Customer Reviews

After Sunset: The Life and Times of the Drive-In Theater [VHS]

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"After Sunset: The Life & Times of the Drive-In Movie Theater" has less to do with the history of drive-in movie theaters than it does with exploring the sentimentality of the time of their peak. While the telling the history of the subject and exploring the "essence" of it does not strike a good balance (it does not tell much history--for example, it does not even say who invented the drive-in movie theater) this documentary has its heart in the right place.

Featuring interviews with John Carpenter, Samuel Z. Arkoff, John "Joe Bob Briggs" Bloom, stories of drive-in memories and commentaries create a picture of a bygone era. Director Jon Bokenkamp aslo interviews drive-in owners and others on the road while traveling with a group of friends. They are traveling back to the director's small hometown in Nebraska where he has orgnaized an event for 4th of July, screenings of movies and other various activities at a drive-in movie theater. Albeit this story structure does not hit the right balance of telling the history of drive-ins and capturing their essence in their peak, it is a fun 45 minutes looking at people's unending fascination with outdoor movie theaters--which illuminate this love brightly, like some neon marquees of some remaining drive-ins still standing today.