Tuesday, April 7, 7:00 pm - The Wizard of Oz
Tuesday, April 14, 7:00 pm - On the Waterfront
Tuesday, April 21, 7:00 pm - Jaws
Tuesday, April 28, 7:00 pm - Do the Right Thing
The Lincoln Theatre is 100 years old this month! That's an entire century of showing movies for our Skagit community!
As part of our Centennial Celebration, we present four "watershed" films from the history of moving pictures -- films that had such tremendous impact that they changed cinema forever!
April 7: The Wizard of Oz
Although not the first film to feature three-strip Technicolor -- that is, using the full color spectrum -- The Wizard of Oz nevertheless may be the single most significant milestone in the use of color in film. Bold, deliberate, and importantly an integral part of the storytelling itself, everything about this movie revolves around its gorgeous, saturated palette -- from the ruby slippers to the Emerald City.
There's nothing like seeing The Wizard of Oz on the big screen!
When a tornado rips through Kansas, Dorothy (Judy Garland) and her dog, Toto, are whisked away in their house to the magical land of Oz. They follow the Yellow Brick Road toward the Emerald City to meet the Wizard, and en route they meet a Scarecrow that needs a brain, a Tin Man missing a heart, and a Cowardly Lion who wants courage. The wizard asks the group to bring him the broom of the Wicked Witch of the West to earn his help.
"The Wizard of Oz will, beyond question, be accorded recognition as a milestone in motion picture history." —Hollywood Reporter, 1939
Directed by Victor Fleming
Starring Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Billie Burke, Margaret Hamilton
United States | English | 1939 | Fantasy, Musical | 102 minutes | G
April 14: On the Waterfont
Marlon Brando redefined "acting" in On the Waterfront -- moving away from the polished, projecting "theatrical acting" that had dominated cinema up until then, his "method acting" style saw him mumbling,pausing, and feeling in a way that audiences were largely unfamiliar with. The movie that surrounds him is no less naturalistic, as Eva Marie Saint and Karl Malden keep up with Brando every step of the way on real, working docks in Hoboken, New Jersey (rather than a Hollywood set).
On the Waterfront firmly established "social realism" in domestic filmmaking with its combination of acting, location shooting, camerawork, and story, going on to win eight Oscars and thus cementing the new style for decades to come.
Dockworker Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) is an up-and-coming boxer until powerful local mob boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) persuades him to throw a fight. When a longshoreman is murdered before he can testify about Friendly's control of the waterfront, Terry teams up with the dead man's sister Edie (Eva Marie Saint) and the streetwise priest Father Barry (Karl Malden) to testify himself -- against the advice of Friendly's lawyer, Terry's older brother Charley (Rod Steiger).
"Indisputably one of the great American films, its power undiminished." —Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
"It's a great film, in no small part due to Marlon Brando’s staggering performance and Leonard Bernstein's blustering score." —Kat Sachs, Chicago Reader
Directed by Elia Kazan
Starring Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger
United States | English | 1954 | Drama, Thriller | 108 minutes | Approved
April 21: Jaws
Steven Spielberg's Jaws was originally scheduled to come out in the prestigious holiday season, but its turbulent production delayed it until the next summer -- a time when, traditionally, studios would dump turkeys and bombs. When Jaws broke box-office records and became not just a smash hit but a bona fide nationwide sensation, it ushered in the era of the summer blockbuster and re-wrote the rules about how movies were made, marketed, and even experienced by audiences.
Still one of the best examples of film as cultural phenomenon, Jaws is always best when watched with a crowd -- you'll feel everyone around you stop breathing as the tension ratchets up...until suddenly, the screaming starts!
When a young woman is killed by a shark while skinny-dipping near the New England tourist town of Amity Island, police chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) wants to close the beaches, but mayor Larry Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) overrules him, fearing that the loss of tourist revenue will cripple the town. Ichthyologist Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) and grizzled ship captain Quint (Robert Shaw) offer to help Brody capture the killer beast, and the trio engage in an epic battle of man vs. nature.
"It is unlikely that anyone who sees this extraordinary new terror-adventure film, which was adapted from Peter Benchley's runaway best-seller of the same name, will ever again frolic in the ocean surf with quite the abandon of more carefree times." —John L. Wasserman, San Fransisco Chronicle, 1975
"Perhaps the most perfectly constructed horror story in our time." —Arthur Knight, The Hollywood Reporter, 1975
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Starring Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Shaw, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton, Bruce
United States | English | 1975 | Adventure, Horror | 124 minutes | PG
April 28: Do the Right Thing
Spike Lee was catapulted into the mainstream with the release of Do the Right Thing, a masterpiece of both eye-popping visuals and social commentary. Without featuring technical innovations or groundbreaking subject matter, the film combines over-the-top style with on-the-ground realism in a way that audiences had never seen before.
Prior to this, "social issue" films tended to be "respectable," if not outright staid. Lee's depiction of an colorful, exciting, and complex Black community paved the way for expressive filmmaking that treated African-American life in ways other than as a background, a stereotype, or an "exotic other" world.
Salvatore "Sal" Fragione (Danny Aiello) is the Italian owner of a pizzeria in Brooklyn. On the hottest day of the summer, a neighborhood local named Buggin' Out (Giancarlo Esposito), becomes upset when he sees that the pizzeria's Wall of Fame exhibits only Italian actors. Buggin' Out believes a pizzeria in a black neighborhood should showcase black actors, but Sal disagrees. The wall becomes a symbol of racism and hate to Buggin' Out and to other people in the neighborhood, and tensions rise.
"In Do the Right Thing Lee has progressed beyond tour de force and experiment; he’s succeeded in wedding subject and form in an aesthetic whole." —Peter Keough, Boston Phoenix, 1989
"An out-and-out masterpiece, Spike Lee's best movie also remains the most penetrating film ever made about race relations in these United States." —Matt Brunson, Film Frenzy
Directed by Spike Lee
Starring Spike Lee, Danny Aiello, Rosie Perez, Giancarlo Esposito, Bill Nunn, John Turturro, Samuel L. Jackson
United States | English | 1989 | Drama, Comedy | 120 minutes | R
Film Prices
Lincoln Theatre Members get $3.00 off on the following prices when buying tickets at-the-door:
General: $12.00
Seniors, Students, and Active Military: $11.00
Children 12 and under: $9.50
All prices include a $2.00 Preservation Fee that goes directly into our capital account for the preservation of the Lincoln Theatre and its programs.