“Back to the Drive-In” Review
The Harvest Moon Twin Drive-In Theater in Gibson City, IL is one of 11 drive-ins depicted in April Wright’s film “Back to the Drive-In.” The documentary focuses on the struggles of these theaters after their resurgence in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
There’s very little in the world of cinema that compares to the drive-in theater experience. That big outdoor screen is a slice of Americana that makes us unique. While motion pictures weren’t invented in the United States, the drive-in was. It’s uniquely us. When the pandemic hit, we flocked back to these theaters, some of us for the first time, as a way to take our minds off of the uncertainty. It felt normal there.
Two years later, we’re relatively back to normal. But what about the drive-ins? This is the question that April Wright asks in her film “Back to the Drive-In” which exclusively premiered at drive-ins on June 6.
Throughout 2021, Wright went to 11 drive-ins across the nation to see how the pandemic affected their business in 2020 and how their current season has been affected now that the multiplexes have reopened.
The answers that Wright uncovers are alarming when everyone interviewed for the film admits the awful truth: drive-in theaters are struggling. This renaissance that was born in 2020 was short-lived. Now that people have gotten a grasp on the pandemic, a variety of factors have caused attendance to go down.
On a larger, more systemic level, the entire Hollywood studio system has an apathy for the drive-in theater as well as the theatrical experience in general. In the film, owners lament how the studios are putting their films directly on streaming instead of putting them in theaters. Even when the studios let the theaters show new films, they took so much of the box office.
Then there’s the individual customers who just aren’t showing up the way they did in 2020. Attendance levels are dropping and some of the customers that do show have this sense of entitlement and disrespect that dampens the spirits of the theaters.
While no unpleasant exchanges are shown, the stories that these owners tell about people refusing to wear face-masks, cursing out the teenaged employees and not understanding the rules are more than enough.
Along with supply chain issues and a labor shortage, drive-in owners are retiring and no one seems interested in carrying on the legacy. In many respects, the drive-in is more historic than current. Along with the cinema palaces and the small arthouse theaters, the majority are gone with some struggling for survival. However, just because they’re old doesn’t mean they should go away. In fact, their age and their iconography is the reason they should stay.
People who see this film will understand the struggles of these small businesses. More importantly, they will want to go to their local drive-in.
While “Back to the Drive-In” does address a lot of heavy subject matter concerning the future of this industry, the overall film is joyous. Quite a bit of the film’s one hour and 45 minute runtime is dedicated to the happiness they bring to the community. One theater, The Greenville Drive-In, shows a double-feature of “The Big Lebowski” and “Cool Hand Luke” and one of the employees dresses up like Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski as he makes White Russians for customers. Other drive-ins are shown adapting to the modern audience by hosting live music before film screenings.
The drive-in may be an old-school tradition, but that doesn’t mean new venues aren’t popping up. While most of the theaters Wright visited were old, a few of them had opened up recently including the Quasar Drive-In Theater which had its first season in 2021. Other theaters, whose owners are wanting to retire, are being taken over by people who want to keep them going.
While watching the film at the Harvest Moon Twin Drive-In, it was amazing to see the venue I’ve been going to for years be in a film of its own. When the theater first appeared on the large screen, so many of my fellow viewers started honking their horns and cheering in support.
Like the other drive-ins depicted in the film, Harvest Moon has been struggling but there’s also this underlying hope that they’ll get through it and that more people will see films in this theater. This hope is one that I share and has been cemented by this film. April Wright has made a tremendous film and hopefully another theatrical screening is coming soon. The drive-in experience is here and it’s happening. However, it’s up to us if it’s here to stay.
