User:TPoole/sandbox: Difference between revisions

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Mailer’s film career is another matter. Cinematic adaptations of his literature

began with ''The Naked and the Dead'' (1958), and continued with such films as ''See You in Hell, Darling'' (1966), ''Marilyn: The Untold Story'' (1980), and ''The Executioner’s Song'' (1982). But then there is also the quartet of films that Mailer directed over a period of two decades: ''Wild 90'' (1968), ''Beyond the Law'' (1968), ''Maidstone'' (1970), and ''Tough Guys Don’t Dance'' (1987). At the time of this writing, the first three are not available on DVD in the United States.

''Tough Guys Don’t Dance'' is readily available, as are its many bad reviews.

In fact, it is easier to find to negative reviews of all of Mailer’s films than

worthwhile analyses of them. “Not the most wretched movie ever made, but

close,” so claims one ''Maidstone'' viewer on the erstwhile ''InternetMovie Database'', that regularly inaccurate online encyclopedia which doubles as a commercial for Amazon.com (“Maidstone”). Of ''Beyond the Law'', another amateur reviewer tells us it is “a vanity project of the most arrogant sort” (“Beyond the Law”).

But enough of self-anointed internet critics. Their ease of accessibility on

the World Wide Web is matched by their equally limited depth and shelf life.

And judgments of what is “good” and “bad” are all-too-often opinions that say as much about the persons who offer them as they do about the work of art under consideration. Instead of ill-formed posts on the internet, Mailer’s

four films need something else. They need to be reclaimed by film historians, because, while they have held a place in Mailer’s biography, they have usually been ignored in tales of the cinema.

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 Mailer’s film career is another matter. Cinematic adaptations of his literature
 began with ''The Naked and the Dead'' (1958), and continued with such films as ''See You in Hell, Darling'' (1966), ''Marilyn: The Untold Story'' (1980), and ''The Executioner’s Song'' (1982). But then there is also the quartet of films that Mailer directed over a period of two decades: ''Wild 90'' (1968), ''Beyond the Law'' (1968), ''Maidstone'' (1970), and ''Tough Guys Don’t Dance'' (1987). At the time of this writing, the first three are not available on DVD in the United States.
+''Tough Guys Don’t Dance'' is readily available, as are its many bad reviews.
+In fact, it is easier to find to negative reviews of all of Mailer’s films than
+worthwhile analyses of them. “Not the most wretched movie ever made, but
+close,” so claims one ''Maidstone'' viewer on the erstwhile ''InternetMovie Database'', that regularly inaccurate online encyclopedia which doubles as a commercial for Amazon.com (“Maidstone”). Of ''Beyond the Law'', another amateur reviewer tells us it is “a vanity project of the most arrogant sort” (“Beyond the Law”).
+But enough of self-anointed internet critics. Their ease of accessibility on
+the World Wide Web is matched by their equally limited depth and shelf life.
+And judgments of what is “good” and “bad” are all-too-often opinions that say as much about the persons who offer them as they do about the work of art under consideration. Instead of ill-formed posts on the internet, Mailer’s
+four films need something else. They need to be reclaimed by film historians, because, while they have held a place in Mailer’s biography, they have usually been ignored in tales of the cinema.