Comments on: Our man in the cinema (spoiler warning) http://airminded.org/2007/04/11/our-man-in-the-cinema-spoiler-warning/ Airpower and British society, 1908-1941 Sat, 20 Mar 2010 15:05:19 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Brett Holman http://airminded.org/2007/04/11/our-man-in-the-cinema-spoiler-warning/comment-page-1/#comment-46955 Brett Holman Thu, 19 Apr 2007 04:51:10 +0000 http://airminded.org/2007/04/11/our-man-in-the-cinema-spoiler-warning/#comment-46955 I guess it is a fair trade, and anyway it's not like curmudgeonly reviews actually detract from the movies themselves. But it seems strange to choose a film reviewer who just doesn't like movies, doesn't it? I guess it is a fair trade, and anyway it’s not like curmudgeonly reviews actually detract from the movies themselves. But it seems strange to choose a film reviewer who just doesn’t like movies, doesn’t it?

]]> By: david tiley http://airminded.org/2007/04/11/our-man-in-the-cinema-spoiler-warning/comment-page-1/#comment-46408 david tiley Sat, 14 Apr 2007 04:48:56 +0000 http://airminded.org/2007/04/11/our-man-in-the-cinema-spoiler-warning/#comment-46408 He wasn't a very good film reviewer. For a writer of popular culture, he was very hoity-toity about it, perhaps because he saw himself as using a trash form for serious purposes, and had to maintain his own internal critical mechanism. In that he was exactly right. I can easily forgive him some fumbles around Ealing comedies in return for <em>Our Man in Havana</em>.. He was formally credited for the script of <em>The Third Man</em> as well as the story. IMDB claims Alexander Korda, Orson Welles and Carol Reed as uncredited writers as well. So his brush with the movies doesn't prove that he understood them as hermetically satisfying in themselves. He wasn’t a very good film reviewer. For a writer of popular culture, he was very hoity-toity about it, perhaps because he saw himself as using a trash form for serious purposes, and had to maintain his own internal critical mechanism.

In that he was exactly right. I can easily forgive him some fumbles around Ealing comedies in return for Our Man in Havana..

He was formally credited for the script of The Third Man as well as the story. IMDB claims Alexander Korda, Orson Welles and Carol Reed as uncredited writers as well. So his brush with the movies doesn’t prove that he understood them as hermetically satisfying in themselves.

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