[lbo-talk] Re: John Ford (was: Kael)

BklynMagus magcomm at ix.netcom.com
Tue Nov 28 15:12:08 PST 2006



> I'm saying I think there's a reason for that and that is one thing
that sets movies apart. People who make movies don't depend on a critical community to communicate with the audience.

Got that.


>I'm only highlighting that difference and saying that I don't think
watching movies without thinking too much can just be dismissed as know-nothingness.

People can watch movies with as little or much thinking as they wish.

My problem with Walsh is that he equates a movie with its plot. Rarely does he include consideration of any other cinematic elements. Then based on his "movie=plot" mentality, he writes about what the filmmaker was trying to convey. For a film critic to ignore mise en scene, space, light, gesture, editing, etc and focus solely on plot is like an art critic restricting himself to talking only about how a painter uses the color red. What goes on plotwise in a movie can be commented upon, qualified or even contradicted by the film's mise en scene (think Douglas Sirk).

For me, the simplistic reductions Walsh enages in are a variety of know- nothingness.

Brian



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