Carlito's Way

In 1993 I was involved in an altercation in a Marysville, CA, movie theater.  Linda and I had gone to see “Carlito’s Way,” a reasonably good movie starring Al Pacino and Sean Penn, directed by Brian DePalma.  

There was this guy in the back row, probably drunk, who was talking during the entire movie.  I went out and told the manager about him, and the manager did speak to him, but as soon as the manager left, he started up again.  

I then went back and told the guy, who was with two girls, that my wife and I couldn’t enjoy the movie while he was talking.  He said, “Ok, man,” but as soon as I got back to my seat, he started up again.

When the movie was almost over, just before the credits, he came stomping down the steps.  I stood up and said, so the whole theater could hear, “Wait a minute.  You’ve been loud and rude through this entire movie, and you ought to learn some manners.”

I was wearing a watch cap at the time, and the guy said, “How’d you like me to knock your beanie off.”  

Linda was sitting with her hands in front of her face, and I was thinking, “I’m about to get the crap beat out of me,” when a very large man in a baseball cap stood up and said, “How’d you like to knock my beanie off?  I’m thinking, “Thank you, thank you,” because  by that time other patrons who had been annoyed were coming forward.

Linda and I slipped out by a side exit, and as we were heading for the car, we heard police sirens coming.  I don’t know what happened (I always try to leave before violence breaks out), but I do know that no one was killed.

That’s the difference between Marysville, CA, in 1993 and Wesley Chapel, FL, in 2014.  I probably would have said something to a guy texting, and he probably would have said something back, and somebody may have even gotten punched.  Nobody, however, would have gotten killed.

You know what makes me tired.  The N.R.A. saying “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”  I have two words for that.  Bull Shit.