A Brief Look At Mark Kermode's Book 'Hatchet Job'
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HATCHET JOB
by MARK KERMODE
'Love Movies, Hate Critics'
Mark Kermode is a regular fixture at the BBC, presenting for The Culture Show and critiquing for both BBC News and on his own show on Radio 5 Live (with Simon Mayo). He has also made several documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4. As the chief film critic for The Observer he is not short of writing experience, which he also provides as the BFI’s Sight and Sound magazine’s contributing editor and in several books. As an author he is responsible for BFI books on The Exorcist, The Shawshank Redemption and Silent Running, although he has also published some of a more personal bent such as ‘It’s Only A Movie’ and ‘The Good, The Bad And The Multiplex’. |
A critic arrives at the gates of heaven.
“And what did you do?” asks Saint Peter. “Well,” says the dead soul, “I criticized things.” “I beg your pardon?” “You know, other people wrote things, performed things, painted things, and I said stuff like ‘thin and unconvincing, ‘turgid and uninspired’, ‘competent and serviceable’…you know” On which basis… I am clearly going to be turned away from the gates…and sent to spend all eternity in the other place – Mark Kermode (quoting Stephen Fry), page 169. |
The third in a trilogy of books on film, for this one Mark turns his gaze away from the screen and onto himself, or rather his profession – the film critic. Painfully aware that his job is considered the lowest rung of the journalistic ladder, the book is an attempt to justify his very existence. As though being looked down upon within the press trade was bad enough, Mark explains how thanks to the emergence of the internet, professional film critics are more redundant than ever. So in an age when the net provides readers with a saturated market of amateur reviewers, and film distributers are just as likely to turn to anonymous Twitter users for poster quote validations, how are there even any full-time critics left? And more importantly, why should we care?
While traditional philosophies of journalism urge unbiased writing, Kermode highlights how film criticism has always been the exception, suggesting that entertainment is the goal and that readers deliberately want the ‘hatchet job’ approach for their amusement, which he gladly and skilfully provides. But that is not to say the work is without value or integrity. Far from it.
Arguing that ‘these days professional film critics are viewed as being on a par with child-molesters and pension-fund embezzlers in the popularity stakes, and the media is constantly tying itself up in knots in an attempt to “get away from” the traditional values of proper film criticism’ Mark first points out why we might consider the very phrase ‘traditional values of proper film criticism’ archaic and pompous, then spends the following 250 pages successfully convincing us that such a thing not only exists, but really is important to the future of journalism. The not-so-revealing-but-interesting-and-told-well journey through the current state of film criticism takes us down the dark path of the untrustworthy reviews in national papers of unwatched films (Johnny Vaughan, tut tut), the difficulties in correctly dating films (when they were made vs when they are released), the grammatical dilemmas of punctuation (should AI Artificial Intelligence involve a colon?), and the futility of working for free (‘if film critics don’t think that what they do has worth, then why the hell should anyone else?’). |
Aside from discussing the negative view of professional film critics as cynical, out-of-touch snobs, he also draws attention to the specific problems with the new breed of internet amateurs who have reduced the market for well-paid work (a problem with journalism in general due to the decline of the print industry), how simultaneously the net has also boosted the careers of those willing to embrace it (and the benefits of being able to interact with your audience), the perils of being ‘first but wrong’ about a movie (‘film criticism is not breaking news’ and many people will even wait until after they have seen a film to read a review anyway), and how film distributers actually won’t hold a negative review against you - as long as it’s only about the film and not an unreasonable and unfounded opinion of their efforts to promote it, in which case your job can become very difficult (in Mark’s case he was blacklisted and in order to keep up with the basic demands of his job found himself travelling all the way to France just to see a movie). Along the way the passionate and outspoken Trotskyist shares many personal highs, lows and rants. He considers a comment from the late Roger Ebert to be a high point of his career (Ebert referred to Kermode as ‘fair’, ‘open-minded’ and ‘correct’, most of which surprised both Mark and the rest of the world), his friendship with the late director Ken Russell, weeping his heart out at the film Jeremy, amazement at the invention and then his first use of the fax machine, his regrets over making John Boorman a by-word for bad film-making during his Radio 1 days, the doubts he has had over his profession (of which, the entire book is a sort of cathartic cure), the problem Hollywood has of understanding the difference between what an audience want and what they need, and his disregard for the application of the term ‘auteur’ to directors. Overwhelmingly the book is concerned with the internet (‘best thing, everyone has access to it; worst thing, everyone has access to it’) and its impact upon film criticism. |
More than the grumblings of an old man anxious about younger blood taking over, Mark raises some interesting issues, particularly about Amazon (‘the world’s largest market-place for film products’) and the customer reviews which accompany their DVDs (There is ‘a key paradigm shift… film critics generally file their reviews to run in tandem with a movie opening in cinemas, but it is widely understood that many… will only see that movie when it comes out on disc or download, meaning that reviews tied to the home-viewing market are arguably more relevant and influential’). Also of concern is the disturbing ability on Amazon to ‘white-wash’ negative reviews, plus the tendency of unscrupulous authors to adopt pseudonyms and bolster their positive ratings.
However it’s not all doom and gloom for film critics. The book ends with a rather upbeat summation of the industry, one in which professional critics and their new best friends the internet ‘amateurs’ all happily pack into a theatre together laughing at the fact they’re getting away with not having a proper job and that their work is now exposed (and archived) to more readers than ever.
Kermode’s ‘Hatchet Job’ may not be the best book to reach for if you’re looking for some academic insight into the worlds of the film industry, journalism or media analysis, however if you have designs on being a film critic (either professional or amateur), then as a first-hand account of the life, this book is probably indispensable.
FIRST PUBLISHED: 2013
PUBLISHER: Picador
PAGES: 320
However it’s not all doom and gloom for film critics. The book ends with a rather upbeat summation of the industry, one in which professional critics and their new best friends the internet ‘amateurs’ all happily pack into a theatre together laughing at the fact they’re getting away with not having a proper job and that their work is now exposed (and archived) to more readers than ever.
Kermode’s ‘Hatchet Job’ may not be the best book to reach for if you’re looking for some academic insight into the worlds of the film industry, journalism or media analysis, however if you have designs on being a film critic (either professional or amateur), then as a first-hand account of the life, this book is probably indispensable.
FIRST PUBLISHED: 2013
PUBLISHER: Picador
PAGES: 320
Before You Go...
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