectacle of the filmmaking. This throwback to the past is too irresistible to resist. And a 35mm screening, the way these movies were originally projected, is always welcome. There’s nothing like a crunchy film print that’s been loved by projectors for decades.
This notebook was originally supposed to be about a different topic; that is, movies I wish I’d seen in a theater. (If you wanted that one, here you go: “It Happened One Night,” “Mean Streets,” “Singin’ in the Rain,” and Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty.”) But then I read the informative recent Globe article about why it’s so hard to see “The Odyssey” in IMAX 70mm. This line set me off: “It’s the combination on a massive IMAX screen and in 70mm film, that has made finding the movie as Nolan had intended such an odyssey.”
“As Nolan had intended” is the part that drew my ire, because it’s true. When I saw “Oppenheimer” at a critic screening, I saw it in IMAX 70mm. Most critic screenings, at least here in Manhattan, are presented in the format “the filmmaker intended.” That meant that I had to suffer through all three “Avatar” movies in 3-D, a format that is as useless to this half-blind human as you-know-whats on a bull.
The “as the director intended” requirement also meant that I saw “One Battle After Another” in VistaVision at one of four theaters in the world that was showing it that way. If you were lucky enough to get a ticket at the Coolidge, you saw it that way, too. But VistaVision has only been revived twice since 1963, so I get why people were hot for that ticket.
The funny thing about that directorial intent clause is that “The Odyssey” was screened for critics at the same Manhattan theater “Oppenheimer” was, but not in IMAX 70mm. I had a choice of either IMAX or 70mm when I signed up. “I guess ol’ Chris is still mad at me for that ‘Oppenheimer’ review,” I joked. While some critics I talked to were torn between which version to select, I chose the IMAX one simply because the IMAX theater was bigger and more comfortable.
Read more Boston Medical Center nurses, residents picket over pay
Most major releases are “filmed for IMAX” and thrown on whatever IMAX screen is available. Outside of the big directors like Nolan and Ryan Coogler, it’s less about filmmaker intent and more about the studio’s ploy to get extra money out of you. Bigger scope doesn’t help if a movie isn’t good in the first place. And I question if the format is even necessary in some cases.
I’m reminded of my youth, when practically every movie projected on 35mm also had a 70mm version you could see for a few extra bucks. “Star Wars,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” and the Rolling Stones concert movie “Let’s Spend the Night Together” are three examples I can cite. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if “My Dinner With Andre” had a 70mm print back then. Granted, a 70mm print has more detail, but outside of Jacques Tati’s “Playtime,” which has a “Where’s Waldo”-level of detail onscreen, I can’t think of another movie that MUST be seen on 70mm.
You can find other examples of special screening formats by going back in time to an era when Hollywood thought television was going to kill movie theaters. Fox invented CinemaScope because the Academy ratio could fit nicely into a TV screen. Paramount created VistaVision to rival CinemaScope. 3-D was born as a novelty that didn’t work at home (at least not back then).
None of these cost you extra money, by the way. Hollywood’s equivalent of “The Odyssey” IMAX 70mm screenings was the roadshow edition of a movie, where the viewer had reserved seats, special souvenir swag, an intermission, and a slightly longer cut of the film. Not only did you have to pay more for the extra spectacle, you had to find a theater showing it that way and travel there. Quentin Tarantino recently did something similar for “The Hateful Eight.”
Keep in mind that I’m not saying you shouldn’t travel hours out of state or hold out for weeks to see a movie the way you want to see it. It’s your money and your time. I am saying that it’s not good to feel pressured or guilted into doing so just because the marketing told you that you had to do it.
The aforementioned IMAX Globe article quoted someone at the Providence theater showing “The Odyssey” in IMAX 70mm: “I’m only here because of all my insufferable film friends,” said Lola Alarapon. As your resident insufferable film critic, I say you’re off the hook for IMAX 70mm screenings of “The Odyssey,” and for any other hyped up format the studios throw at you to trigger your fear of missing out. You won’t be violating Zeus’s Law.
Read more Trump announces a deal for Hamas to disarm in Gaza, but many hurdles and uncertainty remain
Post Comment