by Vadim Rizov
I saw
Tron: Legacy as God intended: in the earth-shaking confines of the IMAX Theater at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum (
“The Best IMAX Theater in the World”). Opened in 1999 at a cost of $80 million, the Museum stands tribute to the late veteran politician, an eminently practical good-ol’-boy who, as Wikipedia notes, “had a total of five marriages, although some of them were repeats. He stopped drinking in 1981 and remained active with Alcoholics Anonymous for the remainder of his life.” Bullock was actually a well-regarded politician even by liberals—he enacted water conservation and equal employment laws—but definitely a “character” who could only survive in Texas politics. His “colorful stories”
include yelling “Show some leadership, you black motherfucker” at a senator, showing a reporter a gun to demonstrate precisely how much he disliked him, et al. Three posters hang from the building’s side, summing up “The Story of Texas” (which has shown all day daily since opening) in three surprisingly honest words: land, opportunity, identity.
Surely few of the advocates for memorializing Bullock could have imagined how profitable that 400-seat IMAX theater could be; with many, many more IMAX 3D blockbusters to come, as a profitable attraction the IMAX theater may yet supplant the “Story of Texas” presentation that the theater really lives to show (everyday, non-stop). The screening was technically immaculate, free of children screening and patrolled by the law enforcement authorities of the state (who own the museum, natch), marred only by a seemingly endless, cutesy introduction from a staffer running his voice through a filter to sound like a computer (“Greetings programs,” etc.) and ending directions about proceeding to the exits (overriding, temporarily, Daft Punk), the screening was calmly managed, quietly attended by a sell-out crowd and a total blast. Seeing the sky-high film in all its deafening glory was surely the only way to go about it (as a staggering 24% of people who paid to see it in the US this past weekend
decided).
Continued reading Notes on a Legacy…
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Credit: GreenCine Daily