Clooney: Audiences Need Reviewers To Tell Them How Great We Are

This interview with Spielberg, Lee, Clooney, and some other guys you never heard of is linked a lot for the statement that filmmakers are more "proactive" about their political beliefs now, but I liked this part by George Clooney:

Clooney: ... I'll wager that every one of our films, when you first tested it with an audience, tested much lower than after it was reviewed. Sometimes people need reviews to explain what a film is, to put it into some sort of perspective.

He's probably right about that, but for the wrong reason. Some people are very succeptible to pressure to conform to the judgments and tastes of others -- those they consider tastemakers -- and undoubtedly a lot of these people need to be told which movies they really, really like.

I've ranted about "disposable classics," supposedly great films that are great for six months, when reviewers are hyping them and the herd is baaing about them, and then are never watched, or even thought of, again. Real greatness is determined by how many DVD libraries you're in three years later. I don't see Brokeback Mountain, Syriana, Good Night, and Good Luck, or Munich passing the DVD library test.

posted by Ace at 11:32 AM

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