Movies in Marathon

Marathon has a movie theatre albeit a SMALL theater. It's one movie each week...no choices...that's it. As a result, if you hear anyone in town talking about having gone to the movies and you too have gone to the movies, you have seen the same movie. This week's feature film was District 9 directed by Peter Jackson [think Lord of the Rings and 3 time academy award winner.] It was billed as a sci-fi mock documentary about alien [the Outer Space variety] refugees in South Africa and although the description did not appeal to me, here in Marathon, if you want to go to a movie you see what's showing. It was Sunday, I was bored and felt like getting off the boat for a little while. Since South Florida is currently under a "heat dome" which is pushing the heat index up well past 100 degrees, going to an air conditioned theater sounded like a good way to spend time. I called my friend, Karen, to see if she was game and we headed out for dinner [Lencho's] and a movie. Although large, loud, action-packed, and at times brutally bloody & violent, the movie ultimately had a serious premise paralleling the unjust racial segregation and the cruelties that occurred during the forced evictions of District 6 in Cape Town, South Africa during the apartheid.

My friend, Karen, on the other hand, saw the movie in a totally different light. Things struck her as funny and she laughed...out loud. Throughout the entire movie. And, because laughter is contagious, I laughed, too. We were the only ones. People thought we were odd. But, it made for an entertaining evening that her and I are still chuckling about.

So, District 9, a terrifying depiction of the human condition or, aliens as comedic relief? You'll have to decide for yourself.

It just goes to show, everyone may see the same movie in Marathon yet not see the same movie.