The way cinema becomes this formative ritual space is really underrated in how we think about leisure. You're right that something fundamental shifted when the lights dimmed and Pearl & Dean dropped - that collective agreement to suspend everything else for 90 minutes. I had a similar experience with Jurrasic Park at 11, and I've been chasing that same immersive high ever since. What made those moments work wasn't just the film quality, it was the uninterrupted attention economy. No phones pulling focus, no second screens fragmenting concentration. The scarcity of those experiences (waiting for week one, physical presence required) actually created more value than today's infinite streaming access.
Thank you for reading, and thank you for such an amazing reply. I tend to compartmentalise and I've never joined together my love of the cinema experience with the current desperation to secure our attention for a second or two.
The main reason I love my local Everyman is because they really try to maintain that focus on the film, that immersive, uninterrupted experience. The multiplex is lost forever, phones are out all the time.
Ah, man, this sounds so good! My brother and I (like all kids our era, I think?) had the BTTF and Indiana Jones trilogies on VHS and from my memory just watched these 6 films on repeat for our entire childhood!
Thanks for the cracking posts this year. Have a great Christmas, mate!
Forgot about Pearl and Dean, the music came straight into my head as soon as I read it !! Love Back to the future!!! Wanted to see it in theatre but never got round to it !
I’m trying to think what the last thing was I saw in the cinema , I was alone !!!! Oh yes it was Dune. I love going to the pictures but don’t really like going alone ! I have plenty of mates but it’s not something we do together.
I think going to the cinema is my favourite solo activity - sitting in the dark watching a film alone is my idea of heaven. Obvious caveat that no one is going to bother a burly skinhead in a darkened cinema, and I appreciate I'm quite lucky in that respect!
I never got to see BttF in the cinema but I saw it when they first showed it on UK telly with my brother. Dad taped it off the telly and we watched it over and over again! (Along with "Airplane!", "Ghostbusters", and "The Goonies. And not so cool - "The Three Amigos"!). It's sooo brilliant! Everything sets in motion so perfectly and then is so deliciously resolved. And yes, you feel quite grown up as a kid when you watch it!
And yes - "Back in Time" is a tuuuuune!!!
I was a December baby too. It's so frustrating - I longed for a fancy dress party and my mum always said no. Once I was a grown up, she explained that December is so hectic for mums with Christmas to deal with that she didn't think it was fair to force coming up with fancy dress costumes on them as well! I had parties at home until I was eleven and had dinner out with my friends at a historical pub - which sounds weirdly middle aged until I point out that pub had red markings on the walls to show the musket holes from the siege during the Civil War!
We could have a whole conversation about shit December birthdays, Helen, but I'd rather sit down and discuss the 80s bangers. I've got to be honest, I'd have Three Amigos in the top tier too, it's ridiculous and stupid but I love it so much. Might have a contender for my favourite sight gag ever!
Such a brilliant post Lewis - I absolutely adore BttF. It's one of the few films that I can watch over and over again. And the Pearl & Dean music - say no more. Going to the cinema simply isn't the same without it. 😎
Thank you Jacqui, glad you enjoyed it. I haven't actually rewatched BttF in a while, but I did (twice) while writing this and it's still so good. Christopher Lloyd is incredible.
The first movie I can recall seeing in a big theatre was Fantasia when I was 5 years old (I think) - I distinctly remember losing it when the dinosaurs showed up and being taken out of the theatre by my Dad - looking over his should at the dinosaurs the whole time! Popcorn was ruined for me when working for a local movie theatre my last summer of High School - never eat the popcorn if you don't see it coming fresh from the popper! Recently, I've had the terrible news that the movie theatre Peanut M$M packages represent 5 individual servings leading to a stern warning from my doctor! BTW - they have always been far too delicious to waste them bouncing off of heads - even if it's the head of that bully from school who will never be able to know it was you in the darkness of the theatre!
I wasn't quite born when this film came out so definitely didn't see it in the cinema. My brothers and I were glued to the TV basically every time it played on cable, though. You do such a great job explaining why it's so addictive!
