It’s 1957 and Nat Taylor has a problem. He’s still making money on one movie, so he can’t play another movie in his theatre! OOHHHH NOOOOO! But then he realizes he can order the new one if he plays the other movie on his smaller screen. With that problem solved, he invents the multiplex.
I don’t want to diminish the achievements of Nat Taylor, I really don’t, but… is this really worth a Be A Proud Canadian commercial? I mean, sure, I like going to the theatre and having lots of screens so I can choose which movie I want to see on them, but that doesn’t seem… that great… y’know? It really is just… more screens. I consider this achievement less important than, say, education, healthcare, sexual equality, or Superman. When it comes to “national pride”, this isn’t even up there inventing or winning some ridiculous sport. Maybe it is just me and my unmitigated antinationalist boobery, but I don’t see how this is something to be proud of. It’s like being proud that you’re from the same country as the guy who invented bigger bus stops or something.
All that said, I like Nat Taylor as he is depicted in this piece. He’s got an old-timey Charles Foster Kane sort of businessman vibe. I also love his moustache and his cigar. I enjoy the way we start out in black and white (though it really took him fifteen years to realize “I can do more screens”?). I can’t decide if I like or hate the way he first unveils the fifteen screens and then, when questioned, reveals the full twenty-one. What is the point of that little momentary hiding of six screens?
There’s practically no music and no really good quotes (though I think I’ll like referring to foreign films as “this foreign movie” when I have a chance), but all in all, I don’t dislike this one. I’ll give it Three and a Half Pieces of PDR’s Reviewing System Cake.
I wonder if the guy who decided to show porn in a theatre was Canadian.
Wikipedia leads me to believe that was a French thing.
Them French. Nothing but a bunch of perverts.