Movies That Mattered

Dave Kehr

Dave Kehr

Movies That Mattered

More Reviews from a Transformative Decade

University of Chicago Press | 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7208/9780226495712

Overview
Contents

About this book

Dave Kehr’s writing about film has garnered high praise from both readers and fellow critics. Among his admirers are some of his most influential contemporaries. Roger Ebert called Kehr “one of the most gifted film critics in America.” James Naremore thought he was “one of the best writers on film the country as a whole has ever produced.” But aside from remarkably detailed but brief capsule reviews and top-ten lists, you won’t find much of Kehr’s work on the Internet, and many of the longer and more nuanced essays for which he is best known have not yet been published in book form.

With When Movies Mattered, readers welcomed the first collection of Kehr’s criticism, written during his time at the Chicago Reader. Movies That Mattered is its sequel, with fifty more reviews and essays drawn from the archives of both the Chicago Reader and Chicago magazine from 1974 to 1986. As with When Movies Mattered, the majority of the reviews offer in-depth analyses of individual films that are among Kehr’s favorites, from a thoughtful discussion of the sobering Holocaust documentary Shoah to an irresistible celebration of the raucous comedy Used Cars. But fans of Kehr’s work will be just as taken by his dissections of critically acclaimed films he found disappointing, including The Shining, Apocalypse Now, and Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Whether you’re a long-time reader or just discovering Dave Kehr, the insights in Movies That Mattered will enhance your appreciation of the movies you already love—and may even make you think twice about one or two you hated.

Author information

Dave Kehr wrote film criticism for the Chicago Reader and Chicago magazine during the 1970s and early 1980s. In 1986, he became the principal film critic for the Chicago Tribune, where he worked until 1992, when he became a film critic for the New York Daily News. He then wrote a weekly DVD column for the New York Times until 2013. He is now a curator in the Film Department at the Museum of Modern Art. His previous collection, When Movies Mattered, was also published by the University of Chicago Press.

Reviews

“Extraordinary. . . . The 1980s were not the most salubrious decade in which to shine as a movie reviewer, . . . but as with all great reviewers—Pauline Kael, Andrew Sarris, Manny Farber—Kehr’s reviews fly free from their ostensible subjects to become specimens of cultural criticism. Agree with his opinions or not, they’re always smart, lucid, well argued, and witty. This book is a pleasure to read.”

— Peter Biskind, New York Times Book Review

"The ability to see a film projected more than once has significantly aided the training of Kehr's visual sensibilities, which he displays with sharp analyses of the varied styles of Robert Bresson, Joe Dante, Stanley Kubrick, Akira Kurosawa, Elaine May, and Orson Welles."

— Cineaste

"Kehr is a prodigious critic and this collection is an excellent sampling of his voice."

— Publishers Weekly

"Kehr's descriptive prose conjures a rich, multilayered experience—not unlike the one delivered through cinema."

— Chicago Reader

Frontmatter Free access PDF PDF	i
Contents Free access PDF PDF	v
Foreword Jonathan Rosenbaum Free access PDF PDF	vii
Introductory Note Free access PDF PDF	xi
Part 1. From Chicago Magazine
The Black Stallion Carroll Ballard Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	3
Used Cars Robert Zemeckis Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	6
Tess Roman Polanski Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	9
Westerns Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	12
Disney Films Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	15
Budd Boetticher Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	18
The Mystery of Oberwald Michelangelo Antonioni Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	22
The French “Tradition of Quality” Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	26
The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	30
Sequels Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	34
Jacques Rivette Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	37
Boat People Ann Hui Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	40
L’argent Robert Bresson Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	43
A Sunday in the Country Bertrand Tavernier Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	47
Mikey and Nicky Elaine May Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	51
The Coca-Cola Kid Dušan Makavejev Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	55
Ran Akira Kurosawa Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	58
Shoah Claude Lanzmann Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	62
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	66
Home Video Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	69
Part 2. From the Top Ten (Reader)
Supervixens Russ Meyer Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	75
Robin and Marian Richard Lester Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	78
Islands in the Stream Franklin J. Schaffner Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	80
Moses and Aaron Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	85
Blue Collar Paul Schrader Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	89
Luna Bernardo Bertolucci Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	92
Atlantic City Louis Malle Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	96
Fanny and Alexander Ingmar Bergman Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	100
The Legend of Tianyun Mountain Xie Jin Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	105
Pale Rider Clint Eastwood Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	109
Part 3. Favorites (Reader)
Twilight’s Last Gleaming Robert Aldrich Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	115
Movie Movie Stanley Donen Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	118
Saint Jack Peter Bogdanovich Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	122
Nosferatu Werner Herzog Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	127
Knife in the Head Reinhard Hauff Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	131
Macbeth Orson Welles Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	135
The Woman Next Door François Truffaut Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	139
Lola Rainer Werner Fassbinder Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	143
Valley Girl Martha Coolidge Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	147
Gremlins Joe Dante Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	151
Part 4. Autopsies/ Minority Reports
The Last Tycoon Elia Kazan Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	159
A Wedding Robert Altman Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	162
Apocalypse Now Francis Ford Coppola Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	167
Kramer vs. Kramer Robert Benton Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	171
The Shining Stanley Kubrick Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	174
Dressed to Kill Brian De Palma Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	179
Raiders of the Lost Ark Steven Spielberg Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	185
A Passage to India David Lean Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	189
Hannah and Her Sisters Woody Allen Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	193
Salvador Oliver Stone Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	197
Afterword Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	201
Appendix: Top Ten Lists, 1974–86 Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	205
Index Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	209

Movies That Mattered

More Reviews from a Transformative Decade

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