Armond White: Roger Ebert destroyed film criticism

[Big Magilla]

Ebert the writer, maybe, but White's criticism was leveled at Ebert the TV reviewer.

He was half right. Ebert often sounded like a fan boy before the term was invented, but he also injected passion into his arguments with his co-host, something that we hadn't seen before in film reviewers. That was refreshing and the most illuminating aspect of the show.

[anonymous1980]

I think Ebert mostly just dumbed it down, turning criticism into "See this movie, don't see this one", which is a huge reduction of what I think criticism can and should be.

For most Average Joe Moviegoer, that is all what they see film criticism is.

Although I do not think Ebert is the be all and know all of film critics, I do think he's not that bad of a starting point for anyone wanting to get into serious film criticism.

[dws1982]

I think Ebert mostly just dumbed it down, turning criticism into "See this movie, don't see this one", which is a huge reduction of what I think criticism can and should be.

[anonymous1980]

Shouldn't Ebert deserve SOME credit for making film criticism a bit more accessible?

[dws1982]

I don't think that Roger Ebert himself destroyed film criticism, but the completely unearned reputation he acquired as some gold standard of film criticism did untold damage to serious film criticism.



Edited By dws1982 on 1279818796

[OscarGuy]

Yup. He's a troll. I've always felt that way. Everything he writes is designed to piss people off and stir debate. I don't honestly think he truly believes half of what he says and most of it is just a ploy to increase media attention for him and to his website.

[Big Magilla]

I must confess I never understood what the word "troll" meant when applied to the internet, but after reading this I looked it up. Here's what Wikipedia has to say:

"In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking other users into a desired emotional response[1] or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.[2] In addition to the offending poster, the noun “troll” can also refer to the provocative message itself, as in that was an excellent troll you posted. While the term troll and its associated action, trolling, are primarily associated with Internet discourse, media attention in recent years has made such labels highly subjective, with 'trolling' being used to describe many intentionally provocative actions outside of an online context."

That's a perfect description of of the sometimes right, sometimes wrong, but always provocative Armond White.

[anonymous1980]

Click here.

Armond White was a guest on /Film podcast where they talked about Inception. Afterwards, they asked him about the state of film criticism.

Here's the podcast.

I listened to it and even though he made some good, reasonable points that I agree with, he had to go negate any ground he made by saying something really maddening, to say the least.



Edited By anonymous on 1279782630