TMP - Did You Know the Movie Started?

[Firebird]

Turner Classic Movies often runs "prestige" films (e.g., My Fair Lady, Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago) with an overture, intermission, entr'acte, and exit music. They don't make these up, so they're presumably part of the actual release materials. However, they always provide their own screen graphic. (A blank screen might lead a viewer to think that his reception or his set has failed.) All of this suggests that these were audio-only for theatrical runs.

Indeed, as I said upthread, overtures were to be music only in the theater, because the curtains were closed. The graphics we typically see (on the older releases anyway, newer blurays eschew the graphics in favor for black screens with a simple title on it) have been added by Warner Bros., Sony, etc for the home video release. The graphic wasn't added by TCM, they just play what they're given when they license the films to air.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Some films even had an intermission, such as 2001*.

* Right after Bowman and Poole try to conceal a conversation from HAL. That's when hippies would drop acid to prep for the stargate sequence.

Pretty sure that's on my DVD...well, not the acid-dropping....

Friday December 7th 1979

DRINK!

 

[Lance]

I think it was really dumb for ST TMP to open on a blank screen, and stay blank throughout the overture. When I first saw it in December 1979, my companions and I had no idea the film had started. We were talking, didn't notice the coming attractions had ended, and then gradually noticed that some easy-listening instrumental was playing. But there was no sense that this was STAR TREK music, to say nothing of the film itself starting up.

I thought the projector was off and the theater was playing Muzak for some reason. Like they were having technical difficulties, and the ten year wait for this movie was about to get a little longer.

Was your theatrical experience anything like that, if you're that old?

WEST SIDE STORY opens with an overture, but there's a visual to go with it. It's a colored silhouette of the NYC skyline that very gradually resolves into a full photo. It works. TMP didn't work.

I don't know if the blank screen was an artistic decision, or a case of having no time and money left to do anything visual. I would assume it was the latter, as the blank screen seems like an insane decision-- except that the state of Gene Roddenberry's artistic judgement (and his over-the-top desire to make STAR TREK understated, high-brow, and classy) by 1979 was pretty bad.

The problem isn't with the overture, but with the screen being blank. Most movies with overtures used to have a caption slide reading 'OVERTURE' or something which got shown while the music played, but TMP didn't do that on it's original release. The Director's Edition (at least) adds a visual ''starfield'' to the overture, but ideally the original release should've had something like that too.

 

[Firebird]

The problem isn't with the overture, but with the screen being blank. Most movies with overtures used to have a caption slide reading 'OVERTURE' or something which got shown while the music played, but TMP didn't do that on it's original release. The Director's Edition (at least) adds a visual ''starfield'' to the overture, but ideally the original release should've had something like that too.

Nope. The Overture title cards were only added for home video release. In the theatrical setting, the curtains were drawn shut over the screen, and the film reel only had blank leader with the music soundtrack over it - no visuals at all.

 

[Indysolo]

Not quite sure if this is a joke or not, but as I said upthread, this was never the case with TMP's overture. It was intentionally supposed to be dark. The starfield was an addition made for The Director's Edition.

That's my understanding as well. The starfield is an artifact created for the DVD era.

Because director Robert Wise wanted something on-screen. This was his decision.

Neil

 

[Therin of Andor]

That's my understanding as well. The starfield is an artifact created for the DVD era.

Correct. The VHS of the "Special Longer Version", IIRC, had a plain blue screen for the duration of the overture.

I do recall the overture in 1979, but originally had no idea it was actually attached to the front of the movie. The gorgeous cinema that showed TMP in Sydney, Australia, was Art Deco-inspired, with lots of curtained corridors - and they piped "Ilia's Theme" through the corridors' sound system for the run of the film!


Paramount Theatre, Sydney - inside by Ian McLean, on Flickr

 

[BeatleJWOL]

Not quite sure if this is a joke or not, but as I said upthread, this was never the case with TMP's overture. It was intentionally supposed to be dark. The starfield was an addition made for The Director's Edition.

That's my understanding as well. The starfield is an artifact created for the DVD era.

