I couldn't resist heading to the Egyptian theater in Hollywood last night to catch a double feature: The Wild Bunch and The Dirty Dozen. The latter, of course, is one of my top five movies of all time, but I've never been able to see it on the big screen. That has been remedied... sort of. These are playing as part of a tribute to Ernest Borgnine. They've had several other movies I've really wanted to go see this past week, but alas, have to pick and choose, and I chose my favorites over seeing some new movies.
It was a pretty nice 35 mm print of The Wild Bunch. It's actually the first time I've seen William Holden in color on the big screen, and boy, that was nice. His blue eyes are gorgeous on television, but on the big screen? Wow. And Pike Bishop is my favorite character he plays, so it was really neat to see it big screen, for so many reasons. Great experience, with a large audience that was quite vocal and appreciative.
The Dirty Dozen was not a film print, it was apparently a projected blu ray, and... that was disappointing. It didn't seem to fit the screen right, and it just lacked that natural big screen feel that Wild Bunch had. Nonetheless, it was still The Dirty Dozen on the big screen, and I still loved every minute of it. And I had that new problem of what to look at on screen? After seeing the film 50-60 times small screen, suddenly, I had to choose where to direct my eyes. Ack! Who to focus on in a scene? It so made me wish it was playing again, as I'd go right back again to watch different things. Mostly, I chose to watch my favorite character in the film, Franko, played by John Cassavetes. But yeah, I still saw new things, read those signs in the corners, picked up on details you just can't see on DVD. It was great.
It was two long movies that didn't start until after 7:30 pm, and I did not get home until after 2 in the morning, but it was totally worth it.
