Movie Wars: How Hollywood and the Media Conspire to Limit What Films We Can See.(Review)

by Jonathan Rosenbaum. Chicago: A Capella Books. 2000. 234 pp. Hardcover: $24.00.

The title says it all. It's Jonathan Rosenbaum's contentious premise in his latest book that 'they' are working tirelessly to prevent 'us' from enjoying the whole bright range of contemporary cinema--especially foreign films. 'They' include: the major and minor distributors and producers (especially his bete noire Miramax), most working critics (especially those who work for the major media--Janet Maslin and her replacements at The New York Times, the late Gene Siskel, David Denby, David Thomson, and others), and all the theater owners who no longer operate art houses. Despite the title, Hollywood itself comes in for very little criticism here; the American film industry never promoted foreign independent product--why should they start now? And there's no 'war' really. La Guerre est finie. It's really the fault of the critics--the other critics.

A little historical context here. In the late Sixties we all knew it was 'us' again 'them.' We were the newborn cinephiles, heady from repeated hits of the New Wave, Fellini, Bergman, Kurosawa, and the other art-house favorites. They were the cine-philistines, personified by Bosley Crowther, the reigning New York Times critic. We had just discovered that cinema was an art; they still treated it as entertainment product. We had learned from the French and the Italians about auteurs and genres and the heritage of cinema; they were interested only in whether your three bucks bought you a good time at the movies.

Over time, nearly all of 'us' became 'them.' The children replaced the parents, as they always do. And the new generation displayed most of the same human foibles and made most of the same mistakes as the previous generation had. In the process most grudgingly gained a little respect for those who had come before.

Almost alone, Jonathan Rosenbaum has remained 'us.' And it's not a bad thing, since there is little evidence (except perhaps in abstruse intellectual circles) that there are any Young Turks on the horizon. It's one of the peculiar burdens of the generation of the Sixties that our culture has not been seriously challenged or critiqued by a younger generation. (We're really getting tired of carrying the ball. Why don't you kids try to tackle us?!)

So we need Jonathan Rosenbaum. We need him to remain the critical outsider. Forever young.

The book begins with a critique of Hollywood marketing techniques, then moves on to a discussion of recent requiems for the cinema (Sontag, Godard, Thomson, Denby). Criticizing the marketing of Hollywood product seems to me to be on the same level as criticizing the marketing of theme parks. It was ever so. Next come a couple of chapters on contemporary exhibition, distribution, promotion, and criticism that are well researched and offer some useful insights.