Trailer Art

I haven’t seen Spiderman-2 but I have seen the trailer. The trailer is extraordinary. It’s riveting. Can you imagine going back to say, 1950, and offering the trailer in a movie theater for people to watch? Not the movie, just the trailer. Would people pay to see that three minute experience? What would they think? I think they’d gasp in awe and disbelief and after they paid their three bucks (real money, three bucks back then), I think they’d line up to see it again, the way people do to watch a ten minute 3-D film at a Disney park. Check out the trailer for The Polar Express. Gorgeous. Check out the animation and the visuals and the integration with music. I don’t celebrate Christmas, have no emotional connection to Santa and I still get goosebumps.

Through the wonder of the net I found the trailer for Roman Holiday (1953). Watch it or any trailer from that era. Will our grandchildren look at the trailer for The Polar Express or Spiderman-2 with the same bemused nostalgia of how primitive things once were? Hard to imagine but certainly true.

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