Thank you so much, on both counts. I rewatched it a couple of times while writing this, and it's a remarkably well made film, pure Hollywood. I quite enjoy both sequels too, a perfect trilogy.
I think it's time - my daughter will be 8 in February and I've been waiting to unleash some classics from childhood and I'm bumping BTTF to the top of the list.
I had a funny/disorientating cinematic upbringing - going to American cinemas on military bases in the UK and Europe, we were subjected to two national anthems which we had to stand up for. I was probably a teenager the first time I went to the cinema in the 'civilian world' and saw ads - we never had any! That means my Pearl and Dean experience was rather limited.
I also remember the first time I had to reserve seats - what fresh hell was this, I wondered.
Two national anthems?! What fresh hell is *that*?!
I think the only thing that would top seeing the 80s classics in the cinema would be sharing them with the next generation. I'm actually jealous of you there.
Get this - it wasn’t just at the cinema, but every day on the military base at 5pm the national anthems would start blaring and everyone would have to freeze and stand at attention until they were done. We started with the host country’s anthem (Spain, Germany, the UK) before the ‘glorious’ (haha) Star Spangled Bloody Banner.
Great post, Lewis. This reminded me of the old ABC in my home town of Falkirk. It was a theatre turned into a cinema so when you went up to screen 1 you’d climb this grand staircase, pull open a giant velvet curtain and open these huge wooden doors. The orchestra pit sat right in front of the screen. It was an amazing place. Long gone and turned into a Wetherspoons now 🙄🤦🏻♂️
Thank you, Dan. So many 'spoons are in old cinemas. I guess at least the building is preserved rather than being completely demolished. Not a great mitigation, though.
The way cinema becomes this formative ritual space is really underrated in how we think about leisure. You're right that something fundamental shifted when the lights dimmed and Pearl & Dean dropped - that collective agreement to suspend everything else for 90 minutes. I had a similar experience with Jurrasic Park at 11, and I've been chasing that same immersive high ever since. What made those moments work wasn't just the film quality, it was the uninterrupted attention economy. No phones pulling focus, no second screens fragmenting concentration. The scarcity of those experiences (waiting for week one, physical presence required) actually created more value than today's infinite streaming access.
Thank you for reading, and thank you for such an amazing reply. I tend to compartmentalise and I've never joined together my love of the cinema experience with the current desperation to secure our attention for a second or two.
The main reason I love my local Everyman is because they really try to maintain that focus on the film, that immersive, uninterrupted experience. The multiplex is lost forever, phones are out all the time.
Ah, man, this sounds so good! My brother and I (like all kids our era, I think?) had the BTTF and Indiana Jones trilogies on VHS and from my memory just watched these 6 films on repeat for our entire childhood!
Thanks for the cracking posts this year. Have a great Christmas, mate!
No man, thank you for your continued support!
When I got to Joshua's 8th birthday cinema trip in your most recent post I so nearly spilled a hint about this - glad I didn't.
Forgot about Pearl and Dean, the music came straight into my head as soon as I read it !! Love Back to the future!!! Wanted to see it in theatre but never got round to it !
Keep an eye on the Prince Charles cinema in Leicester Square, they always show the old classics. Back to the Future is surely in their rotation.
I’m trying to think what the last thing was I saw in the cinema , I was alone !!!! Oh yes it was Dune. I love going to the pictures but don’t really like going alone ! I have plenty of mates but it’s not something we do together.
I think going to the cinema is my favourite solo activity - sitting in the dark watching a film alone is my idea of heaven. Obvious caveat that no one is going to bother a burly skinhead in a darkened cinema, and I appreciate I'm quite lucky in that respect!
Yaaaaaasssss!!!!
I never got to see BttF in the cinema but I saw it when they first showed it on UK telly with my brother. Dad taped it off the telly and we watched it over and over again! (Along with "Airplane!", "Ghostbusters", and "The Goonies. And not so cool - "The Three Amigos"!). It's sooo brilliant! Everything sets in motion so perfectly and then is so deliciously resolved. And yes, you feel quite grown up as a kid when you watch it!
