One of my most vivid moviegoing memories comes from seeing Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. It was 1991. I was 12. I was at the movie with my dad and my uncle, and we were all enjoying the swashbuckling good times. Apparently, though, the rest of the audience was enjoying them even more than we were, because when the film ended, a large portion of the crowd burst into applause.
Sidebar: Isn’t it strange to remember that Kevin Costner was once the kind of movie star who could get people not only to see his pictures, but also to applaud when they were over? Oh Ozymandias! Your once-mighty visage is now buried in the sand!
But I digress. My point is not that glory fades. My point is that way back in 1991, I was shocked that folks were applauding for artists who couldn’t possibly hear them. As a twelve year-old, I judged those clappers, and I judged them hard.
It wasn’t until I saw the Dreamgirls movie in 2006 that I understood their response. When Jennifer Hudson finished singing “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going,” it didn’t matter  that I was in a movie theater in a Michigan shopping mall, or that J-Hud was probably thousands of miles away. Her performance moved me so much that I had to express myself. So I clapped for the woman on screen.
We applaud so much in Western culture that we can forget why it’s a meaningful act. When we do it sincerely, we’re not just telling artists (or athletes or politicians) that we appreciate them. Our applause is not just about them. It’s also about us… about the rush we feel when we encounter something exceptional. A truly exhilarating experience builds up in us like pressure, and that energy demands to be pushed forward and shared with those around us.Â
I’m describing a religious experience, you know? If we get moved in church, we can shout or raise our hands or speak in tongues. If we get moved in a secular space, at the altar of an artwork, we can cry or laugh… or we can applaud. We can pound our hands together until the wildness in our bodies has calmed.
As I’m describing it, I’m aware of how few experiences have demanded this applause, this true applause from me. Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls. Hairspray  and Mary Stuart and August: Osage County on Broadway. The reunion episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race, when RuPaul goes kabuki on those bitches and tells them to love themselves more.
For me, those were big experiences. (Yes, including the Drag Race reunion.)Â They manifested passions I often feel but can rarely express. I was grateful to Jennifer Hudson for belting out her wild heartbreak. I was grateful to RuPaul for defending self-respect with so much fury. I was grateful to all those artists for allowing me to witness a major emotion… to see it in front of me and so comprehend it more fully than I can when it’s swirling around in my chest.
True, I didn’t feel that passion during Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, but now I respect the people who did.
8 responses so far ↓
1 Michael // Jun 19, 2009 at 2:23 am
I’ve scorned that applause and given in to it, too. It seems weird to sound your appreciation to an absent figure–but I think it was Desmond Morris in The Naked Ape (or some article) who argued that applauding is literally derived from the action and sensation of embracing–it’s like a long-distance, spontaneous hug of enthusiastic approval. If he’s onto something, then in a way the impulse to applaud a projected image is less goofy: we can’t embrace a close-up of Frances MacDormand, but we also couldn’t embrace her from our seats were she live onstage. If Morris has a point, then clapping is less about making a statement the performer can hear than it’s about embodying our kinetic impulses of approval when the hug is blocked: the distance and impossibility of the hug is what makes the impulse express itself instead as applause–and the projected film image is only one degree removed in unreachability from the live performer at more-than-arm’s length, a difference in degree, not in kind.
2 Seth Christenfeld // Jun 19, 2009 at 2:27 am
Only twice, and they were both special occasions: the first Star Wars prequel (day of release, although in the evening because I had school) and the 10 PM evening-before first showing of Snakes on a Plane. ‘Cause well, motherfucking snakes on a motherfucking plane. (I was also wearing my SoaP shirt. I’m such a dork.)
3 K. // Jun 19, 2009 at 11:04 am
I did not clap for Prince of Thieves, but I fucking loved that movie. I had a big crush on Christian Slater back in the day, and I remember my best friend at the time and I saw that movie on our own and felt so grown up.
I, and the rest of the theater, clapped when Tom Hanks’ character was awarded a bajillion dollars in Philadelphia. (We were also IN Philadelphia, so people clapped during the opening credits when they saw places they recognized. I didn’t do that – I was mad that my neighborhood didn’t appear, because they sure did tie up my jogging route with filming.)
4 katy // Jun 19, 2009 at 11:29 am
Film audiences in San Francisco seemed a lot more likely to applaud than film audiences in Georgia. Not sure why.
Frankly I like applauding films very much. It makes movie-going feel like more of a public event, a ritual if you will. I don’t care at all that no one hears. It’s about expressing collective emotion. And it can be so fun!
I remember the audience applauding for the opening sequence of Star Wars Episode 1 — and for that matter the trailer for Episode 1 months before it opened. (I do not remember it being applauded afterwards, sadly.) Other trailers I recall receiving applause are those for James Bond films, Harry Potter films, the new Indiana Jones and the trailer for Bring It On. (Maybe the latter was just me?)
Actually, in the big theaters in San Francisco people actively hiss when a trailer does not look good. Oh lord, I LOVE it when that happens. Do they do that other places, too? In Atlanta we’re too decorous.
Atlanta audiences also clapped for Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls. They also clapped for the end of Once, and the end of Slumdog Millionaire. It’s interesting — I should start keeping a list.
5 Amanda // Jun 19, 2009 at 11:52 am
I’m with Katy. I dig movie-audience applause, for the reasons she articulated.
(Now, dear Mark, I think it’s time for a post about movies in which you felt the rest of the audience laughed inappropriately while you were heart-wrenched!)
6 dimestore lipstick // Jun 21, 2009 at 8:22 pm
I remember scattered, spontaneous clapping at various points in The Mummy, but it wasn’t sustained applause. The only time I remember that happening was waaay back in 1978, when I saw Grease for the first time.
I was 28 when RH,POT came out, and for me it will always be remembered as my first encounter with the delectable Alan Rickman–a marvelous villain as the Sheriff.
7 Rube Goldberg // Jun 22, 2009 at 12:00 am
My earliest recollection of movie theater applause was right after New York, LA and D.C. were obliterated in Independence Day. I’m 99% certain everyone was applauding the special effects and not the outcome (though sometimes us Detroiters like to stick it to the big big city folks).
Re: SF Hissing. A friend of mine told me a story about seeing the trailer for Hellbent, a gay-themed slasher pic, in a theater either in SF or the bay area. Once the trailer finished there was a moment of silence before the hissing began. I thought it was hilarious and have found myself doing that for bad trailers, but it doesn’t seem to have caught on here in the Cleve just yet.
8 Dandy Darkly // Jun 22, 2009 at 12:52 pm
I love it when movie audiences clap.
The loudest and most fervent after movie clapping happened when my bf and I saw Obsessed!
Such a great movie to see with strangers. Oh wow.
Screams, laughter, clapping, more laughter.
Was a great night for cinema.
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