Friday, March 6, 2009

White rocks

Via 2 Blowhards, a pithy profile of Armond White, an American movie critic who is still worth reading, or perhaps the only.

“We always went to the movies, every Saturday at least,” White says. “I used to love to see stuff like The Long, Hot Summer and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. To me, this was a window into the adult world. Now people watch movies so they can stay kids, which proves how infantilized the culture is.

...

I knew I was different … Our parents raised us Baptist, then they got saved and became Pentecostal. There was always a lot of religion around. It had a big effect on me. I’m a believer. I think God is the force for ultimate good in the universe. He made the movies, didn’t he? If you cut me open, that’s what you’d find: the movies, Bible verses, and Motown lyrics.”

...

Despite his occasional soft-on-Bushism (and less-than- triumphalist celebration of Obama), it is his belief in “core values … the stuff I was brought up with” that is responsible for his reputation as “a hard-ass conservative,” White supposes—a characterization he rejects as a “smug and typical” reaction on the part of knee-jerk liberal readers and colleagues alike.
Here's White on Watchmen.

3 comments:

Tulkinghorn said...

My favorite quote:

During White’s last reign, in 1994, he scheduled the awards dinner during the Sundance Film Festival, creating conflicts for some members. White defends this decision. “The circle is the oldest and most legitimate film-critic group in the country. We’re not the Dallas Film Critics Circle. If people wanted to carry water for penny-ante shit like Sundance, that’s too fucking bad. The circle comes first.”

Anonymous said...

White may diss a lot of movies I enjoy -- not to mention Big D! -- but I never miss a column...

Christian Lindke said...

Cinerati on WATCHMEN

in 2004 http://cinerati.blogspot.com/2004/04/watchmen-movie.html

http://cinerati.blogspot.com/2004/05/returning-to-watchmen.html

in 2005 http://cinerati.blogspot.com/2005/05/alan-moore-and-warner-to-split.html

http://cinerati.blogspot.com/2005/08/comic-books-and-art.html

http://cinerati.blogspot.com/2005/08/getting-object-of-your-affections-to.html

http://cinerati.blogspot.com/2005/09/getting-object-of-your-affections-to.html

All of the above is in reference to the comic. Movie comments will come shortly, but looks like I might be with White.