Intermission
I decided to watch Kingdom of Heaven today, mostly for the simple reason that it features none other than the beautiful Eva Green. You may recognize her as the most recent Bond girl, cast as Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale. In any case, I decided to watch 'Kingdom of Heaven' because I've not seen it in its entirety and because Ms. Green graces the screen with her presence.
It's a fairly long movie. The director's cut is over three hours long, putting it in the runnings with movies like any one of the 'Lord of the Rings' installments. Right in the middle of the movie, at an hour and a half into it, it fades to black and displays the word 'Intermission' in the middle of the screen.
Now… this confuses me. I started this movie knowing full well how long it was. I knew I was in for a long movie; I was fully aware of the amount of time I was committing to. So here I sit, in the comfort of my own home, watching a movie at my own leisure. This isn't a public performance, it's not being put on as a show on Broadway, there are no others in attendance for this viewing. Just me and my glass of orange juice. And animal crackers. Never mind them, they don't talk much.
In any case, I'm free to come and go as I please. I can start, stop, or even — gasp — rewind this movie as I see fit. It's as though I'm a minor deity, with ultimate power over this, my digital entertainment du jour. My media player bows in accordance with my wishes, playing on my command. So why does it feel the need to tell me it's time for an intermission?
Why can't I choose to have an intermission, say, at the one-hour mark instead of the one-and-a-half hour mark? What about the 23-minute mark? Or the two-hour mark? I'm just confused as to why there would be an intermission on a DVD — is that not what the remote control is for? I'm pretty certain there's a pause button here… lemme check… yep. There it is, an intermission button right there on the remote.
I don't get it. Maybe it's just me.
Eva Green picture from PopStarsPlus.com.