18 Apr '13 11:56>7 edits
I rarely read or listen to critics
Source : scacchipazzo 'It pains us to admit it' thread
I don't know whether this is just because scacchipazzo happens not to read critics, and prefers his own judgement. However, a number of posters on this site have previously mentioned they don't bother to read critics as they mostly find their opinions worthless.
As I mentioned before in this thread, I recently saw an excellent film called The Hunt (semi-spoiler alert), about a man accused of being a paedophile. After I had seen the film, I trawled the web for reviews. We are talking, I should say, of people paid to write criticism professionally.
Mostly they were extremely positive, like my impression, but some professional critics made the following negative comments:
1 The film was misogynistic, as it was primarily the women who were 'duped' into believing that the man might be a paedophile, and their behaviour is shown in a biased and negative light.
2 The film was unbelievable, as the acccusations by the child concerned which start the whole process were unprompted, and it was impossible to believe a young girl (e.g. about 5-6) would make, and in particular continue to stand by, such allegations without outside influence.
3 Evidence that the film was misogynistic included the fact that the lead character's dog's name was Fanny.
To which I make the following comments:
1 In the film, just as many, if not more, men are 'duped' as women. The men, indeed, act very much more badly than the women.
2 I have no idea whether 5-6 year old girls would make such allegations unprompted. However, there are two absolutely pivotal scenes in the film where adults are shown (unintentionally) effectively forcing the child to repeat these allegations. One is a man, the other is a woman.
3 The film is in Danish.
Which leads me to wonder:
1 Did these critics actually watch the film?
2 If they did, what makes them think they deserve to be paid for this level of insight?
Interestingly, I noted that one piece of negative criticism came out some time after the main round (which had been pretty much exclusively positive). I was left with the distinct impression that the publication had decided that another article praising the film wouldn't be very 'copy worthy' and so went with a negative one just to be contraversial.
So, what is your experience of critics? Do you value their opinions and, if so, which ones and why?