Expelled … by ear-splitting cacophony

Sam B. writes:

Have you gone to see the Ben Stein “Expelled”? Released April 18. If not, I urge you to. I’ve been talking to everyone about it, especially college kids—in malls and fast food restaurants. They’re starved for the other side of the evolution debate, and this movie poses (open-ended) questions by distinguished (mostly) men of science. The movie’s premise re the whole debate: it is not, as the scientific establishment would have it, a case of science vs creationism; it is establishment science vs questing, questioning science, the latter reflecting what science has always been—the questioning of “eternal (scientific) truths” that have turned out to be anything but.

LA replies:

I went to see it Friday at something called the Regal E-Walk 13 Theater on West 42nd Street, the only venue where it was still playing in Manhattan, but I didn’t see the movie. I left the theater after 20 minutes. It is a theater designed like a torture chamber, with surround-sound speakers turned up to a volume louder than the loudest sound you’ve ever heard in your life. I would recommend against seeing any movie at any Regal Theater. I’ll wait to see it on DVD.

Bob Vandervoort writes:

Just saw your post. Sorry the theater was less than satisfactory. Did you mention to any of the ushers the problem with the sound? They’re usually helpful with things like that. Anyway, hopefully it will come out on DVD soon.

LA replies:

Oh, yeah, I did what I could, went outside, complained, they said they were working on it, but it remained unbelievably loud and they said this was as low as it could go.

The theater was set up with several huge speakers along the sides of the theaters, spaced just a few feet from each other. I never saw anything like it. The voices would come from the direction of the screen, and sound effects (I won’t call it music) came from the side speakers, overwhelmingly loud. But even when there was only human voice, it was set staggeringly loud.

I’m going to complain to the City about this theater.

Bob Vandervoort replies:

That reminds me of the time I went to see the last installment of “The Lord of the Rings” at a theater in Chicago. The noise was way off, there was this loud whine overpowering the movie sound. In addition, the projection was off and the picture didn’t look right. Amazingly, many people stayed in their seats passively. I was one of the few who got up and stormed out. (This was opening weekend! And they were ruining this epic movie I had looked forward to seeing!). Out in the lobby was the manager handing out refunds to the few who stormed out of there.

A few months later, the theater was sold to a different (and better) chain—Kerasotes. (I think the theater where I had this problem may have been a Regal as well, but I’m not 100% sure, sounds familiar though).

LA replies:

The great majority of people are sheep who will accept anything rather than “make a fuss.” I can’t tell you the number of times when I’ve been in a train or some other public conveyance and someone is speaking very loud on a cell phone and I ask them to lower their voice and they do so, and then someone else sitting near that person thanks me. And I say to them, “Well, you know, you could have asked too.” That didn’t even occur to them.

Sam B. writes:

Newsmax reported that Yoko Ono and her sons are suing Ben Stein et Co. for using a (fair use) few bars from John Lennon’s “Imagine.” She also, as part of the suit, wants it shut down. The left’s (Orwellian) idea of free speech.

The online reviews of the film have been virtually unanimous—no surprise—in their virulent negativity. BUT … it has stirred up a hornet’s nest of online discussion, some blogs going on endlessly with ad hominem attacks, tho in all fairness, some attempt to give the film some due credit for stirring things up.

If the film were as horrible as its detractors claim, then why so much sound and fury about how mediocre all aspects of it were—the script, the music, the poor comedy that wasn’t very funny, Ben Stein, who bore the brunt, etc.?

The film raises a big question: how life began? No one had the Big Answer—although several made “scientific” stabs at it: i.e., the first cells formed on crystals!!.Others, brought here “seeded”—I believe it waws called “panspermia”—from other galaxies. And they scoff at “creationism.” Caution: I am no biologist or any other kind of scientific mind, so much in the discussion escaped this non-scientific mind.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at April 27, 2008 11:16 PM | Send