A Good Old Fashioned Revival at Westgate

Good news for cinephiles here in Madison – Westgate is continuing to counter-program Sundance and is becoming part revival house.

For the entire week starting this Friday, the four-screen theater, which traditionally shows new independent films, will devote one of its screens to playing two classic Eastwood westerns, "Unforgiven" and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," as part of its new "Great Performances" series.

That series will be followed in early December with a weeklong run of the Audrey Hepburn movies "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "Roman Holiday."

In addition, beginning this week, Westgate is introducing a new "Cult Classics" series every Friday and Saturday night, traditionally the strongest nights for new films. The series will kick off Friday with screenings of the Al Pacino gangster film "Scarface," followed by "The Big Lebowski," "Clerks" and "Pulp Fiction."

I have often wondered why Westgate stopped bringing back some classics. I recall seeing The Bride Over the River Kwai there as well as enduring the greatest thirst of my life as I watched the opening of Lawrence of Arabia. It's too bad it took increased competition from Sundance to get Marcus to bring back some classics. DVDs are great but films are meant to be seen on big screens. Some college kids at the UW were still shitting their pants when Unforgiven was released. Their age is not their fault and they should be given the opportunity to see classic films as they were meant to be seen. Plus older folks like me relish the chance to see them in the theatre once again.

I am glad that Sundance is here, to be sure, but I am disappointed that the theatre didn't take up Hilldale's mantle as far as revivals go. I recall seeing such great films as Ran and The Passenger at Hilldale and had hopes that Sundance would continue the tradition. Alas, it has not been the case thusfar. In fact, Sundance has turned out to be more of a place in which one can be trendy than a place which celebrates cinema. I'd trade all the birch branches for a single movie poster in the lobby. And I would gladly pay a little more to finally get rid of Waitress and bring something like the 50 Years of Janus Films retrospective to town.

Despite all this, Sundance should be praised for its upcoming DocuWeek which takes place the first week of November. I am especially excited about the prospect of seeing Protagonist. I guess I will gladly suffer stuff like Waitress and Juno as long as I also get Stellet Licht and Aleksandra.