Action, faces, special effects - all are more important than an original, well-plotted story which is worth watching. In the Ellison indictment, the film companies and the directors, even if thoughtful or lucky enough to secure a well-written script, likely will ensure it is rewritten into murky confusion. He is justly harsh about remakes and homages, both types of films often exemplifying not an understanding and honoring of what has gone before, but epigones' failure of originality.
And what is even more fun, Ellison with his Hollywood screenwriter's inside perspective, tells you how the bad ones got made that way: institutional failings of Hollywood film companies, and artistic failures of directors.Įllison considers writing as the essential creative principle behind good filmmaking, and details the dire effects of bad and indifferent writing. (There's a thorough index.) Or if you've seen these bad ones, what you should understand about why they don't work right on the screen. Although Ellison makes plenty of recommendations, it's more a guide to movies to avoid. Is Harlan Ellison's Watching a small-print guide to movies to look for, like Leonard Maltin's? No. Most of the films discussed are science fiction or fantasy, but not all. Harlan Ellison's Watching is a book of movie criticism: some early movie-going nostalgia, some reviews from the 1960s and 1970s, but about two-thirds were originally in his column in Fantasy and Science Fiction from 1984 through 1989. These are roughly separate endeavors, so liking or disliking his fiction is not a sure indicator of whether you'll appreciate his critiques of books, films, or television. Harlan Ellison is a thoughtfully opinionated critic, and an emotionally powerful storyteller. The act of creation in cinema or its lack Harlan Ellison's Watching - Harlan Ellison
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