On Friday I saw the new RENT film with my sister and her boyfriend. Fifth (third?) wheel awkwardness aside, it was a pretty decent conversion of the stage musical onto the big screen. Most of the songs were preserved, and most of the Broadway cast was back in their same roles. The chronology was messed with a little bit, and a few songs were changed a little, but for the most part it was just as good as the stage play. Now, it seems like some of the audience wasn’t expecting a film about being a gay, HIV positive “bohemian” in Alphabet City during the late 80s, but hey, them’s the breaks. I’ve always liked the play, even if it is just a typical musical (I like musicals, okay, shut it), and I liked the film pretty well.
I did not enjoy the high schoolers sitting behind us, kicking our chairs, and talking loudly through the first two-thirds of the film until they left, however. They were basically a bunch of Chets and Muffies who’d driven mom’s Range Rover to the theatre and didn’t give two shits about whether or not they ruined the experience for everyone else. Two other patrons were driven away by their boorishness, but I took to cursing at them and making threats. My sister did the same, and Chet’s response was: “I paid for my ticket”.
And here we come to the eternal dillema of externalities: It is true that Chet did, indeed, pay the same $6.00 that the rest of us did, and were all movie theatres equipped with headphones for each patron his statement would be correct enough, but it isn’t. Who’s right is more important: Chet’s right to talk, or my right to enjoy the movie in piece without having to listen to Chet prattle on about how cute Muffy looks tonight?
It seems like my right to not be disturbed supercedes his right to chat, but I doubt Chet sees things this way. In an ideal world they’d have to offer to pay me to talk, and if Chet had coughed up $6.00 for me I’d have gladly let him chat away. Actually, I’d have just left and seen the movie some other time. Chet, of course, would likely want to be paid to shut up.
Now, in movie theatres the policy is that patrons should be quiet enough that other folks aren’t disturbed, so obviously Chet was in the wrong. It would be nice, however, if the owners of the theatre cared enough to enforce their own policies.
