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Austin's Alamo Drafthouse Theater Gives Texters the Boot
Hugh Pickens writes "Ever been annoyed during that nail-biting darkened hallway scene by someone turning on their phone to send a text? Well, don't mess with Texas or you may end up on the screen in a public service announcement. Alamo Drafthouse, a local chain of dine-and-screen movie theaters in Austin, Texas, has long waged a war against impolite moviegoers booting out customers who talk or text during performances. Phoebe Connelly writes that according to Tim League, the Drafthouse's founder, a woman was recently warned twice about texting during a screening, and then, in accordance with company policy, was escorted out without a refund. 'I don't think people realize that it is distracting,' says League. 'It seems like nothing, but if you spend as much time as I do at the movies, you realize the entire theater sees it and it pulls you out of the movie experience. It's every bit as intrusive as talking.' The irate customer called up the Alamo Drafthouse and left a profanity-laced (and perhaps slightly inebriated) message decrying the theater's policies, but the theater got the last laugh as they took the audio of the woman's voicemail, transcribed it, and turned it into an in-house preview [tl: Note, YouTube video contains some profanity] that warns theatergoers against cell phone use during movies. 'Part of what we're trying to do is have a comedic message about what to us is a very serious issue,' says League, declining to give any more details about the woman at the center of the recent PSA."
No you don't. A cinema isn't exactly a proper place to work.
Ceci n'est pas une
is here.
For example, a friend of mine once worked as an emergency responder for the Red Cross. Part of that was to carry the emergency contact phone wherever she went while she was on call. If she was going to be somewhere that respectful quiet was expected, like a church, or the theatre, or a classroom, she made damned certain that the thing was set to vibrate. She also made sure to arrive at the venue early, so that she could get an aisle seat and, if she felt the phone vibrate, she could slip out to the lobby without shoving her ass in a row-full of faces. As far as anyone who wasn't in her group was concerned, she would just be politely nipping out to the bathroom. No ringtones, no sudden glare, no conversations, not difficult.
Here is what is playig at the theater. Brides mainds, kung fu panda. x-men, etc. Not a high end theater like landmark or Dundance where the films require a little more attention.
That's right. Only people who are watching appropriately high-class, cultured, artistic works of cinema should expect to be able to watch a film without unnecessary distractions. Folks who are going to watch mass-market movies just to have a pleasant night out aren't interested in paying attention; of course they shouldn't expect to be able to see or hear what they're watching. Their low-brow entertainment preferences don't deserve any better.
Seriously? For someone who's bemoaning Austin (Austin? Texas? Really?) as a city of pseudo-chic poseurs, you're awfully stuck up. Sure, this could just be a publicity stunt--but I hold out some faint hope that there might actually exist theaters which care about the audience's experience, and expect a better level of conduct than we seem to settle for in most venues.
~Idarubicin
When driving, for example, it is next to impossible to resist answering the phone when it rings.
Very not-true, unless you were raised by B.F. Skinner in a Nokia lab.
Yeah, this seems like an incredibly stupid thing to become so righteously anal over. I've never once been distracted by someone texting in a movie. Talking, yes, but never texting.
This is just some stupid theater owner's personal crusade to fight a really ridiculous cause. They've probably spent 10x as much fighting cellphone use as they would have lost in customers had they allowed them in the same capacity as any other theater. Heck, if they are escorting people out of the theater for texting, that would be WAY more distracting than someone just using their phone.
I would stay away from a theater with this policy out of spite.
You must not have to deal with many texters. Many times have I had to kick the back of somebody's chair because I'm being blinded by their lack of ability to keep themselves from chatting with their friends every minute of every day. It's not about being righteously anal, it's about not wanting to have your $11 experience be ruined by some self-centered asshole.
The Alamo's policies alone make me wish there was one around here that I could patronize, but the fact that they would take an angry person's voicemail and make it into a pre-show video (without trying to appease the hypersensitive by censoring the hilarious overuse of profanity) makes me want to travel to Texas solely to give them my money.
When movie theaters are considerate enough to not steal my time with their advertising drivel at the start of the movie I paid for then I will be considerate enough to turn up on time.
I visit the Drafthouse often. They never run advertisements before their movies, with the exception of previews for upcoming films. To fill the time between movies, they run old cartoons, or kung-fu fight scenes, or whatever wacky reel the projectionist finds entertaining. Never advertisements. For that reason alone, I've stopped patronizing other theaters.