Silver Screen

I’ve been retired a year now. Whilst I’ve no desire to return to paid employment I can’t really say that I feel like a retired person. It’s more like I’ve been on a long holiday and I’m still as young as I was, well, a year ago. Not young then but not old. However, occasionally you do something that reminds you of your advancing years and impending dotage. I, along with Elaine who isn’t even retired yet, went to the cinema. Nothing particularly old about that I hear you cry. Well no. But not many young people go along to a special afternoon screening for the older movie goer at Kilmarnock Odeon called the Silver Screen. Last week they decided to show Rocketman, the musical biopic of Elton John. Elaine and I had not seen this when it was first released and decided that a wet Thursday afternoon was a good time put that right. We reserved our tickets using that new fangled internet thing and jumped in the Volvo (we don’t actually have a Volvo, we are not that old just yet). We were somewhat surprised to find the car park was fairly busy (with Volvos) – perhaps the Silver Screen was a bit more popular than we had anticipated.

We collected our tickets from the machine and immediately headed for Costa Coffee which seemed to be where the Silver Screenies were congregating. Note to selves – get there a bit earlier next time as by the time we reached the front of the queue everyone was getting up and heading for Screen Two. On the way we were collared by a tombola seller raising funds for the local hospice. He obviously knew his market and was doing a decent trade. I won a tub of sweeties. In the cinema it was free seating and older folk have had a lifetime of learning how to elbow other folk out of the way in their quest for their favourite seats. It was filling up rather quickly but we found a couple of seats without much disapproval from the Silver Screeneies whose walking sticks we tripped over as we passed along the row. The clientele was, shall we say, mature. The light from the projector that was showing the adverts reflected off a number of grey mops of hair (including mine most likely) as folk entered the room and took their seats. Silver Screen is an apt name for this weekly event. I don’t remember the adverts being particularly tailored for this audience. I’m sure one of them was for McDonalds and I don’t think that esteemed organisation has yet gone down the road of Happy Meals for senior citizens. Maybe they should. Moderately Content Meals perhaps? The trailers too seemed aimed at a more general audience though I detected a sense of anticipation when the Downton Abbey trailer was played. Soon it was time for the main event.

Never mind the trailers though, I wasn’t convinced Rocketman would be suitable for an elderly audience. It contained a lot of bad language, quite a bit of drug misuse and, not to put too fine a point on it, a significant amount of gay rumpy-pumpy. Do old people approve of that sort of thing? I was half expecting a round of tutting and well I nevers but to their credit the oldies remained stoic and any disapproving utterances were kept to a level that was drowned out by the sound of classic Elton John tunes. Then again, the Silver Screenies were not that much older than me. Elton himself if 72, round about the apparent age of your average the Silver Screenie. Whilst none there present are likely to have lived the life of excess that Elton did, they are hardly likely to be ignorant of such matters. They could also have been big fans of the music. I guess I think seventy somethings should all be like my Grandad who liked Nana Mouskouri, but he’s been dead for forty years; today’s grandads are much more likely to be into Elton than the bespectacled Greek chanteuse. The movie going experience was much the same as any normal trip to the cinema: people chatting during the quiet bits, sweet wrappers crinkling annoyingly and even someone using their smartphone to conduct a Whats App conversation and take a photo of the action. The fact they left the flash on perhaps said something about their age though.

So what did I think of the film? I liked it. Not as much as Bohemian Rhapsody, the biopic of Queen and Freddy Mercury of last year, but it was a good, well produced movie. I’m not going to do a full review of it other than to say I really hope my kids feel better about me than Elton obviously does of his parents. As for the Silver Screen, will we be back? Assuming they are showing a film we want to see and are at a bit of a loose end on a Thursday afternoon then hell yes. Tickets are only three quid each and we oldies love a bargain.