My brother says that he walked out of Tales from Earthsea about two thirds of the way through. This is a concept that I find quite alien.
My friend Phill tends to give up on DVDs if he doesn’t like them in about ten minutes. My cousin Jonathan generally gives a movie he watches at home the chance of half of its running time to prove that it is worth his while. This seems like a decent enough deal. I have a hard enough time watching DVDs in the first place, so if I fear something won’t be worthwhile I generally won’t stick it in my player.
Yet walking out of a cinema seems somehow wrong to me. In theory, one would have spent money on a DVD as well, but it’s not the same level of commitment as going into a cinema, sitting down and then enduring a movie with an audience. If I was a walker out, I would not have endured Rampo Noir to completion. As it stands, I’m surprised I managed to consume the entirety of Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai on DVD at a friend’s house. Then, I’m a movie masochist: I’ve seen 300 twice.
What I want to know is, what kind of person walks out of a movie? Are they serial walkers? What does the movie have to do to offend them so? Does it have to suck, or does it have to simply mention sucking off? What is the mentality? The only analogous situation I can think of was the Popcorn Taxi for Fast Food Nation last year when people walked out of the Q&A session because it was getting late and Linklater was being stubborn in his boringness.
The human condition calls for all things to come to an end: can you leave a movie hanging?
Image: Google Top Ten for “Cinema Walk Out”. I don’t know either.
