Well who doesn’t love the movies? Overly priced tickets, food, popcorn over the seats and people who use phones yay. We can almost honestly say we’ve all been to the movies at least once in our lifetime. The people we go with and who we are seated around each influence our judgement of the movies. It is in fact, a public space. To welcome a more thorough understanding of movies as a shared space, I’ve interviewed my mum Mary once again. Her perspective of movies back in the mid-70’s is quite interesting, in order to see how people undertook the whole cinema outing.

Firstly, Torsten Hagerstrand’s 3 time- spatial constraints will help guide my differentiation between movie attending then and now.

His 3 constraints are:

  • Capability constraints– limitations on the activity of individuals because of their biological structure or the tools they can command.
  • Coupling constraints– limitations that define where, when, and for how long, the individual has to join other individuals, tools, and materials in order to produce, consume, and transact (Naess, P 2006).
  • Authority constraints– limitations on the domain or time-space entity within which things and events are under the control of a given individual or a given group.

(Corbett n.d.)

My body of writing will highlight how movie going back in the 70s and now highlight where these three constraints may come into practice.

Mum described movies being quite an outing when she was growing up. Being one of 9 made it quite impossible for them all to go to the movies together.  As one half of the family was able to go to the movie, the other half would have to stay at home (Capability). Back then it was important to dress accordingly in their nice clothes. Mum loved sporting her knee length skirt with her t-shirt tucked in and white sandals (Funny how trends come back right). Being Italian, the family thought it was important to fit into western culture, and the way they dressed was how they tried to camouflage into society (Coupling). Nowadays there’s less thought given in what to wear, and it’s not such an important “event”. Jeans and thongs are quite appreciated where I come from (Bit over the top for some actually).

Not only dress was important to note, but also money. Back then it was much cheaper for families to go to the movies, with less time constraints (Authority). The average ticket price in the 70s was around $3.50 whereas now we can spend well over $20 for just one ticket (Screen Australia 2014).

Now, because of women working and the costs of things making people start work earlier, there’s less time for families to attend the movies all together (Coupling) (MPAA 2012).

It’s funny because back then they had less choice with their movies and seating arrangement. Though now, there’s so many “classes” that you could go to. Gold Class, V-Max, normal, the whole aura of the movie theatre tends to have changed (Lowbrow 2014). It’s not just for a social outing anymore, now it’s more of a way to be with while being away. (Cork 1995).

She reflected that it was quite funny, yet embarrassing back when they went movies, because the Aussie kids would be allowed to buy their food from the cinema, but mums family thought the food was rubbish and overpriced so ensured they brought home packed food (Some things never change).

When it was just the kids going, since mum was too young to drive, she’d need to convince one of the older ones to take her. So, naturally as siblings do she’d need to bribe them somehow. Doing their chores or simply taking the blame was a good enough swap. (Coupling, Capability)(Naess, P 2006).

Back in those days theatres weren’t just part of the streetscape, it was also an important part of social life (Cork 1995). This was one of the only times mum would go out, and do something away from working or being at home. Nowadays there’s a myriad of options. Going to the movies was an experience back then. Time and thought was put into what to wear, when to go, what to see. But all that’s changed now. Technologies triumph in today’s world has influenced the move going outing full throttle. Especially with the introduction of Netflix, a legal way to watch an abundance of movies on our high speed internet’s, at a low cost, in the comfort of our own home (Authority).

As you can see, movie going over time has made some dramatic changes. The economy of the world and influences of technology have been major impacts in how people attend movies and why. It’s important to note, that movies have long been a form of outing, and even though it may not be as formal and exciting now as it used to be, it’s still important tool in connecting people and history.

 

References

Corbett, J n.d., Torsten Hagerstrand: Time Geography, accessed 1/10/2015, http://www.csiss.org/classics/content/29

Cork, K 1995, Cinema as “Place”: The case of the picture theatres in a group of towns and villages in the Central West of New South Wales, accessed 1/10, 15, http://www.rossthorne.com/downloads/CINEMA_AS_PLACE.PDF (Found this one of the more interesting reads)

Lowbrow, L 2014, 5 Ways Going to the Movies has Changed Since the 1970s, accessed 1/10/15, http://flashbak.com/5-ways-going-to-the-movies-has-changed-since-the-1970s-24946/

MPAA 2012, Theatrical Market Statistics Report, accessed 1/10/15, http://www.mpaa.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/2012-Theatrical-Market-Statistics-Report.pdf

Naess, P 2006, Urban Structure Matters, Residential Location, Car Dependence and Travel Behaviour, Routledge.

Screen Australia 2014, Audiovisual markets: Cinema, accessed 1/10/15, http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/research/statistics/cinemaboxofficeprices.aspx