By Hank Reineke
The Nitehawk Cinema in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is an
absolute gem.
This was my first visit to the triplex located at 136
Metropolitan Avenue. The cinema is only
a couple of blocks stroll from the Bedford Avenue L subway station and sits mere
minutes from Manhattan’s Lower East Side. As the movie I hoped to catch Thursday night was a special “one night
only, one showing only†screening to begin at 9:30 P.M., I hesitated before buying
my advance ticket and traveling into the city. I live in central New Jersey; far from where Manhattan’s southern end
and Brooklyn meet. I’m 53 years old now and
a workday late night out is getting ever more difficult to recover from. But, in the end, I simply couldn’t pass on this
opportunity to catch the Nitehawk Cinema’s wonderfully wrought presentation of
the fourteenth James Bond film “A View to a Kill†that was released in 1985. Though 007 film retrospectives
aren’t necessarily rare to repertory theater programming, too often fans are offered
only such early Sean Connery-era classics as “Dr. No†and “Goldfinger†as
exemplars. Here was a rare chance to re-experience
- in glorious 35mm and nearly three decades after its original release - Roger
Moore’s rarely theatrically re-screened sign-off as James Bond.
It was the right decision. The Nitehawk is a bountiful oasis for moviegoers
and film enthusiasts. The walls of the
lobby are adorned with both foreign and domestic movie posters and a lengthy plexi-glass
wall display of vintage old-school “big box†and clamshell case VHS tapes circa
the late 1970s and early 1980s. The
cinema itself offers the usual – and sometimes the more unusual - highbrow
art-house films, but there’s also great enthusiasm among programmers for pure
popcorn movies: the weird, the
exploitative, and the guiltiest of celluloid pleasures. Offering a fully stocked bar complete with an
impressive array of draft and bottled beers and other alcoholic (and
non-alcoholic) refreshments, a great selection of hot comfort foods, and the
most delicious hot buttered popcorn I’ve enjoyed in some time (served in a deep
stainless steel bowl), the movie-going experience at the Nitehawk is an
absolute delight. The terraced seating
and plush seats and aisles with ample leg room and courteous attendants are a
refreshing bonus. Best of all, the fans
who gathered to watch Roger Moore stroll and fire one final time into the trademark
gun barrel were simply my kind of moviegoers. There was no one chatting away on cell phones
or sending glowing texts about nothing while the feature was in progress.
The Bond film, which played out before a sold-out and
appreciative audience, was part of the cinema’s on-going series “The Deuce.†Upcoming screenings in the series include “Fight
for Your Life†(1977) and “Wolfen†(1981). “The Deuce,†for the uninitiated, was an
affectionate pop-cartographic nickname for the nostalgically remembered stretch
of aging movie palaces that once populated the area of 42nd Street
between 6th and 8th Avenues. By the early 1970s, this great neighborhood and
glorious entertainment strip became the playground of prostitutes and drug
addicts. The once magnificent theaters were
relegated to playing before houses half-filled with adventurous teenagers,
junkies, the homeless and mental cases.
To some degree, “A View to a Kill†was an odd choice
for inclusion in the series. Any James
Bond, even one of the series less remarkable ones as this one, was, by no
means, atypical of the usual 42nd Street movie fare of the
time. The Times Square theaters more
usually offered 24/7 programming of the cheapest Kung-Fu films from Hong Kong,
the sleaziest and most lurid of low-budget horrors, and the world renowned pornographic
all-nighters. To paraphrase one of the
film’s presenters this evening, “Some people have described 42nd
street as the place where movies went to die. We think of 42nd street as the only place where many of these
movies could have lived.â€
In their opening presentation to the film, organizers
of the screening spun a somewhat dubious tale of “A View to a Kill†having played
as the top-bill of a double-feature program at the notorious Selwyn Theater. The Selwyn, once one of the brightest
fixtures on the strip had, in its final years, fallen prey to disrepair and
neglect. It eventually morphed
unpleasantly into a legendary dank and ghoulish Grind-house with sordid
clientele. I can’t say for certain
whether or not this classy James Bond film actually played a fleapit like the late-stage
Selwyn, but if true it would have mostly certainly been on a subsequent run. My own clippings book reveal that upon its initial
U.S. issue on May 24, 1985, this particular 007 opus had opened two blocks
north of the Selwyn at the more elegant Loews Astor on W. 44th
Street.
Though Moore’s final outing as James Bond is, arguably,
the least successful of his tenure, it remains a very entertaining programmer
throughout. The 35mm print screened was
in fine condition, the color palette still mostly bright but with just enough
black scratches to remind you that you were enjoying a real film as originally
presented. Though few James Bond
zealots would allow their true feelings to show, Bond snow “surfing†through a
phalanx of Russian assassins as the cover version of the Beach Boys’
“California Girls†played on the soundtrack brought about a murmur of amused
giggles and cheers. Time and history
have allowed Moore’s lighter-turn as Bond to enjoy a welcome reevaluation. It was somehow liberating for the devoted 007
fan, for two hours time at least, to put aside the grim and solemn tone of the recent
Craig Bonds and actually have some fun and smile during a James Bond movie
again.
The passing of time changes one’s perceptions as well. In 1985 I thought Moore was beginning to look a bit long-in-the-tooth to play James Bond (he was 57 years old when the film was released). In 2015, with my own physical dissipation ever more obvious in the morning mirror, I thought Moore still looked quite dashing in the film… could he, perhaps, have had one more go in “The Living Daylights� The performance of the gorgeous Tanya Roberts as the frequently beleaguered Stacy Sutton, ace geologist, on the other hand… Well, let’s just say her abilities shine no brighter thirty-years on; she clearly earned that 1985 “Razzie†nomination for “Worst Actress.†Christopher Walken and Grace Jones, while not villains of the caliber of Red Grant and Rosa Klebb, were suitably psychotic and menacing throughout. I had forgotten there’s actually quite a lot of on-screen violence in “A View to a Kill.†Such mayhem was rare for a Bond film of this vintage; violence beyond basic fisticuffs and the odd-gunshot was mostly implied.
Following the screening, the event staff organized a red-ticket raffle where a lucky half-dozen or so went home with some nifty Bond-related prizes: winnings would include the original picture-sleeve 45 rpm record of Duran Duran’s famous theme song from the film, the 12†LP of John Barry’s wonderful soundtrack from the film, several copies of the soundtrack CD, a copy of Starlog from 1985 featuring villainous Grace “May Day†Jones as the magazine’s snarling cover-girl, a copy of Ian Fleming’s Berkley movie-tie paperback of For Your Eyes Only (from which the title “From a View to a Kill†had been excised), and even a promotional poster featuring a tenuous movie-tie between “A View to a Kill†and Whoppers malted milk balls. That’s the one prize I really wanted to win. Nevertheless, the staff of the Nitehawk reminded those disappointed that we were all winners: the blue tickets which we had been given with our admission pass could be surrendered in the bar downstairs for a complimentary creamy pint of beer or ale courtesy of the Bronx Brewery.
Thanks for the great night out, Nitehawk Cinema. I hope we get the opportunity to see more of Moore’s 007 flicks on your schedule in the near future. The ending credits of “A View to a Kill†promised that “James Bond will Return.†Following this wonderful night out at your cinema – you have my solemn promise – so will I.
CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE NITEHAWK WEB SITE