An AFI Adventure

After years of devotion to the task of watching every movie on The American Film Institute's Top 100 Movies list (not the 10th anniversary edition, mind you.  Don't even get me started on that one), you'd think I'd be keenly aware of the existence of the AFI Silver Center.  Sadly, this realization came just last year due to random Internet surfing.  I thought this summer, then, would be as good time as any to pay a visit.  When my friend Adam and I discovered that Blade Runner (the final cut), which was both on our lists of movies to see, was playing, we soon made plans to brave the Metro and Silver Spring in a highly anticipated cinematic journey to the recently renovated theater.  

First let me say that I am not a fan of those stupid Metro passes.  Mere seconds after I put $10 on my newly printed pass, I was told by the unbudging gate to see the information booth.  We were already slightly panicked at our time constraints, and this did not help one bit.  The manager(?) seemed to think that I was reusing an old pass and tried to make me buy a new one.  After several minutes of more politely saying hell no, I was finally allowed to use the old-fashioned mechanical gate and we rushed to catch the next train.    

As soon as we reached Silver Spring and exited the station, I could see the red and silver AFI sign in the distance, and boy was it ever a welcome sight.  After walking about two blocks and buying our tickets, we finally entered the theater for the first time.  It's actually kind of small by comparison, but it sure is nice.  I think it was the James Dean (circa Rebel without a Cause) cutout, adorned with a black beaded necklace, by concessions that first told me I was in the right place.  

Once we were situated in our very comfortable plush seats, I surveyed the theater.  It was a pretty tiny crowd, as expected, which consisted of maybe four teenagers, including ourselves.  What really struck me though, was that once the film began, there was absolute silence.  And I mean absolute; it was almost as if we were all afraid of distracting Harrison Ford from killing those Nexus 6 androids.  Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the lack of whispering and texting, but it was kind of a surreal experience.

Our return trip wasn't very exciting (except for the scary homeless man who seemed downright enraged that we weren't playing in traffic) so I'll just say that if you get the chance, I'd highly recommend visiting the AFI Silver Center.  I mean hey, if it's good enough for Todd Haynes and David Lynch (as they both insist in the introductory ad), it's gotta be good enough for the rest of us, right?