Tales From The Cheap Seats

Love it or leave it, one of the integral elements to a successful film-going experience is who goes to the film with you. Whether it's the people you camped out with to see Blast From The Past or the guy who snored so loud during Schindler's List that he had to be asked to leave, we want to hear your best and worst audience stories. Mr. Pants kicks off this inaugural voyage. Send your stories to infiniteslack@pacificnet.net.

Part 1 Of An Ongoing Series

It was 1985, and the most anticipated movie of the year was making its Midlothian, VA premiere at the Litchfield Theatres' Midlothian Cinemas. Due to careful planning, my friends and I were able to secure a whole mess o' tickets to Rocky IV. Now, at the time, I had not seen the previous three Rocky movies, but I did not let this deter me. Needless to say, in Midlothian, the volatile combination of a Rocky movie fused with Cold War overtones, you have got yourself a sold out 7:30 showing. And the people in the audience were not casual movie goers who happened to be over at the Putt-Putt (or affectionately known as Slut-Putt) playing video games, mini-golf, or skee-ball, oh no. These people in the audience were waiting for this ever since Rocky took Clubber Lang to town and the credits began to roll. They were salivating. Pump up the soundtrack complete with hit makers Survivor and the Godfather of Soul and montages a-plenty and you have several hundred people with the last name of Shifflett ready to explode. The climatic fight began and you would have thought it was the first round of Hagler-Hearns. People were yelling and cheering....and sometimes they did it....standing up. Yes, people were up out of their seats, urging Rocky to beat that Commie's ass. I don't know who officially won the fight since the rows of people seated behind me were clamoring over the seats to, as one of them said, and I swear this is true, "HAY! Let's git closer to tha ring, hi-dammit!" But I was told later who won (if you haven't seen Rocky IV, stop reading): Rocky won.

Rock IV: The Comeback

Rocky III: What He Had To Come Back From