How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Embrace My Film Snobbery

I recently read an article about how terrible film critics are.  Out of touch with the general populace, snobbish, obsessed with those ancient films no one wants to see any more, lacking in an understanding of the great narrative intricacies of the superhero film seemed to be the basic consensus.  Whether the author was being serious is a question unto itself, as the article seemed to have been written in faux-teenage parlance and in the form of a top ten list.  But the complaints contained therein are incredibly common.  Whether this author was being serious or not, there are plenty of others who are.  

So, film critics? Do we need 'em? Do we even care? Cinema has long been considered a democratic mode of entertainment.  Everyone has an opinion on the latest new release.  Often it does not go past the 'dude, that was sweet!' point, but every once in awhile some enterprising young person with access to a computer, blackberry or iphone gets on the horn and starts telling everyone in the world just what he or she thought of 'Superman Returns'.  We all do it, we all think our opinion matters, we all want to be heard.  We're the ones the movie is aimed at, we buy the tickets, we love the stars.  So does that mean that our opinion is just as good as, or better than, the professional film critics? The people who don't buy tickets but get paid to give their opinion on Jessica Alba's riveting performance in 'The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer'?

I happen to be one of those people, apparently in the minority, who do enjoy those ancient films no one cares about.  Forgive me if I cannot see the poetry in Michael Bay's 'Transformers', for I would much rather watch Lang's 'Metropolis'.  Yes, I do refer to 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' as simply 'Caligari' because, well, everyone who matters has seen it.  I am more interested in Antonioni's projections of lost identity and alienation than I am in watching Dane Cook wrestle with Kate Hudson.  Strange, to be sure, but true.  That is not to say that I don't enjoy the everyday.  I laughed all the way through 'Tropic Thunder' and 'Anchorman', and 'The Dark Knight' kept me anchored to my seat for its entire running time.  To like films like 'The 400 Blows' does not mean that one cannot like 'Hellboy'.  Del Toro is as worthy of interest as Truffaut.

I can accept the criticism that professional film critics need to lighten up, that they at times can seem snobby, self-satisfied and, because a film is not non-linear and French, find no value in it.  And there are critics who have made a career out of being curmudgeons.  Lest we forget that the greatest films of yesteryear were, in fact, also the popular films.  'Casablanca' was meant to be a B-melodrama, after all.  We should not, however, overvalue some of the tripe audiences are fed today because they might be classics tomorrow.  I do not foresee a great demand in the future for reissuing 'Pearl Harbor', even as a historical curiosity.  And I will never, though I enjoyed every minute of it, accept the idea that 'The Dark Knight' is of greater cinematic value than 'The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse'.

And let us also face facts.  Beyond the mere opinions of the professional film critics, they are better writers! Sit and read Anthony Lane's remarkably grumpy reviews in 'The New Yorker'.  Even if you disagree with him (and pray to God that you do!), he writes well.  He's funny.  He's amusing.  And he's intelligent.  

Film is a democratic medium, but that does not mean that the lowest common denominator is always right.  People may flock to see Adam Sandler and ignore Charlie Chaplin but, for those of us who have actually watched a Chaplin film and not just complained about the lack of sound, Chaplin will remain the superior comedian.  Not because Chaplin is in black and white, not because there is no sound, not because so many of his films were made before 1930, but because (brace yourself!) he's funnier! 

Having an education in film does not mean going to film school and being taught about soviet montage.  It means seeing all kinds of film, enjoying all kinds of film, appreciating what is good and laughing at what is bad.  If the professional critics are too obsessed with the obscure and the old, the critics of the critics are too obsessed with how Spiderman is portrayed.  Popular does not equal bad, but save us if it automatically equals good.       

There has been too much 'us versus them' on both sides of the equation.  I sit in my cinema studies classes and talk with people who adore 'Freddy Vs. Jason' AND 'Last Year at Marienbad', all at the same time.  Amazing.  We are the snobs of tomorrow, and the ones who merrily embrace Ben Stiller.  And to those noisy opinionated members of the Imdb message boards who have never seen a black and white film, stop acting like you are in the majority.  For the snobs and the cineastes are part of the public too and know what they like.  If we must forget Chaplin and only have Sandler, if we must reject 'Rear Window' in favor of 'Disturbia', then we have lost the argument that made film into an intellectual medium, something actually worthy of study, something worthy to be venerated.  And with that we have lost some honest expressions of our culture, of our history.  More than that, we have lost some damn fine entertainment.