That thing called “Critics”
“It’s not a critic’s job to reflect box office taste.” When Roger Ebert talks, movie-fans listen. They may agree to him or they may not. But they listen. And in today’s world where twelve year olds can come and fart on his online reviews, it is nothing short of disrespect for one of leading supporters of good cinema, who’s spent his entire life championing its cause. Click here to read Ebert’s response to the heat he got for trashing Transformers. Filled full with his patent Ebertism, the voice would find resonance even in this part of the globe. I’ll admit PFC gets it’s share of mindless haters, star fanatic followers and what have you… and the question always remains – why is it so darn important, to the point of craziness to attempt to change the other guy’s opinion? This specially, so so so dominantly seen on the internet. What drives people under their anonymous cloaks to such points of madness, they, who would never attempt, hate as such, in flesh and blood for real. (Tip : Tanul)
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Interesting reply by Roger Ebert.
But I would like to add a point. I had seen films Ghayal, Arjun, Amar Akbar Anthony, Hum as a kid and had loved them a lot. Even today I like to watch each one of them. But people of my age group who watched this movies first time in college didn’t quite liked those movies. I can’t say with surety but even I would have found such movies passable had I seen them first time in college. Today, even after having watched movies from around the world, such movies are still my absolute favorites. When I watch those movies today, I carry experience of lot of cinema with me. Even then, movies like Ghayal, Arjun, Amar Akbar Anthony are absolute classic for me. Cinema is like an experience. At least for me experience of cinema doesn’t count much
typo: At least for me experience in cinema doesn’t count much while watching a movie
Roger Ebert is my favorite critic, I haven’t read his response to Transformers, but he is what I think is the most honest reviewer I have read. My likeness for his reviews is that somehow he manages to get the essence of the movie better than any other reviewer. Often I disagree with his reviews, but I am always able to see his point of view because he makes it so clear. For long I have thought about writing an article here about Ebert’s reviews, but I am too lazy to do it. Sadly for Indian Cinema there is no Ebert nor anyone remotely close to him.
I’m an otaku and I loved Transformers, mostly the unicorn saga, i grew up watching it…
And I would go to watch the movie no matter how much I hate it. It’s Transformers after all!
I have read the full article…it is one of the most erudite articles on film criticism that I have come across…and the reach of the article goes far beyond film criticism…if you read closely Ebert’s article is a critique of the shallowness pervading society at large…he is not really worried about Transformers as such…and he is perfectly ok with people loving it…he is worried about people putting up the wrong defense for that…
I don’t think there is even a minute reason for Ebert to explain himself or reply to such inanities. As a regular reader and fan I would rather read his reviews than such futile exchanges. And Transformers of all the things for gods sakes!
By the way Magik was the one who introduced this article to us, on an article by Arati who lambasted Indian critics.
Wonderful attitude by Ebert. Only thing is there is no need to proclaim anything as good or bad. That is purely subjective. The nose-in-the-air critics can wait forever for public “intelligence” to evolve. Dont ask the audience to change.
@Vinay: Yeah, Magik posted the link and I so thank him for that. It is a brilliant article!! What amazing precision he has, which comes only from knowing what you are talking. Every point makes sense. Thanks Oz / Tanul, for spreading the link wider..
Have to agree that Roger Ebert is also a very favorite critic of mine and always enlightened by what he has to say.
As said by Azad, he does seem to grasp the essence of the movie better than any other reviewer. Have to say that most of the time I do agree with his reviews however and as with Azad the rare occasion when I don’t agree I get what he is trying to say as well.
@Arijit, you’re so right – yes, this article is about life and how as society, we now celebrate mediocrity! Actually freaking celebrate it.
@Tushar, it is about much more than Transformers. He actually believes there are right and wrong opinions. Educated and uneducated ones. And not just in the field of cinema.
And it is about how we’ve devolved to a point where anyone can have an opinion on anything. He believes education and training matter and that when you have that background, your opinion matters *more* than an opinion without that background. Do you agree?
