It's Only a Movie: Films and Critics in American Culture Review

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It's Only a Movie: Films and Critics in American Culture ReviewAs a film critic for several online sites, I share with others of my
vocation a distress that while the public may be reading us, the
reviews themselves seem to be influencing only a few in their
choices of films. I like to say defensively that it is not the critic's
function to operate as a Consumer Reports guide, to send people
to the theaters or to guide them into settling back into their
couches. But the writing is on the wall; or, rather, the writing
should be there but it isn't: critics have lost much of the authority
they once had to influence the public. In a short book filled with
lush prose, Richard J. Haberski Jr. strives to tell us why critical
authority has declined albeit less rapidly than the current
NASDAQ chart, topping his tome off with a mixed conclusion.
On the one hand movies are such a joyful medium, the film world
may not really suffer for the breakdown in authority. On the other
hand, "It is sad that today movie critics appear powerless ot help
us discover the art of moviegoing."
Tracing a brief film history encompassing the impact of select
organizations like the National Board of Review on the movie
choices available to us, Haberski's book is most enlightening and
relevant (at least to critics like me) when it referees debates
among several major writers such as Pauline Kael, Andrew
Sarris, Stanley Kauffmann and Dwight MacDonald--writers who
have had often divergent viewpoints on such issues as the
importance of the director, the gap between the younger and
older audience, the relative values of elitism and democracy, and
most of all the big question of whether movies should even be
considered an art that justifies critical analysis.
Theory aside, the general public felt comfortable with the idea of
art until the dawn of the Pop era signalled by the ideas and
paintings of Andy Warhol. The book reaches a high point in its
examination of the Big Debate between the Andrew ("auteur
theory) Sarris--who believes that the director is the all-important
creator of a film, and the late Pauline ("It's Only a Movie!") Kael -
-who was known for toughness toward sugarcoated movies like
"The Sound of Music" and praised almost universally condemned
fare like "Bonnie and Clyde." Despite her staunch advocacy of
strong films, Kael amassed a large readership with her disdain
for pretension and love for good films whether or not they had
"something to say."
"It's Only a Movie!" is a must-read for critics and would make a
sure-fire addition to the library of movie buffs everywhere.It's Only a Movie: Films and Critics in American Culture Overview

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