Every year at Rider University there is a film symposium that gives students and faculty a chance to learn about film in an engaging and fascinating way outside of the classroom. Although my favorite Symposium was on horror films, however I thoroughly enjoyed this year’s film symposium as well. The theme this year being 1962. As 2012 marks the 50th anniversary of The School of Liberal Arts.
What is so fantastic about the year of 1962 was that there was a huge number of great films released that year, including To Kill A Mocking Bird, Dr. No, Birdman of Alcatraz, Lawrence of Arabia, and Advise and Consent. Not only did attendees get to watch classic films from that year, but they also got to see a Rider Alumni who is a well-known film critic. Dr. Gerald Peary, who graduated Rider in 1964, went on to critique film for over 30 years, taught classes on film, and even made his own movie about criticism. Peary showed his feature film titled, Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism. The film takes an in-depth look into the world of film criticism and shows the audience a side they’ve never seen before.
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| Dr. Gerald Peary |
In my opinion, Dr. Peary’s film was excellent and I found the film to be very informative as well. Honestly, when I first had heard about his film my immediate reaction was “oh boy an entire film about film critics.” However, upon watching his film I was extremely surprised. I was being both entertained and informed. Peary’s film gave a history and commentary on all of film criticism. Before viewing the film I had an idea of what film critics were like in my mind. I love mostly all movies and had viewed film critics as the people who didn’t normally like what I did.
Watching this film made me completely change my perspective on film critics as a whole. An excellent example of this was when Dr. Peary was asked what drew him towards the career of film criticism. He responded, “I’m a film critic for my love of film. I want other people to see the same films that I saw and love.” The film really showed how much more there is to this profession.
After seeing all of the critics who spoke in the film I realized that critics, like me, have a true love for film. They don’t critique films because they want to bash them or they hate all new movies, but their critiques are in depth responses to a film. The critics do this because they want to show people what to look for in a movie and they expand on the film. Peary has said, “What a critic does is contextualize the movie in terms of history, politics, a filmmaker’s career, and genre.” He went on to mention that, “A film critic sees the movie as just a starting point for a more general discussion and that’s why I hope someone will go see a movie, because the audience will realize that the movie is more than just a movie.”
Hearing things like this and the commentary from the different film critics really hit me. It made me realize how much more there is to film criticism. The critics don’t want to solely judge the film they want to expand on it and make readers realize how much is put into a film. This feature film not only expanded my mind as to what a critic is, but it also made me realize something about myself.
Dare I say it?... Okay, okay I’ll confess. I Zach Davis would actually like to be a film critic at some point in my life. I know they say that anyone can be a critic, but I would like to work for a paper or some website. Honestly, I can’t think of a better job then seeing and discussing films all day. I’ve always thought if you love what you do you never have to work a day in your life. I don’t know what the future does hold in store for me, but I do know that my future will involve film.