@Vinay, I think you are missing the point a bit. How can you on one hand say “wonderful attitude” and on the other say “nose-in-the-air critics”?? Did we read the same article? He’s actually saying he is in fact waiting for the public to evolve and to help them do so. And while they do, he’s very happy connecting with the evolved people that do exist…
Great to see the riposte from my favorite critic. I think he has no issues with people who like Transformers, those who like it due to them growing up with it, or being a fanboy. What he certainly resents is being labelled and called names, by people, just coz he does not echo their view point. And thats something i have observed all over, not just cinema. Any time u raise a viewpoint opposite to some one’s, you are immediately labelled, called names. I mean why cant some one just like or hate a movie, without having to explain their political stand, or whether they happen to be “Elitist” or WhateverIst.
“He believes education and training matter and that when you have that background.”
Sripriya, i am not really convinced of that. I have seen highly educated people, with fancy degrees, whose views are positively prehistoric. I know a guy, whose IIT-IIM, and is “intelligent”, but trust me his views on women, minorities belong somewhere in the Middle Ages.
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Its not just education IMO, its something called wisdom, or attitude. The ability to emphathize, tolerate differences, that is clearly lacking in many.
@ratnakar: by education he surely did not mean academics. dont mix the two. education is what we learn from life. ebert himself goes on to say so, in reply to one of the comments. Ebert: Education need not involve a university education
Ratnakar, that line was in reference to the field in which you are educated and express an opinion – i.e. if you are a trained engineer, you opinion on an engineering issue should matter more than an untrained person. Clearly training in engineering does not mean they are great at anything else, including social issues.
And he refers to education in the post as the education he got on the job etc., not from degrees.
He says very clearly (and repeats in the comments) – all opinions are NOT equal. There are evolved ones and less evolved ones.
It’s interesting that writing can be interpreted so differently by different people. It’s not so different from film critism, eh?
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I tend to read Ebert’s piece along similar lines to Shripriya views — that an informed opinion, based on years of experience, whether it’s book-learned, watched from afar or hands-on, adds a special context to the discussion. AND, it’s done in the spirit of sharing with others what you’ve picked up the hard way — NOT in the spirit of lording your intelligence over others.
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For film review readers, I think this is his most important point:
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“It’s not a critic’s job to reflect box office taste. The job is to describe my reaction to a film, to account for it, and evoke it for others. The job of the reader is not to find his opinion applauded or seconded, but to evaluate another opinion against his own. But you know that. We’ve been over that ground many times. What disturbs me is when I’m specifically told that I know too much about movies, have ’studied’ them, go into them ‘too deep,’ am always looking for things the average person doesn’t care about, am always mentioning things like editing or cinematography, and am forever comparing films to other films.”
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I like this discussion, BTW.
Thanks for posting this. I love critical writing and admire people who can do it, and in spite of running into the occasional attack here and there, I hadn’t realized until recently that maybe there is kind of a “movement” online against educated opinion. If there is, I’m glad to have Roger Ebert to stand up and speak for the value of “quality,” in films and professional judgments about them both.
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Main thing I feel about good reviews is gratitude. Like any real contact with Somebody Else Who’s Not Me, they stimulate me, engage my mind, de-isolate, etc.
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I read movie reviews partly to make up my mind about what to see, and then mostly to have contact with somebody else’s mind, knowledge, and opinions. And then the Internet lets me do this – see a movie, write something about it, commit to it by posting it somewhere, and then (only) read the best stuff I can find about it from other people. Overlap is gratifying, difference maybe disorienting, and disorientation – definitely desirable.
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A comment on “personal” – to me a good review *is* personal, so that’s not a negative.
Bias is negative, political influence is negative, corrupt motive for writing is negative –but personality and individuality make a thing worth reading.
I would rather stay uneducated.
Thanks for the article. Interesting timing considering what has been going on with Kambakkht Ishq right now. There is a sudden backlash against the critics for giving that crap movie bad reviews.
