Exeunt
When I was young, in the autumn, my parents often took me to university football games. One thing which bothered me intensely as a child was when if, after the beginning of the 4th quarter or so, either team was winning by a large margin, the spectators would begin filing out of the stadium in droves.
Young Matt: Why are all the people leaving?
Young Matt's Parents: They want to get out of here before the traffic gets too bad.
Young Matt: But the game's not over yet.
Young Matt's Parents: Well, they pretty much know how things are going to end, so I guess getting home quickly is more of a priority for them.
Young Matt: But doesn't it hurt the players' feelings?
It seemed really odd to me, after a person had spent all that time dressing up in their team spirit clothes and driving to the stadium and waiting to get in line and paying for a ticket, that that extra 15 minutes was really all that crucial.
For a lot of my life the phenomenon was mostly limited to athletic events, so at least I didn't worry about it too much.
But lately, things seem to have taken a sinister turn.
For a number of reasons I won't go into, I watched the new Indiana Jones movie for the second time this afternoon. Nutshell review: pretty decent movie — not as good as the first and third, but compares favourably with Temple of Doom — you get the idea.
And both times, starting about 15 minutes before the movie actually ended, various people started getting up from their seats and leaving the theatre. I'm not talking about going to the washroom late in the movie because they just couldn't hold it anymore — I'm saying picked up jackets, purses, and everything and left the theatre as a couple or whole family, never to return, and blocking the view of the final scene or two for everyone sitting behind them.
Seriously, at the highway robbery prices you have to pay for a movie ticket these days, doesn't it make sense to stay that extra 5 or 10 minutes to at least see how the movie ended?
In my more film-snobby days, I used to be disdainful of people who ran out as soon as the credits started, but that was nothing in retrospect.
And if you thought it couldn't get much worse than that: two weeks ago we went to the Arts Club Theatre's live performance of "The Producers," a fantastic performance, and I was utterly appalled to see people . . . you guessed it . . . as soon as the musical finale started up, they were gathering up their things and walking out of the theatre. And not just one or two people — a total of probably 20 people by the time the cast took their final bow.
Seriously.
My first thought was, "you'd have thought it was a hockey game or something," but not even hockey players deserve that, really, and in such a small venue, where you could see the performers' heads turn to watch people walking up the aisles? I couldn't believe it.
At risk of sounding like my parents, I just don't know what the world is coming to.
Young Matt: Why are all the people leaving?
Young Matt's Parents: They want to get out of here before the traffic gets too bad.
Young Matt: But the game's not over yet.
Young Matt's Parents: Well, they pretty much know how things are going to end, so I guess getting home quickly is more of a priority for them.
Young Matt: But doesn't it hurt the players' feelings?
It seemed really odd to me, after a person had spent all that time dressing up in their team spirit clothes and driving to the stadium and waiting to get in line and paying for a ticket, that that extra 15 minutes was really all that crucial.
For a lot of my life the phenomenon was mostly limited to athletic events, so at least I didn't worry about it too much.
But lately, things seem to have taken a sinister turn.
For a number of reasons I won't go into, I watched the new Indiana Jones movie for the second time this afternoon. Nutshell review: pretty decent movie — not as good as the first and third, but compares favourably with Temple of Doom — you get the idea.
And both times, starting about 15 minutes before the movie actually ended, various people started getting up from their seats and leaving the theatre. I'm not talking about going to the washroom late in the movie because they just couldn't hold it anymore — I'm saying picked up jackets, purses, and everything and left the theatre as a couple or whole family, never to return, and blocking the view of the final scene or two for everyone sitting behind them.
Seriously, at the highway robbery prices you have to pay for a movie ticket these days, doesn't it make sense to stay that extra 5 or 10 minutes to at least see how the movie ended?
In my more film-snobby days, I used to be disdainful of people who ran out as soon as the credits started, but that was nothing in retrospect.
And if you thought it couldn't get much worse than that: two weeks ago we went to the Arts Club Theatre's live performance of "The Producers," a fantastic performance, and I was utterly appalled to see people . . . you guessed it . . . as soon as the musical finale started up, they were gathering up their things and walking out of the theatre. And not just one or two people — a total of probably 20 people by the time the cast took their final bow.
Seriously.
My first thought was, "you'd have thought it was a hockey game or something," but not even hockey players deserve that, really, and in such a small venue, where you could see the performers' heads turn to watch people walking up the aisles? I couldn't believe it.
At risk of sounding like my parents, I just don't know what the world is coming to.