“A stage actor acts on a stage, but a screen actor doesn’t act on the screen. The stage actor just walks on by himself, but the screen actor is put on there by a projectionist.”
– Christoph Waltz, accepting his SAG award in January 2010
We weren’t meant to have the power of pause, rewind, and fast-forward if you really think about it. When Thomas Edison invented the movies, he wasn’t foreseeing the invention of the BetaMax, the LaserDisc, the VCR, the DVD, the Blu-Ray Player, the free watching on Hulu, the iTunes rental, or the Netflix instant streaming. As far as I am concerned, the movie was never meant to leave the hands of the projectionist.
Which is why I feel compelled, sometimes, to put the remote down and enjoy a movie start to finish without pausing – like it was meant to be enjoyed. It’s like a trip back to the good old days. Sure, we still do it in the theaters, but to go through a whole movie without pauses at home is bringing the theater one step closer to our home.
I regret to say that I often multitask during movies largely out of necessity, because I can’t afford to totally lose as much time as I spend watching movies. But for some movies, I put down everything and just watch. These are the movies that I like to call “the experience movies.” They require you to put away all gadgetry and distractedness so that you can be fully engrossed.
Some movies I would say belong to this list are “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” Do you have a similar list? If so, what’s on yours?
Marshall and the Movies 
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