AFF's Doublethink

So, no sooner do I praise lists than Ben Shapiro writes the single stupidest list I’ve ever seen that fully validates all of the criticisms levied against the practice by Mark Athiakis in his rant.  Shapiro’s list is that of the most overrated directors of all time. Just to give you a sense of how foolish his ranking is, he names Alfred Hitchcock as the most overrated director of all time. Taste is subjective, but anyone who chooses Alfred Hitchcock as the most overrated director ever has none. I mean, Hitch is by no means my favorite helmer, but the man made a half -dozen of the best films in the history of Hollywood and is easily one of the two or three most influential directors of all time. Trying to interpret modern cinema without understanding his contribution to the medium (both in terms of visual and storytelling prowess) is impossible.

Let’s leave that aside for the moment. Let’s also leave aside that Shapiro considers Scorsese to be the second most overrated director of all time, which couldn’t be more idiotic. Let’s instead look at the substance of his criticism of #10 on his list: Ridley Scott.*

Scott, he complains, has “received accolades that far outpace his actual accomplishments.” What does Shapiro think of those accomplishments? Blade Runner is “bizarre.” Thelma and Louise is “liberal tripe.” Kingdom of Heaven is a “slap at Christianity.” And my favorite: Alien is “slow.”

Ah, yes: Alien is slow. I mean, it’s no Aliens vs. Predators. After all, we wouldn’t want a horror film to slowly build tension and a sense of claustrophobic terror when we could just blow shit up real good, right?

This is just lazy criticism, and I think it’s mildly unbelievable that Big Hollywood saw fit to publish it. I have a fair amount of respect for what Andrew Breitbart’s doing with his “Bigs,” and I think Big Hollywood has been relatively solid, for the most part. They publish smart film critics like Christian Toto, funny writers like Greg Gutfeld and smart Hollywood conservatives like the actor Michael Moriarity. I think that the editor, John Nolte, has done a very good job creating a space for the site and has produced something that didn’t really exist prior to its creation.

But I also think that every once in a while Big Hollywood publishes something like this that gives people reason to take conservatives less seriously when it comes to cultural criticism in general and writing about movies in particular. (Another example is Pam Meister’s factually incorrect examination of the band Green Day and their commercial success.) I mean, Shapiro’s list isn’t just poor as a matter of taste — people are always going to disagree on the relative worth of various cultural products; such is life — it’s poor because it’s lazy criticism that doesn’t grapple with the filmmakers he chooses to disparage or the critics who have championed them, and it doesn’t deal with their bodies of work on any level deeper than the most superficial.

And, finally, once again: “It’s bad because it’s liberal!” is not a legitimate criticism of art, just as “It’s bad because it’s conservative!” isn’t a legitimate criticism of art.

*Let’s also leave aside the fact that Ridley Scott is not only a great director, he’s one of the most versatile men in the business. Over the last four decades he’s released masterpieces in the genres of horror (Alien, 1979), sci-fi (Blade Runner, 1982), sword-and-sandal epic (Gladiator, 2000) and war (Black Hawk Down, 2001). He has his fair share of misses, but his hits are all home runs.