Subjective vs. Objective? February 9, 2007
Posted by ghostof82 in : Film General , trackbackHow should people review films on a blog? Should it be an analytical, objective, reasoning view, examing a films merits and failings? Or should it be a subjective view, one of opinion weighing up personal preferences or dislikes? After all, while I love BLADE RUNNER I would be the first to admit that it isn’t the greatest film ever made, even though it is my personal favorite.
Writing my blog in the past I have tried, where possible, to share experiences or memories regards viewing the films that I review or pass comment on. I’d like to think that it informs any opinion, in that the first experience of a film can very often have weight on the final opinion of that film. It might just be my age at the time, since that always bears greatly on viewpoint of a film. As regards BLADE RUNNER, when I saw it in 1982 I was sixteen years old, I’d spent my childhood loving the original STAR TREK tv show, STAR WARS and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS at the cinema, and BLADE RUNNER was my first real ‘adult’ serious sci-fi experience at the cinema and it blew me away. Likewise I love THE ABYSS above any other James Cameron film, partly because the underwater setting fascinated me, the script was intelligent, the hero a ‘normal’, even balding joe, and also that when I walked out of the cinema I walked into a rainy storm that seemed as wild as that in the film. Now THE ABYSS can hardly be described as a highpoint of modern cinema, but nonetheless it is one of my favourite films.
In just the same way, as I reach my forty-first birthday next week, I find that my age and experiences weigh on my opinion of old films and new ones. I seem to look back at older films with greater affection (sometimes more than they perhaps deserve) and treat the new films with growing contempt and a jaundiced view at film-making that seems primarily informed by market research and committee. Young readers likely think of me as a miserable old bugger who knows nothing of modern cinema. Perhaps older readers read my blog who share similarly weary sentiments as mine. Are my opinions any less valid than anybody else’s?
I suppose my thoughts here are nothing at all new. I am sure STAR WARS fans of my generation all spare a special love for the original trilogy, while younger readers may well prefer the special editions or the prequel trilogy. I remember when I was young and older people would wax lyrical about the merits of ‘old’ films such as JASON & THE ARGONAUTS, and I would be mystified because I thought the new blue-screen, motion-controlled fx shots far superior to the old stop-motion, front-projection fx of Ray Harryhausen. Here I am years later, looking back with affection at miniatures and matte paintings on glass and optical photography, and feeling cold toward cgi fx. I guess in some ways things have come full circle. Perhaps it’s just middle age.
So subjective vs. objective? I don’t know. I just hope my ramblings and memories on my blog entries might strike a chord with some of you readers, or perhaps just excuse what might sometimes seem misguided viewpoints.
Comments»
Good blog. I’ve done some writing for DVD Times before, and the style of my reviews was much more objective than it is on my Film Journal. I believe on a blog you can bring your own influences, loves and hates, tangential asides (e.g. you placed The Abyss, above, in the context of the weather on the day you saw it, which is more appropriate here than it would be if, say, you were writing about it for a newspaper), etc, to bear when covering these topics.
Jason and the Argonauts - an utter classic. You might cite middle age, but I watched it over the Christmas period with my seven-year old boy and he fell in love with its scope and imagination, much as he did with some of the old Pertwee Whos… I guess good entertainment is just that, whatever the brilliance of the effects.