C.S.I. Riyadh

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In her Year of the Dragon review in '85, I distinctly remember Pauline Kael crediting Elvis Mitchell for the term "mood hair" --- a reference to Mickey Rourke's sometimes gray, sometimes gray and brown, sometimes grayish-white thatch in Michael Cimino's crime film. Kael set a good example by reminding that if you want to use some other critic's line or phrase in your own movie review it's good manners to credit them. I have an experience to relate along these lines that's hardly worth mentioning, but I'm going to mention it anyway.

In his 10.1.07 review of Peter Berg's The Kingdom, New Yorker critic Anthony Lane used the term "C.S.I. Riyadh" to describe a portion of the film. To the best of my knowledge I was first out of the gate with that term. On 8.5.07 I wrote that The Kingdom was "an episode of CSI: Riyadh with a totally riveting third-act that recalls the trapped-diplomat-ambush scene in Clear and Present Danger."

Maybe someone else used it before me (it's that that brilliant a term -- anyone could have thought of it), but if I were to write my first-ever Kingdom review today and wanted to use it, I would include a tip-of-the-hat to Lane.

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on September 26, 2007 at 9:21 AM

comment #1

Quinn says ...

You are growing crazier by the minute

Posted by Quinn at September 26, 2007 9:49 AM

comment #2

christian says ...

i thought of CSI as i saw the trailer. it's an obvious trope based on obvious material.

Posted by christian at September 26, 2007 9:52 AM

comment #3

Mike Schaefer says ...

Peter Travers in RS uses the same phrase.

Posted by Mike Schaefer at September 26, 2007 9:57 AM

comment #4

ednla says ...

James Berardinelli uses the phrase "CSI: Saudi Arabia" in his review.

Posted by ednla at September 26, 2007 10:03 AM

comment #5

Joel says ...

part of the frustration of writing for a dvd review site is that everyone has reviewed the movies already, so all the obvious lines are taken. i'm always happy when a good description i've thought up hasn't already been claimed by someone more visible, whom everyone would just assume i stole from.

Posted by Joel at September 26, 2007 10:11 AM

comment #6

Howlingman says ...

Just be content to be a trailblazer on this one, Jeff. 'Cause if it quacks like a duck ...

Posted by Howlingman at September 26, 2007 10:18 AM

comment #7

George Prager says ...

Anthony Lane sucks. In addition to "mood hair" Roarke had a "mood scab" on his nose.

Posted by George Prager at September 26, 2007 10:20 AM

comment #8

Howlingman says ...

Joel -- what site do you write for?

Posted by Howlingman at September 26, 2007 10:22 AM

comment #9

Joel says ...

digitallyobsessed.com

Posted by Joel at September 26, 2007 10:25 AM

comment #10

Daniel Fienberg says ...

On April 7, 2007, on his Punitive Superego blog (http://andrewdignan.blogspot.com/2007/04/when-did-peter-berg-become-better.html), Andrew Dignan wrote "The trailers for the film give off a distinct "C.S.I.: Riyadh" feel, which isnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t exactly wrong."

I am NOT, I want to emphasize, accusing you of stealing "CSI: Riyadh" from Dignan. I'm also not suggesting that Anthony Lane and Peter Travers didn't rip you off like scribbling bandits.

I am, however, noting that sometimes there are ideas that just make sense and ideas that smart people could come to independently.

-Daniel

Posted by Daniel Fienberg at September 26, 2007 10:42 AM

comment #11

Midwest Doug says ...

I think it's too obvious a metaphor to get upset about it. Besides, Lane used periods in 'CSI' -- completely different!

Posted by Midwest Doug at September 26, 2007 10:55 AM

comment #12

kammy says ...

Sometimes, great minds do think alike!

Posted by kammy at September 26, 2007 10:57 AM

comment #13

gruver1 says ...

Wells to Feinberg: I stand corrected. Dignan said it first.

Posted by gruver1 at September 26, 2007 10:58 AM

comment #14

actionman says ...

Simply stating that THE KINGDOM is "CSI: Riyadh" or "CSI: Saudi Arabia" is a lazy (and pretty lame) critical assessment of a first rate action film.

I could only hope for a few smart, R-rated, completely kick-ass action films like THE KINGDOM to come out every year.

Posted by actionman at September 26, 2007 11:25 AM

comment #15

actionman says ...

oh, and Anthony Lane lost a lot of credibility with his review of Jesse James.

Posted by actionman at September 26, 2007 11:28 AM

comment #16

sardine says ...

Kael is the great critic. Stephanie Zacharek & hubby Charles Taylor are the best critics writing today. Denby and Lane are the worst...

Posted by sardine at September 26, 2007 11:31 AM

comment #17

George Prager says ...

Denby and Lane do suck, but Zacharek and Taylor? Those two fops really blow.

Posted by George Prager at September 26, 2007 11:38 AM

comment #18

Lee says ...

It's exactly like Leibniz and Newton creating calculus at the same time. Exactly.

Posted by Lee at September 26, 2007 11:39 AM

comment #19

T. S. Idiot says ...

Did Pauline credit Elvis because it was the right thing to do or because he was one of her proteges?

Posted by T. S. Idiot at September 26, 2007 12:12 PM

comment #20

Mgmax, le Corbeau says ...

I think that one was fairly easy to arrive at. Now if someone says Ray Winstone in Indiana Jones looks like he's guest-starring on Bonanza, that's another matter.

Actually, a couple of years after my Encyclopedia of Movie Awards was published a dozen years ago, a fairly unusual four or five word phrase from it appeared verbatim in an Entertainment Weekly article about the history of the Oscars. It wasn't something meant to be clever, so it's not like they stole my joke, and it clearly wasn't enough of my text to consider plagiarism; it was probably just one of those cases where someone had read what I wrote, it had shaped their thinking on the subject, and when the time came to write something on the subejct, the same phrase popped out. I took it as a compliment.

Posted by Mgmax, le Corbeau at September 26, 2007 12:13 PM

comment #21

corey3rd says ...

JWW

That's a chip shot joke. Now when I dubbed JarJar Binks the "Intergalactic Stepin Fetchit," I demanded royalty payments from other snide critics.

and I'm eagerly awaiting critics to steal my call of Carlos Mencia as "The 21st Century Tom Arnold."

Posted by corey3rd at September 26, 2007 12:13 PM

comment #22

T. S. Idiot says ...

Didn't Wells once write for EW?

Posted by T. S. Idiot at September 26, 2007 12:17 PM

comment #23

polevod says ...

I love Anthony Lane. His reviews almost always make me laugh, and the last line of his review for eXistenZ ("bOrinG") made me LOL, not just LQTM, since I read it after seeing the movie.

Posted by polevod at September 26, 2007 5:23 PM

comment #24