And yes - "Back in Time" is a tuuuuune!!!
I was a December baby too. It's so frustrating - I longed for a fancy dress party and my mum always said no. Once I was a grown up, she explained that December is so hectic for mums with Christmas to deal with that she didn't think it was fair to force coming up with fancy dress costumes on them as well! I had parties at home until I was eleven and had dinner out with my friends at a historical pub - which sounds weirdly middle aged until I point out that pub had red markings on the walls to show the musket holes from the siege during the Civil War!
We could have a whole conversation about shit December birthdays, Helen, but I'd rather sit down and discuss the 80s bangers. I've got to be honest, I'd have Three Amigos in the top tier too, it's ridiculous and stupid but I love it so much. Might have a contender for my favourite sight gag ever!
Such a brilliant post Lewis - I absolutely adore BttF. It's one of the few films that I can watch over and over again. And the Pearl & Dean music - say no more. Going to the cinema simply isn't the same without it. 😎
Thank you Jacqui, glad you enjoyed it. I haven't actually rewatched BttF in a while, but I did (twice) while writing this and it's still so good. Christopher Lloyd is incredible.
The first movie I can recall seeing in a big theatre was Fantasia when I was 5 years old (I think) - I distinctly remember losing it when the dinosaurs showed up and being taken out of the theatre by my Dad - looking over his should at the dinosaurs the whole time! Popcorn was ruined for me when working for a local movie theatre my last summer of High School - never eat the popcorn if you don't see it coming fresh from the popper! Recently, I've had the terrible news that the movie theatre Peanut M$M packages represent 5 individual servings leading to a stern warning from my doctor! BTW - they have always been far too delicious to waste them bouncing off of heads - even if it's the head of that bully from school who will never be able to know it was you in the darkness of the theatre!
I wasn't quite born when this film came out so definitely didn't see it in the cinema. My brothers and I were glued to the TV basically every time it played on cable, though. You do such a great job explaining why it's so addictive!
Happy late birthday, too!
Thank you so much, on both counts. I rewatched it a couple of times while writing this, and it's a remarkably well made film, pure Hollywood. I quite enjoy both sequels too, a perfect trilogy.
I think it's time - my daughter will be 8 in February and I've been waiting to unleash some classics from childhood and I'm bumping BTTF to the top of the list.
I had a funny/disorientating cinematic upbringing - going to American cinemas on military bases in the UK and Europe, we were subjected to two national anthems which we had to stand up for. I was probably a teenager the first time I went to the cinema in the 'civilian world' and saw ads - we never had any! That means my Pearl and Dean experience was rather limited.
I also remember the first time I had to reserve seats - what fresh hell was this, I wondered.
Two national anthems?! What fresh hell is *that*?!
I think the only thing that would top seeing the 80s classics in the cinema would be sharing them with the next generation. I'm actually jealous of you there.
Get this - it wasn’t just at the cinema, but every day on the military base at 5pm the national anthems would start blaring and everyone would have to freeze and stand at attention until they were done. We started with the host country’s anthem (Spain, Germany, the UK) before the ‘glorious’ (haha) Star Spangled Bloody Banner.
Great post, Lewis. This reminded me of the old ABC in my home town of Falkirk. It was a theatre turned into a cinema so when you went up to screen 1 you’d climb this grand staircase, pull open a giant velvet curtain and open these huge wooden doors. The orchestra pit sat right in front of the screen. It was an amazing place. Long gone and turned into a Wetherspoons now 🙄🤦🏻♂️
Thank you, Dan. So many 'spoons are in old cinemas. I guess at least the building is preserved rather than being completely demolished. Not a great mitigation, though.
Pearl and Dean. It was a banger. I loved that as much as some of the films. Happy Birthday Lewis.
Thanks Margaret, I had a lovely birthday and this little reminiscence actually helped. And yes, Pearl and Dean was an absolute banger!
I love Back to the Future too, Lewis and remember the first time I saw it. A whirlwind of a film.
It's so good!
BTTF 100%. Speed 110%.