This week’s Loaded Question was inspired by this tweet:
They got the big game on at the hotel bar pic.twitter.com/fAiYnqniS0
— Logan Dean (@L__Dean) March 19, 2023
(Screengrab here for when Twitter dies.)
The “big game” on that bar TV is, naturally, the Boonta Eve podrace in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
I retweeted that with this comment:
I’ve often dreamed of giving up film criticism and just opening a pub that shows movies (instead of sports) on big screens.
Because I’m so tired of how sports dominate our society. Imagine if the arts or science news got 20 minutes to itself every hour on the news channels! I’m happy for people to enjoy their sports, but I’d love it if there were some convivial public spaces that didn’t always have a game on.
Would you go to a pub or bar that showed movies (instead of sports)?
Of course, I imagine that a movie pub would mostly show classics, ones that people know by heart. This would not be a venue for quiet appreciation of a new movie watched in the silent dark, but more of a communal bonding type of experience. I would love to hang out in pub where people cheered when, instead of a goal or a home run was scored, the Dread Pirate Roberts announced, “I am not lefthanded either.”
What do you think? What movies would you like to watch in such an atmosphere?
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Yes’m, I would. I hardly ever go to bars anyway, and anything that might be a compelling reason to do so would have to compete with my animosity for noise and TV sports (except for the Olympics.) Now, I’ll tell you what I thought when you say maybe arts and sciences up on those screens: dance – ballet in particular, since you don’t get to see it on TV hardly at all, but jazz, tap (Astaire and Kelly movie clips!), folk (I love me some Indian classical dance). This is something you can watch but not have to stay all the way through. Likewise some of the nature videos; dog skills competitions; Neil deGrasse Tyson videos (and space launches.) Lotsa stuff.
If “bar or pub” means “tea room,” I’ll be there.
do you mean like Alamo Drafthouse?
the seats each have a “school desk” and you can get dinner and drinks served at your seat while you watch the movie.
Nah, that’s a movie theater that serves food and drinks. Excellent idea, but different vibe.
Ugh, can’t stand tvs blaring sports (or, just as bad, tv news) in bars. Never the vibe I’m looking for.
I was delighted to find a theater bar near me in Brooklyn called Syndicated, which is like an Alamo Drafthouse with a theater with little tables and meal service at your seat, but it also has a big open bar area with a bunch of screens for more casual viewing. The bar has regular weekly showings of The Bachelor and Ru Paul’s Drag Race, but other than that it seems to be mostly classic movies on. They do sidewalk screenings of fun, crowd-pleasing movies in warmer weather, too. Great spot.
I don’t think that only classics would work; the pub could also show the buzzy new film or TV show that everyone can react to together, which would also be a communal bonding experience. There’s a place in Chicago called the Burlington Bar that used to show Game of Thrones episodes as they aired; the patrons’ reactions were filmed and posted on YouTube and it looked like a lot of fun. (Here’s their absolutely awesome reaction to the climax of “The Long Night.”) The bar has since branched out to other geeky shows like The Mandalorian, and the patrons seem to enjoy coming together specifically to watch the show. I’d love to have more places like that.
Great idea. I suppose that would be akin to a bar or pub showing a regular in-season game versus a World Cup match or the Super Bowl.
Yes!!! It’d need big fat bright subtitles!