It’s a fairly common scenario that I’m sure all movie goers have witnessed or experienced;
1. Obnoxious kid talks too loudly in cinema, ruining the film experience for nearby patron. It’s gone on too long; something must be done.
2. Unpleasant glances are exchanged with the parent of the child suggesting, “you gonna fix that?”
3. Parent ignores request, instead taking grave offence at the suggestion their child is in the wrong.
4. Situation escalates. Patron stoops to perpetrators level and popcorn is forcibly exchanged across the aisle.
5. Parent intervenes; heated words replace the exchange of popcorn.
6. Patron shoots parent.
7. Patron goes back to watching movie in peace.
Happens all the time, right?
We’ll for 29-year-old James Joseph Cialella Jr. of Philadelphia, it must.
Having done exactly that when he recently went to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Cialella is unlikely to see a movie in a cinema, let alone be disturbed during one, for many years now that he’s been charged with attempted murder and assault. If anything, this is great advertising for Fincher’s film. I don’t read “See Benjamin Button, get shot”. No, I actually read; “A film so good it’s worth getting life sentance to see it in peace!” The fact that Cialella didn’t run after shooting the father, instead sitting back down to continue watching the film (whilst everyone else in the theatre ran for their lives), only reinforces such a message.
So the next time you’re asked to be quiet in a cinema and you’re tempted with the response “oh yeah? What are you going to do about it?”, let Cialella serve as a reminder that they just might shoot you.
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