Just saw this on the big screen...

That's great. I saw the movie a number of times in the theatre in the 70s but would give anything to see it 30 years later from a different perspective. Being from Canada, I did notice audience responce was in some places quite different from those in the U.S (in my case, Seattle.) Whereas in Canada, Hal Philip Walker's doctrine as described by Howard K. Smith was met with polite amusement, the American audience laughed, cheered and hooted. Some lines such as 'welcome to Nashville and my lovely home' and the Christy minstrals reference are two other examples of differing audience reaction. Opal's monologues on the buses got a big laugh up here but the 'little black children and little white children' got a heartier reaction in Seattle (at least with the audience I saw it with.) I must add though that a few of the screenings were on college campuses therefore the youthful perception, fuelled in some cases by 'herbal enhancement'may have added to these reactions.