Robert Evans: Let me ask you a question, Peter. Are you religious?
Peter Bart: When I hear Bach or Duke Ellington. Why, are you?
Robert Evans: It mattered to my parents. I used to go to shul with my dad. I mean, I remember, I realized that everybody there was hoping, literally praying that the magic was real, but for me it was just like a bad play. Now, one Saturday... I pretended I was going to services, and I ducked out. And I watched my first movie instead, The Adventures of Robin Hood.
Peter Bart: Errol Flynn. Great movie.
Robert Evans: Oh, f*ck yeah. I went in. The lights go down. Audience gets quiet, reverent. Like we're in a place of worship. Then, the projector starts to hum. That magical beam of light picking up all those swirls of smoke in the air. It was like another planet, man. And then, poof, wham. There's Robin Hood. Larger than life, swinging from tree to tree, shooting arrows through the ends of other arrows. It was... oh! And everybody glued to the screen. It was magic. Real magic. I mean, I knew right then and there that this was my calling. That darkened movie theater became my church. Look at us now, Peter. Look at us now. The luckiest guys in the world. Cause we don't just worship at the temple. No. We're the high priests. We put the magic on the screen. So you know why we have to watch dailies right now? Well, I'll tell you. Because it's time to go to temple, and ain't nothing gets in the way of that
