SECRET MOVIE CLUB presents
35MM AUTEUR WAR FILMS! Saturday, September 11, 2021
LOCATION: The Million Dollar Theater Movie Palace, 307 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90013
*Please note audience members who purchase tickets for BOTH FEATURES can purchase an all-day pass and park at the Grand Central Market Parking Garage (corner of 3rd & S. Hill Street). Please purchase a $6 all day parking passes via our ADD-ONS. We will hand you your parking pass at the screening.
**We will open doors 1 HOUR before each screening time so audience can have plenty of time to enter, maintain 6 feet of distance, pick up or buy concessions/drink, and get their seats. We will have staff who will help guide and direct audience to their seats.
Audience staying for both features will be given RESERVED SEATS that will be good the entire day.
11am SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1998, dir by Steven Spielberg, Paramount, 170mns, 35MM)
3pm WAR OF THE WORLDS (1999, wri/dir by Terence Malick, Fox, 170mns, 35MM)
IMPORTANT NOTES:
***ALL GUESTS WILL BE TAKEN THROUGH PROTOCOLS PRIOR TO ENTERING THEATER SO EVERYONE CAN HAVE A FUN AND SAFE TIME.
****Please still bring phone photos or actual vaccination cards and masks so we can continue to make sure we are keeping events as safe and worry free as possible.
HOW TO:
1)PLEASE BRING AND BE READY TO WEAR A PROPER MASK AT ALL TIMES INSIDE THE THEATER. You will be able to eat and drink concessions without a mask. But AT ALL OTHER TIMES, MASKS ARE REQUIRED.
2)PRE-ORDER ANY CONCESSIONS OR MOVIE MERCHANDISE you would like from the additional Add-Ons. You can pick up all concessions & merchandise at our tables in our lobby prior to the screening.
We will be able to sell concessions & merchandise at the theater. But it will make everything much quicker and easier if you pre-order!
3)PLEASE BE AWARE THAT ANYONE EXHIBITING COVID OR FLU LIKE SYMPTOMS AT THE DOOR, WILL BE OFFERED COMPLIMENTARY TICKETS TO A FUTURE SHOW AND ASKED TO RETURN WHEN HEALTHY. So please, if you’re feeling sick, just write us at community@secretmovieclub.com and we’ll offer you complimentary tickets to a future screening when you’re healthy. Let’s all do our part to beat this thing so we can go back to the complete movie going experience!
Today we screen two of the most fascinating auteur driven American war films ever made.
First up is Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan. While it is often now remembered as hewing fairly close to the celebratory way Americans view ourselves in World War II, the actual experience of watching Ryan, especially its opening Omaha Beach sequence and its closing sequence in a destroyed town in France, is anything but re-assuring.
In fact, only Spielberg, working at the height of his powers, could somehow combine such devastating violence, deep character moments, horrific sequences with a deeper sense of why people put themselves in such hell for causes and nations.
Saving Private Ryan is based partially on a true story of a military unit of soldiers sent to save just one soldier after all his other brothers are killed in other battles. The US government doesn't want the Ryan family to lose all their children.
Upset at the seeming favoritism expressed in the mission, Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) and his unit go deep behind enemy lines to try to bring Private Ryan to safety. Along the way, they encounter anti-semitism, struggle with their own ambivalence and cowardice.
Containing two of the greatest sequences Spielberg ever shot, Ryan is an auteur war film of fascinating shades.
We follow Ryan with possibly this programmer's favorite war film (along with Kubrick's Paths of Glory) Terence Malick's stunning The Thin Red Line. Also about World War II, Red Line focuses on the invasion of Guadalcanal in the Pacific Theater and the long drawn out battle with the entrenched Japanese.
Malick had been absent from screens for over twenty years (Days of Heaven had been his second and seemingly LAST movie in 1978) when he shocked everyone by not only returning as writer/director but turning in his most epic, focused, brilliant movie of all.
In true Malick style, we see World War II from the very subjective points of view of the soldiers fighting it. The movie is also a devastating portrait of different philosophical points of view from the deeply spiritual to the deeply practical to the deeply terrified, ambitious, etc.
Filled with wonderful performances, specifically from Jim Caviezel, Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, John Cusack (to name just a few), The Thin Red Line may be THE definitive movie about man's struggle to find meaning in war which often feels destructive, wasteful, and meaningless.
Best always,
Craig Hammill
35mm Secret Movie Club Founder.Programmer
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS FOR OUR IN-DOOR THEATER SCREENINGS
REFUNDS:
We can offer refunds up to 24 hours before showtime. Please request a refund through Eventbrite and we will process ASAP. After that, no refunds. Sorry.
However if something last minute comes up and you can’t make the screening, for whatever reason, just write us at: community@secretmovieclub.com and we’ll offer you complimentary tickets to a future screening.
WHY ARE THE TICKET PRICES HIGHER THAN NORMAL?
In order for us to re-open, maintain health protocols (which includes operating at only 50% capacity), and screen movies on 35MM, we need to temporarily raise our ticket prices. We apologize.
However, if you could look at this as partially helping Secret Movie Club re-open indoor theaters and 35MM film screening, we would be eternally grateful.
As we can increase capacity, we will IMMEDIATELY LOWER ticket prices.
If you could look at this as all of us being in this together, we WILL remember your kindness.
HELPFUL MILLION DOLLAR THEATER MOVIE PALACE PARKING TIPS:
If you are attending all movies on any given day (the double or triple feature), you can go to ADD ONS and pre-order an all day $6 Grand Central Parking Lot Pass. The Grand Central Parking Lot is at the corner of 3rd Street and Hill Street just 1 block from the Million Dollar Theater entrance on 3rd & Broadway.
Folks just attending one feature can also park at this lot and as long as you grab food/drink from GCM you can get a 90 minute validation stamp that will help the cost of parking.
HOW WILL OUR STAFF MAKE SURE THE THEATER IS AS SAFE AS POSSIBLE:
We will have staff in the theater (on both the ground and balcony levels) at all times who make sure everyone is wearing masks and obeying protocols. We will have signage at entrance, markings at concessions, restrooms, etc so folks keep 6 ft distance at all times.
Anyone not observing safe protocols will kindly be asked to leave. On top of this, we’ll be making announcements at the head of each screening to make sure everyone understands the rules & regs!
HOW CAN WE STAY ON TOP OF NEWLY ANNOUNCED 35MM SCREENINGS, EVENTS, ETC?
You can follow us on Facebook: @secretmovieclub35mm or Instagram/Twitter: @secretmovieclub
You can also subscribe to our weekly email newsletter by writing us at community@secretmovieclub.com and using the header “SUBSCRIBE ME TO NEWSLETTER”.
HOW CAN I CONTACT YOU IF I HAVE OTHER QUESTIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS:
You can always email us at community@secretmovieclub.com with any other questions, concerns, thoughts, recommendations.