That is interesting re: Kambakkt Ishq – the bad reviews haven’t seemed to hurt it at the box office, have they? so is the back lash more like “hurt feelings” on the part of KI fans?
Roger Ebert just as he does with his movie reviews, does a great job explaining a critics role. His mellowness probably attracts more readers to him, but that does not mean he does not value his opinion any less. His difference of opinion never deterred me from reading his reviews because over the years I’ve seen that his does a very honest job of reviewing every movie he sees irrespective of the movie star/director/producer. This is not the case perhaps in Indian movie reviewing, as consistency is lagging in reviewing and perhaps honesty too. For anyone the make an argument that if the review is so bad how come the movie made so much money ? that is also a very stupid argument (There I said it).
Once again I hope we get anyone close to Roger Ebert doing reviews for Indian Cinema. When I learned Roger Ebert had cancer and was ill for long time, it made me sad and after his recovery seeing him speak thru a computer hurt me, But only for a little while as I knew his was back typing his reviews once again and he still was not holding back. As he does with his comment on his blog to a readers response:
By Irfon-Kim Ahmad on July 5, 2009 11:05 PM
“They say “The President,” in most of the scenes, of course, but they make the connection in a single scene where they do say that President Obama is being evacuated to a safe location.”
Ebert: Yeah, sure, he gets a safe place. What about the audience?
@Tushar, 17… Ah, Tushar, then your being a fan of Ebert means nothing since that is contrary to everything he seeks from his fans. But… you know that. And you want to be contrary – especially since you aren’t uneducated. Lol.
Oh shit! The pain realization brings along…what a futile existence have I been pretending to lead. sob sob. lol.
For sake of simplicity, I care a squat what a writer’s social outlook or ‘reader expectation’ is. All I care about is his works. With Ebert, I don’t think my liking for him needs any explanation.
wonderful article…go Ebert!!!
Agree with Azad completely…I adored Independence Day when I was a kid and it still is one of my favorite movies…along with Citizen Kane and Tokyo Story and other movies that I watched when I got older.
On the other hand, repeated viewings over a period of time can actually change our opinions sometimes. Even Ebert has revised several ratings of his previous reviews over the years.
I think age, maturity personal taste and the current frame of mind are big factors that decide whether you like a film or not.
Nevertheless, at the risk of shooting myself on the foot, I would say that Transformers is total crap and people who liked it ought to get their head examined for violent tendencies and be forcibly made to take up yoga and meditation classes.
THE GEEK SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH!!!
Caught transformers at the special screening. . Its almost as bad as kambhakht ishq
Thanks Oz for this weblink.
Ratnakar has said all what was going in my mind after reading whole article. I insist that there is nothing wrong with this movie. This is just kind of movie, we like in our childhood.But some of us evolve with each film and make our taste more refined. Majority of viewers just don’t want to grow with the time, thats his and ours major concern.
I am quite impressed by these lines that: “What I believe is that all clear-minded people should remain two things throughout their lifetimes: Curious and teachable. If someone I respect tells me I must take a closer look at the films of Abbas Kiarostami, I will take that seriously. If someone says the kung-fu movies of the 1970s, which I used for our old Dog of the Week segments, deserve serious consideration, I will listen. I will try to do what Pauline Kael said she did: Take everything you are, and all the films you’ve seen, into the theater. See the film, and decide if anything has changed. The older you are and the more films you’ve seen, the more you take into the theater.”
Although of the all talks, I am compelled to go to transformers2 with my friends this weekend.Its like suicide, but frnds are frnds na…
I think a lot of times who you watch a particular movie with changes your impression of the movie. I completely hated K3G..then I was forced to watch it ardent AB fans..and I started to see why maybe someone might like it
So even that can change your impression, when you come out of the theater and your friends point out the bad or the good in the movie.
They might Oz but prey tell me how are his reviews any better than a blog post or a dear diary entry?