Ebert on the tough love of critics
September 21st 2008 23:58
This week, he wrote on the animosity that faces film critics, especially those that heap great scorn on popular, big-budget movies. He imagines what is running through the mind of an anonymous reader who doesn't like a review:
"If I like something and the critics didn't, they can't see what's right there before their eyes because they're in love with some theory. They don't have feelings; they have systems. They think they know better than creators. They praise what they would have done, instead of what an artist has done. They use foreign words to show off. They're terrified of being exposed as the empty poseurs they are. They are leeches on the skin of art."
I can sympathize - though I've written for 20/20 Filmsight for only a few years, I've definitely had my share of detractors and critics, some using vile language.
Well, at least I've never been shot in the abdomen like Werner Herzog:
And I can hardly claim to be a critic, as my knowledge of film history and theory is woefully thin. Read this essay on reviewing versus criticism.
The thing that I like about Ebert, and what most people enjoy about his reviews, is that he's not just advocating audiences to certain movies, just to spend money. No, he's trying to delight people, from old generations and new, to really love their time at the cinema.
"I believe a good critic is a teacher...He can urge you toward older movies to expand your context for newer ones. He can examine how movies touch upon individual lives, and can be healing, or damaging. He can defend them, and regard them as important in the face of those who are "just looking for a good time." He can argue that you will have a better time at a better movie. We are all allotted an unknown but finite number of hours of consciousness. Maybe a critic can help you spend them more meaningfully."
It's this attitude that seems to make it all worth it. Watching movies, thinking about them, writing reviews - it all has a purpose if it can direct people to better and better movies.
I have a friend who loves to aspire to anti-elitism, claiming that he's happy with simple, working-class pleasures and $5 bottles of wine. He'll list "Happy Gilmore" and "Dumb and Dumber" as some of his favourite movies; he's been bored and unmoved at selections from festivals. It was with some trepidation that I lent him Werner Herzog's magnificent "Fitzcarraldo", particularly for that epic sequence where they pull a real boat over a real mountain.
He enjoyed it - and, perhaps, was even excited by the idea that a filmmaker would even attempt to try such a ridiculous feat. For that moment, though, I felt some sublime sense of accomplishment, as if I had won a dusty star under Ebert's battalion of movie enthusiasts - I had convinced my friend to spend two hours with a meaningful film.
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Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
I'm tired of coming up against a wall of ignorance in the workplace and elsewhere. I don't expect people to be as crazy as I am about film but when you try to have a conversation with people who even refuse to watch foreign films because "the writing's too fast" and "by the time they look up, they've missed the scene"!!!!
Well, what can you say to that?? It's pretty frustrating really, just the level of ignorance out there, and how people - some of them quite intelligent too - deny themselves new experiences with film or many other areas of the arts.
Comment by Cibbuano
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It's something to get used to, though. I grew up watching Bollywood movies with my parents, reading the subtitles, so it's not that big of a stretch for me.
I like the challenge, though. You just have to find the right movie to get someone turned on. For 'blokes' that like James Bond and gangster movies, I like to suggest Melville's "Le Samourai" - very little dialogue, stylish and fierce.
What don't you like about Ebert?
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
I think it's just a matter of opinion with regard to Ebert, I respect his opinions of course but have just found myself disagreeing with a lot of his ratings over the years. But I generally try to read his reviews through the imdb link if there's a film that interests me and I'm looking for some more opinions.
He seems to exhibit virtually no understanding of film music either (which a majority of reviewers sadly don't!) - and I always respect those who do considering it's my favourite type of music in the world and I'm a huge collector of it. So I guess it's just my own weird slant/taste that reflects my opinion sometimes! Most people I talk to don't even know what a film score is anyway!
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
I'm the same as david, i seldom agree with Ebert's ratings, but like his philosophy. Thats why I try to only review films I enjoy on my sight. It's way to easy to criticise, a lot harder to excite readers to see a film that has changed your life.
Comment by Cibbuano
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In his later years, Ebert has kind of accepted a fascination with the cinema and has handed out a lot of big ratings.
Still, I always enjoy his approach to movies... willing to like anything, willing to criticize anything, as well.