![WSPN’s Annika Martins and Maddie Zajac explore the athletic life of senior Annabelle Zhang through her badminton career. “This [photo] is me and my former partner after we won the 2022 junior nationals mixed doubles category,” Zhang said.](https://waylandstudentpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/IMG_6629-1200x900.jpg)
Taylor Swift has made history once again through “The Eras Tour” movie, with tickets selling at a fast pace worldwide. “The Eras Tour” movie is expected to have a gross salary of $2.2 billion in North America alone. As of Oct. 27, the movie has already raked in over $178 million at the box office, making it the highest grossing concert movie ever. After attending Swift’s “The Eras Tour” live in concert, we could not wait to see the movie.
As we arrived at AMC to see Swift’s “The Eras Tour” movie, we immediately saw a sea of fans dressed in merchandise and trading friendship bracelets with each other, much like the actual concert. Seeing fans come together for another magical night of music and memories made us even more thrilled to see the movie. We were so excited to relive the concert, even though we had no idea what was in store for us. Getting to share this extraordinary experience with others who share the same love for Taylor was so meaningful.
No one could have prepared us for the night we were about to have as we walked in the theatre. We had no idea whether the movie was going to be a documentary or a film of the entire concert. Since “The Eras Tour” goes through all of Swift’s eras, we went into the film with the sole expectation of getting to relive our best and most agonizing moments of growing up with Swift and her music. However, we all had one main question: how could the movie even begin to compare to the actual tour?
When the lights in the theater dimmed, the excited chatter of “Swifties,” Swift’s fan base, fell silent as we waited for the long-awaited movie to start. Anticipation turned to excitement when the beloved intro to “Miss Americana and The Heartbreak Prince” opened up the film. Emotions were high throughout the movie, but especially right before Swift sang “Enchanted.” As soon as the screen flashed “Speak Now” to signal the start of the next era and the instrumentals to “Enchanted” started playing, the crowd began cheering. Right when Swift sang “there I was again tonight,” fans immediately jumped in and started singing. During “Bad Blood,” some fans were even dancing to the song’s choreography as if they were Swift’s backup dancers themselves. Even if they weren’t getting the moves exactly correct, they didn’t care and were just focused on having the best night of their lives, like ourselves.
Something that never ceases to amaze us is how Swift manages to unite so many people, even when she’s not performing in front of them live. During multiple scenes in the movie, fans were getting up out of their seats and going down to the floor right in front of the big screen, fully immersing themselves in Swift’s music. Fans were dancing, scream singing, taking photos and videos, jumping up and down and forming conga lines. The theater had turned into a concert, which made the night 13 times more enjoyable.
On Nov. 12, 2021, Swift released “All Too Well (10 Minute Version),” a personal favorite Swift song of ours. Although most artists would shy away from releasing such a lengthy piece, Swift rose to the occasion, even releasing a short film featuring Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien for the track. Sitting in a theater when the “Red” set came on, Swift’s impact was clear as we could hear multiple voices in the crowd that knew all ten minutes and 13 seconds of the song lyric-for-lyric. With a simple glance around the theater, we could see how some people sang for enjoyment, without concern of how out-of-tune their voices were, whereas others felt the lyrics hit closer to home.
Swift’s stage presence is so powerful that we could even feel it through the screen. During “Marjorie,” the harrowing pain from Swift’s past reflected right into our present lives. Tears were shed throughout the theater, as some fans in the audience felt seen through her lyrics. For us, hearing this song again after hearing it at Gillette five months ago made us emotional. Fans lit up the theater with their phone flashlights while Swift was performing, and it was a touching experience.
If you paused the screen during any part of the movie, you could screenshot it and have a beautiful poster. The cinematography was captivating. It captured the choreography, outfits and stage setups in a way fans couldn’t always see from the audience during the tour. Getting to see some behind-the-scene set ups and shots made us further realize just how intricately the tour was set up and planned.
Getting to experience all of Swift’s monumental “eras” for a second time in less than three hours was something truly unforgettable. It’s such a relief to us that we only have to wait until early 2024 to relive the tour on streaming services, as we will definitely be rewatching this movie. Heavily biased as the “Swifties” are, we would give the movie a 10/10 for perfectly encapsulating the passion Swift puts into every lyric, dance and performance.
