When I travel, if I happen to find myself with a bit of downtime, I sometimes try to catch a film (this especially comes in handy if I’m travelling alone). One small sliver of interest comes from seeing “how the other half lives” – maybe I’ll find that the pre-show routine is different…maybe better food…sometimes I even happen upon a sweet little oasis of cinema. Now I realize the silliness of spending precious time in cities like New York or Seattle watching movies might seem like a missed opportunity, but sometimes I just gotta go where my feet take me. Just so happens, that my feet often take me to the movies.

Around ten days back, I was in Washington D.C. On my last night there I’d just finished an amazing dinner, polished off by a stop at an ice cream stand, and started making my way back to the hotel. As I was approaching Dupont Circle, my ears perked up to a familiar sound. It was unmistakeable…mostly because it’s a sound I tend to deplore. Somewhere in the neighbourhood, somebody had just popped in a Warner Brothers dvd and had the volume up very loud.

Without hesitation, the light bulb in my brain went off. “Outdoor screening” I thought, and I started looking around the neighbourhood for the source of what I’d just heard. The search didn’t take long as I was soon able to see a crowd gathered in the park at the centre of Dupont Circle; most were perched on the fountain’s edge, and many had started sprawling on picninc blankets on the grass. They were all facing a respectable sized screen, so with no better plans for the night I decided to sit for a while and see what my luck might bring me.

The opening act – the culprit behind the WB chime that brought me there – was a selection of Bugs Bunny shorts. Quite a good choice to get the crowd warmed up if you ask me…it reminded me of the golden age of cinema when features would often be preceded by cartoons and newsreels. While I was enjoying watching Bugs match wits with Daffy, Yosemite Sam, and one brazen bull, my mind was racing. What feature film could possibly be coming up? (Note to self: Next time pay the extra cash and turn on my iPhone’s roaming feature).

I soon got my answer as a helpful volunteer started handing out leaflets – it was Spielberg’s classic E.T., a personal favorite. The revelation gave me an even bigger grin as I realized that I’d never seen the tale of the beloved alien botanist on a big screen. So I tried to get comfy (no easy task with no blanket, and nothing to recline on) and enjoy. Some small problems were at hand though.

The first glitch game from the programming: They decided to show the 2002 redux version for reasons unknown. The differences between the original and the redux are subtle, but noticeable if you’re like me and have the darned thing committed to memory. Namely, the pace feels off which is to be expected with a handful of scenes added in and more glimpses of the government agents skulking about on E.T.’s trail. That said, I’m happy to have been party to any version screened, so I can’t bitch too loudly.

The other little glitch was harder to ignore. E.T. is a surprisingly dark film (think about all the scenes at night or in the dim of Elliott’s room). The screen was sitting in such a way that there was a lot of light nearby and even shining through. So while I was able to follow everything that was going on, I fear for any kids that were seeing it for the first time and trying to figure out just what they were looking at.

Glitches aside, it made for a wonderful night in the American capital. The place was pretty busy, everyone was completely caught up in the movie and there was even a round of applause when Elliot’s bike took off and gave us the iconic shot of him riding across the moon. I’m not entirely sure what I would have done with my night if I didn’t stumble across this little happening…but I’d wager that there’s no way it would have involved the words “penis breath”. Guess my knowledge of the music studios assign their dvd’s finally came in handy.