he movie now being shown at the Omnimax Theater, the Museum of Science and Industry`s new picture palace, was made a year ago to portray the spectacle of the Grand Canyon for people who visit that geological wonder in person. This means that ”Grand Canyon: The Hidden Secrets” has to take viewers a step beyond what they can see from the rim and across the vast vistas.
It does, and with flourish. The film massages the mind with realistic depictions of Grand Canyon history, and it positively bombards the senses with moviemaking that makes viewers wonder if the seat belts are fastened. All this contributes to the thrill of Omnimax, the film technology that fills the inside of the Crown Space Center`s 76-foot-across dome with an image that is the sharpest in moviedom.
”Grand Canyon” is being shown every day on the hour from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (until 4 p.m. Sundays and holidays, and with shows at 7 and 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays). The price is $4 for adults and $2.50 for children 12 years and younger and senior citizens. The museum is at 57th Street and Lake Shore Drive.
Director Kieth Merrill used the 70 mm. format of Omnimax, which creates uncanny sharpness, to give a viewer an idea of what it is like to be a wayward passenger inside a speeding helicopter that is swinging back and forth between canyon walls and across ridges.
These pictures, combined with the fact that the concave screen puts viewer so close to the image, affect the inner ear in much the same way that real flight does.
Such sensations are intertwined with historical glimpses of early inhabitants and explorers of the canyon. Prehistoric Anasazi Indians are depicted, and there is a long segment on the explorations of John Wesley Powell, who braved the wildest parts of the 277-mile canyon in 1869.
Director Merrill developed some camera techniques that capture the experience of dashing down whitewater–an adventure that took the lives of many early explorers.
This film was made for a special theater built at the Grand Canyon National Park, to be seen by visitors to the canyon. Merrill, who ”used to be a Hollywood director,” he notes, and won a 1973 Academy Award for documentary, is also part owner of that theater. (The facility, called Imax, has a a flat, not domed, screen.)
He is currently planning similar films, such as one at the Alamo in Texas, which would be shown on-site to tourists there, and also would circulate to the nearly 100 theaters in North America that can show Omnimax or Imax productions.
For more information on ”Grand Canyon,” phone 684-1414.
NOTES
— A number of lectures at the Morton Arboretum, Ill. Hwy. 53, Lisle, can make the winter`s cold a little less bitter and its slush a little less wet. Daytime programs, with lunch in the Ginko Restaurant, include ”Crabapples for the Midwest,” a talk Thursday on the beauty of crabapple trees and the problems they face due to blight; and ”Environmental Restoration in the Chicago Region” on Feb. 19, about work being done to save prairieland, forests and wetlands in our area. These sessions start with lunch at noon, and costs $12 for lunch and $4 for the lecture.
Also, an evening lecture series begins at 8 p.m. Feb. 23 with
”Perceiving the Landscape: How Surroundings Reflect Human Culture,” about the uses of vegetation and landscape in various nations and cultures. Cost of a single lecture is $3 for nonmembers of the arboretum. For information, phone 968-0074.
— ”The Map As Graphic Art” is a new exhibit at the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture, 6500 S. Pulaski Rd., giving an overview of map printing from the 16th Century through the 19th Century. Originals by cartographers Munster, Mercator, Ortelius, Blaeu and Sanson de Abbeville are among those in display.
The Balzekas Museum has one of Chicago`s fine map collections, due in part to the enthusiasm of Stanley Balzekas Jr., the museum`s founder. For information, phone 582-6500.
