DVD Criticism
Adam Jahnke has written an excellent article on the Point and Purpose of DVD criticism. Well worth a read.
Once you've done that, here's my comments on it:
(cause I'm a wanker)
Film criticism must now incorporate DVD criticism.
Why?
1. DVDs have been instrumental in reawakening an interest in film history. From Citizen Kane to Riffi to Intolerance to Tron - its all at our fingertips in the way its meant to be seen. Yet the contemporary criticism of those movies has dissapeared from our cultural memory. I'm not interested in some DVD reviewers nostalgia trip combined with waxing lyrical about the superlative or subpar DVD encoding, I'm interested in good criticism to help me engage with that movie better.
2. Part and parcel of this is DVD extras. They have been instrumental in reawakening an interest in film culture. Yet we also need criticism of DVD extras so we can engage with them and how they place the movie. For many of us film buffs and professionals DVD extras are a vital part of our lives - we'll often buy DVDs *just* because of their extras - because they help us expand our knowledge and love of film in the same way that Future Noir did of Bladerunner (for example)
3. The problem with the domination of the waveform-dvd-review-crowd is that they often ignore film history and film culture. I've seen absolute shit movies get good reviews because they have good transfers. It sadly seems that most of these 'reviewers' are interested in discs which show off their expensive home theatre setups rather than the movies themselves. Y'know its a sad day for film criticism when small, quiet films get knocked down points because they don't have an immersive 5.1 sound mix. (Tho, to be frank, Action movies do seem to be the most popular discs) - or, more importantly, that the only criteria to be a 'DVD reviewer' is having a surround system and a big TV as opposed to like, knowing stuff about movies - cause, guess what, not all opinions are equal. :)
Once you've done that, here's my comments on it:
(cause I'm a wanker)
Film criticism must now incorporate DVD criticism.
Why?
1. DVDs have been instrumental in reawakening an interest in film history. From Citizen Kane to Riffi to Intolerance to Tron - its all at our fingertips in the way its meant to be seen. Yet the contemporary criticism of those movies has dissapeared from our cultural memory. I'm not interested in some DVD reviewers nostalgia trip combined with waxing lyrical about the superlative or subpar DVD encoding, I'm interested in good criticism to help me engage with that movie better.
2. Part and parcel of this is DVD extras. They have been instrumental in reawakening an interest in film culture. Yet we also need criticism of DVD extras so we can engage with them and how they place the movie. For many of us film buffs and professionals DVD extras are a vital part of our lives - we'll often buy DVDs *just* because of their extras - because they help us expand our knowledge and love of film in the same way that Future Noir did of Bladerunner (for example)
3. The problem with the domination of the waveform-dvd-review-crowd is that they often ignore film history and film culture. I've seen absolute shit movies get good reviews because they have good transfers. It sadly seems that most of these 'reviewers' are interested in discs which show off their expensive home theatre setups rather than the movies themselves. Y'know its a sad day for film criticism when small, quiet films get knocked down points because they don't have an immersive 5.1 sound mix. (Tho, to be frank, Action movies do seem to be the most popular discs) - or, more importantly, that the only criteria to be a 'DVD reviewer' is having a surround system and a big TV as opposed to like, knowing stuff about movies - cause, guess what, not all opinions are equal. :)
posted by stu willis at
9:09 pm
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