December 27, 2008
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
by Alex Billington
This was inevitable. One day someone was bound to get so angry that they'd shoot someone because they wouldn't shut up during a movie. I know I've felt like doing that sometimes, but I'm sane enough to stop before my actions become violent and I don't own a gun anyway. The story of the weekend (via The Philadelphia Inquirer) involves one James Joseph Cialella Jr., a 29 year old moviegoer who was attending a showing of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button on Christmas Day in Philadelphia. When a father and son sitting in front of him wouldn't stop talking during the movie, including after Cialella angrily threw popcorn at them, he presumed to get up and shoot the father in the arm with a Kel-Tec .380 handgun.
Get this, after shooting the father, Cialella put the gun back in his waist and sat back down in his seat to finish the movie. By then, everyone else had scurried out of the movie theater, so now he was enjoying it all alone, in absolute silence. The police were called and arrested him a few minutes later. Cialella is being charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, and weapons violations. This all occurred at the UA Riverview Theatre in South Philadelphia (seen above), which apparently sees the likes of "ghetto" moviegoers all the time. I'm guessing that no one is attending movies at that theater this weekend.
Although I do feel bad for the man who was shot and certainly think that Cialella went way too far, this is just a sad look at the current state of movie theaters. The father and son shouldn't just walk away without learning a lesson. While Cialella shouldn't have shot them and instead confronted management first or non-violently talked with the man, the father and son deserve to be told to shut up. Talking in movie theaters during movie isunacceptable. If you want to talk, do it at home on your own time. This goes for text messaging during movies, too. But this is a widespread problem that will probably never be solved, even with violence. Maybe one day in the future we'll have quiet movie theaters. We can dream, can't we?
That'll teach you to think before you chat eh????
