This Way

"They Went Thataway" (1994, Mercury House) by the National Society of Film Critics is that densest of books- offering page by page informed critical opinions of the highest order in engaging writing styles. 

Here's Jonathan Rosenbaum (right) on Fatal Attraction: "Some other critics have compared this picture to a Hitchcock thriller. But while the Master of Suspense was certainly capable of working with an audience's guilty feelings about illicit sex to generate tension, he always gave this tension a moral weight and a certain amount of moral ambiguity." 

And Kenneth Turan on Reservoir Dogs: "...Quentin Tarantino has arrived, in your face and on the screen. His brash debut film... is as much a calling card as a movie, an audacious high-wire act announcing that he is here and to be reckoned with. Strong violence is (his) passion and he embraces it with gleeful, almost religious fervor. An energetic macho stunt, (it) glories in its excess of blood and profanity, delighting- in classic Grand Guignol fashion- in going as far over the top as the man's imagination will take it. Tarantino does have the filmmaking flair to go along with his zeal."

Its editor Richard T. Jameson demonstrates the nature of genre and our awareness of it, and tells us about its mutations and cross-pollinations.

In his introduction, "The Repeatable Experience, " Stephen Schiff relates the explosion of genre to the rise of genre spoof and the recombinant genre. He also shows what a true film noir is, and differentiates genre from trend.

In "On Mob Rule," Carrie Rickey traces the history of the gangster movie, noting the mythologization of the three types of heroes: the cop, the cowboy, and the gangster.

On the other hand, J. Hoberman reflects on the sacredness of the Western in American mythology, recognizing its truths and totems, in "On How the Western Was Lost."

Peter Keough's "On Women, Films, and the Women's Film" is a meditation on the stock images of the woman in cinema. He examines the gap between actresses of the old and now, and the reduction of their roles into the delimited and the dehumanized.

Meanwhile, Dave Kehr touts a filmmaker's sensibility that goes with an adaptation. He cites Tim Burton's Batman Returns as an accomplished example of such personalization. 

The Society treats us with choices both obvious ( Roxanne, The Grifters, Raising Arizona) and unexpected (Angels Hard as They Come!).

Prominent critics give us their take on some of the most important movies: David Ansen on Aliens; Roger Ebert on The Big Red One; Andrew Sarris on Groundhog Day; Owen Gleiberman on The Silence of the Lambs; and Michael Sragow on Invasion of the Body Snatchers, among others.

There are also tributes to some of the most distinguished directors. For example, Kehr on Anthony Mann, and Michael Wilmington on Howard Hawks. 

Moreover, there are separate sections on the director and the star as genres in themselves. Different critics interrogate different Woody Allen movies, and Jay Carr attempts to explain why contemporary stars like Glenn Close don't hold a candle to supernovas of old like Katharine Hepburn. 

Try Richard Schickel on Crimes and Misdemeanors: "Allen is suggesting that if the deity himself is not dead, then he must be suffering from severely impaired vision."

Or Richard Corliss on Spike Lee and Malcolm X: "... he sees so much riding on each of his films: the future of cinema, precious testimony from an African-American perspective, and, not least, the reputation- carefully nourished, always vulnerable- of Spike Lee.... Some other director will have to find a way to merge the danger of a brilliant, racist orator with the seismic jolt of energized filmmaking."

Or David Denby on Body of Evidence: " Does (it) make it as a trash classic, a howl for the ages? No. Edel doesn't have enough fantasy and warmth to make enjoyable trash. The only dream here is Madonna's- that men will become so aroused by her they will begin dropping dead all over the place."

Along the way, we see what thespians such as Frank Langella, Virginia Madsen and Terry O'Quinn had been working on 10, 20 years ago.

The book ends with a list of movies considered genre classics, citing more recent fare along with easier picks: swashbucklers and epics (The Right Stuff), biopics (The Elephant Man), and political films (The Great McGinty, Hail the Conquering Hero) among them.

Other contributors include Bruce Williamson, Gary Arnold, Morris Dickstein, Julie Salamon, Andy Klein, Henry Sheehan and Kevin Thomas.

All told, "They Went Thataway" does not aim to be the last word on movies, but it certainly points the way to a lively discussion within the community- critics, filmmakers, moviegoers, and readers. 

The book, just like the society, is as good as it gets.