Saturday, February 07, 2009

Sorta Good In Some Ways

One thing I've always admired about Cinema Retro's reviews is their willingness to look at many films in totality. The post on The Outrage, for instance, makes it clear that this western with Paul Newman, Laurence Harvey and Claire Bloom is a failure. It is lost in its own pretentiousness in many places, reaching for an importance the story can't support. Yet they find a number of elements to like, even admire, especially the acting of Newman, Bloom and Edward G. Robinson. Harvey is wasted in an underwritten part. I wish more reviews were willing to forego the all-knowing tone of the superior critic evaluating the work of the inferior creators. There's a somewhat irksome review of Joe Gores' Spade & Archer in the NY Times today that starts out smug and remains that way through much of its assessment. I'll take Marilyn Stasio's approach any day.

For The Outrage review go here:

http://www.cinemaretro.com/index.php

1 comment:

Unknown said...

The novelization was done by Marvin H. Albert. I haven't read it, but I'll bet it's interesting in its own way.