Gene Siskel, one half of the legendary film criticism duet of Siskel and Ebert, talks about his approach to writing about movies. This is a learning object that is available for all teachers and students to use free of charge.
Critics, especially film critics, seem to take themselves far too seriously and given their opinions such an air of cultural importance that it was almost laughable to watch them get worked up over certain movies. The slasher genre was absolute trash but they were made for a quick profit and fade into obscurity and little to no lasting effect on the mainstream films. Whether watching Siskel & Ebert on tv or reading Pauline Kael in print they had very influence on whether I saw a film or not. Ebert's attack on Blue Velvet is still his most perplexing rants, where you wanted to say: Jesus, Roger, it's just a movie, relax. But that's my attitude over the last twenty or thirty years as films become increasingly targeted toward a certain demographic of which I do not belong. It just inspires me to read more. 😊
Movies are art, and art is one of the things that makes life worthwhile. Not to mention that as media, movies have the ability to influence how people think. There's nothing wrong with taking them seriously as these two did.
