You can accuse me of this or that, but you know what I’m totally innocent of, and will remain innocent of for the rest of of my life? Being a mob scold.
I’ve scolded or criticized or vivisected this or that film or actor or you-name-it, but as an individual. I’ve never, ever taken part in a Twitter or comment-thread gang-up or beat-down of someone for having expressed an unpopular or minority view….never.
I’ll debate someone if I disagree with him/her, but once others join me in taking shots and particularly once they get out the pellet rifle and start drilling the victim over and over…I quit. I leave the room. I hate it when those fucking bullies (and you know who I’m talking about) go after someone. Snarling wolf pack, fangs bared, tearing at flesh.
From “HE vs. Snooty Morricone Scolds,” posted on 7.7.20: Futile repeating of basics: The late Ennio Morricone was a legendary film-music composer. The common consensus is that he deserves a place in the pantheon, and I’m certainly not arguing with that. But his score for Terrence Malick‘s Days of Heaven (’78) is the only one I truly love, and I just don’t believe that his stuff was otherwise all that elevating or transcendent. Over a half-century-long career he created good, respectable, at times haunting, occasionally hum-worthy music. And that’s as far as I can go.
Alas, yesterday the People’s Central Committee for the Assessment and Approval of Critical Opinion decided that yesterday’s “Subdued Respect” post had to be condemned. What’s that old Carly Simon line? “These are the good old days.”
