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Re: While I do enjoy listening to...

But that also cuts both ways: 2 1/2 stars for The Coen's "O Brother, Where Art Thou"? A film I love, and can watch over and over again. 2 1/2 stars for the French film "The Closet", a film that both Victor and I love. Or the Life Aquatic? Softness seems code for "I disagree." Am I soft because I like The Closet? Is Victor?

Does this mean that he is more critical because he liked them and I did not? Or that Vic and I are amused by childish humor, as we were in the Closet, and that Ebert saw something we did not?

Hardly. And here is the crux. Some people are so arrogant that they consider themselves the arbiter of taste, art, etc. If someone like Ebert likes something they did not, it because Ebert is "middle brow", or mass market. If Ebert does not like something they did, then he is stupid.

I often disagree with Ebert. But I consider myself above calling him names, or denigrating him. I call that being civilized. Some people simply resort to calling him names. Those are usually people who have nothing intelligent to contribute to the discourse. Note among those who refer to him as "middle brow", "mass market", etc., they provide no analysis, no facts in support, and no examples.

The value of a critic is not in the reader's agreeing with the critic, but it is the ability of that critic to communicate to the reader why he or she did or did not like the film, and whether the reader would or would not like the film. I am not familiar with a critic who is a better writer than Ebert. And certainly those who complain about him do not supply another critic which has the writing ability he possesses.

It is said that the cream rises to the top. I suspect that some (cough, cough, Donald, cough) are jealous that Ebert makes a very good living watching films, has earned much respect among persons in the industry, has risen to a position where he is a jury member of some prestigious film festivals, provide D.V.D. commentary for such middle brown films like Citizen Kane and Casablanca, gets to travel the world, and people actually care about what he has to say and write about films. Perhaps some are jealous that Ebert's cream has risen, while theirs is serving as a culture for some scientist.

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