I saw saw ALIEN in this cinema in my home town of Birmingham UK in September of 1979 on the first day of key city release. In those days new movies officially opened on a Sunday In the UK (strange!) and I was there for the first screening in the afternoon. The queue literally went round the whole building. Couldn’t get into that screening so had to wait in line for 2 hrs for the next one. Once in, the atmosphere was electric And the tension fantastic. The jump moments were really effective with a full 2000 seat capacity crowd. This was once the largest screen (Not auditorium) in Europe.. the opening was really effective and that music was so evocative of a serious horror film as opposed to a slasher flick. I also saw The Black Hole, The Empire Strikes Back here around the same time.
But I did see it a few weeks ago on its release and introduced my daughter to it. She loved it and thought it stood up very well and that Robert Shaw should have gotten an Oscar! I thought it looked the best it ever has. And the sound mix was just great.
Although I’d heard of Jaws in 1976 I didn’t see it. In fact my cinema going days had not yet gotten into gear. But at school I do remember a friend and avid movie goer saying in English class (he sat behind me)that he’d just seen something called Star Wars (winter of ‘78)and that it was even better than Jaws which he saw a couple of years earlier. He saw them both a what was then the premiere theatre in Birmingham, UK – the Gaumont. This had a huge curved screen with a capacity of over 2000. See article here http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/2083. My first visit to this great cinema came in June of 1980 to see The Empire Strikes Back. But I never saw Jaws during its original theatrical run but as a double bill with Jaws 2 in a flea pit called The Globe while at University during the early 80s in Cardiff, UK.
I saw saw ALIEN in this cinema in my home town of Birmingham UK in September of 1979 on the first day of key city release. In those days new movies officially opened on a Sunday In the UK (strange!) and I was there for the first screening in the afternoon. The queue literally went round the whole building. Couldn’t get into that screening so had to wait in line for 2 hrs for the next one. Once in, the atmosphere was electric And the tension fantastic. The jump moments were really effective with a full 2000 seat capacity crowd. This was once the largest screen (Not auditorium) in Europe.. the opening was really effective and that music was so evocative of a serious horror film as opposed to a slasher flick. I also saw The Black Hole, The Empire Strikes Back here around the same time.
But I did see it a few weeks ago on its release and introduced my daughter to it. She loved it and thought it stood up very well and that Robert Shaw should have gotten an Oscar! I thought it looked the best it ever has. And the sound mix was just great.
Although I’d heard of Jaws in 1976 I didn’t see it. In fact my cinema going days had not yet gotten into gear. But at school I do remember a friend and avid movie goer saying in English class (he sat behind me)that he’d just seen something called Star Wars (winter of ‘78)and that it was even better than Jaws which he saw a couple of years earlier. He saw them both a what was then the premiere theatre in Birmingham, UK – the Gaumont. This had a huge curved screen with a capacity of over 2000. See article here http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/2083. My first visit to this great cinema came in June of 1980 to see The Empire Strikes Back. But I never saw Jaws during its original theatrical run but as a double bill with Jaws 2 in a flea pit called The Globe while at University during the early 80s in Cardiff, UK.