Because director Robert Wise wanted something on-screen. This was his decision.

Neil

And makes perfect sense for a home video release. Just a shame it muddies the waters for those who didn't experience it when it was new.

 

[Maurice]

Back to West Side Story, the graphic accompanying the overture there is a great abstract Saul Bass design with a constantly shifting color under it that leaves a lot of people not knowing what they're looking at until it resolves itself after the title appears. (The only example I could find of it that isn't a rip with the music sped up is on this page. Click the video midway down and go fullscreen to get the full effect. )

 

[JE Smith]

I saw it theatrically in my small-town (pop. less than 2000) theater -- with no curtain. I honestly don't remember sitting through the overture; it certainly would have seemed odd at the time for a young viewer, and I think I would have remembered it. I think it's a fair bet that many small-town projectionists snipped this bit out so they could go home a few minutes earlier. :/

 

[Campe]

That's my understanding as well. The starfield is an artifact created for the DVD era.

Correct. The VHS of the "Special Longer Version", IIRC, had a plain blue screen for the duration of the overture.

Blue screen? My copy had a black screen. I remember it well.

 

[GSchnitzer]

It took me about five seconds until I realized: "Cool! An Overture--just like 2001.

 

[Elder Knight]

A blue screen would mean that V'ger's OS had crashed.

 

[golddragon71]

I don't really recall it all that Much. I know for a fact that i saw Star Trek the Motion Picture in the theater but I really don't recall the overture until I got the movie on VHS in '86 when i went from casual fan to full-on Trekkie. at that point I thought there was something wrong with the tape as i wasn't seeing anything on the screen while Ilia's theme was playing. It wasn't until I made the transition from VHS to DVD that I started seeing the stars moving off. Until now, I had always assumed that the stars had always been there I just hadn't noticed (I always fast forwarded the tape through to the main Credits without paying attention)

 

[Amaris]

Being that I wasn't alive yet when TMP came out, I saw it on TV. I remember thinking the screen on the TV had gone out. I mean, it sounded like an overture, but I wasn't sure. I stopped the tape, checked to make sure something wasn't missing, shrugged my shoulders and put it back in. Two minutes later, there we go!

 

[Seven of Five]

My first time was on TV too. Young me was confused, and I did think something was up. And of course by the time the DE DVD came out I was a bit more savvy.

 

[RandyS]

That's my understanding as well. The starfield is an artifact created for the DVD era.

Correct. The VHS of the "Special Longer Version", IIRC, had a plain blue screen for the duration of the overture.

Blue screen? My copy had a black screen. I remember it well.

So did mine.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

Count me in as one who enjoyed the overture then and now.

I also want to echo Maurice: I've watched TMP on videodisc (remember those?) and recall seeing it in the drive-in as well as a walk-in. That overture didn't have the starfield until the Director's Cut, which was an improvement on the effects...but still couldn't do much for the actual script.

Still, that overture gives me goosebumps. It's part of my late 70s/early 80s sci-fi nostalgia.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Blue screen? My copy had a black screen. I remember it well.

So did mine.

I think I'm misremembering my US penpal's copy. It must have been the "no signal" screen of her monitor that was vivid blue, then the overture and black leader comes in.

Although, I'm also red/green colourblind and, as a kid, could see vibrant green grass on b/w transmissions of cartoons in the 60s and early 70s because colour TV came our way in 1975.

 

[TheGoodStuff]

Except that TMP was all of that. It's in many wasy the best of the Trek movies - elegant, considered, intelligent and beautiful.

I just had to quote this. I have defended TMP here a lot and this post made me smile. The movie is Trek's epic and I would take it over the shallow Abrahms nonsense we get now any day of the week. It is a grand, sprawling, intelligent adventure that is shot beautifully.

 

[Galileo7]

Except that TMP was all of that. It's in many wasy the best of the Trek movies - elegant, considered, intelligent and beautiful.

I just had to quote this. I have defended TMP here a lot and this post made me smile. The movie is Trek's epic .... It is a grand, sprawling, intelligent adventure that is shot beautifully.

Agree.