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No Quarter
Hollywood Elsewhere —
No Quarter Yesterday morning an absolutely blistering piece by Ron Rosenbaum , author of Explaining Hitler , appeared on Slate that ripped into Stephen Daldry 's The Reader as "the Worst Holocaust Film Ever Made" and implored Academy members not to vote it Best Picture. "Somebody has to say [it's the worst ever made]. I haven't seen others do so in print. And if I'm not the perfect person to do so, I do have some expertise ," he writes. "And so I will: This is a film whose essential metaphorical thrust is to exculpate Nazi-era Germans from knowing ...
'The Reader' is NOT a Holocaust Movie
RopeofSilicon.com —
... " and while there has been some mild backlash, which is probably better described as awards overexposure, it is nothing compared to the vitriol being thrown in the direction of Stephen Daldry's The Reader, which is most often referred to as Nazi porn, and today is called "The Worst Holocaust Film Ever Made" by Ron Rosenbaum, author of "Explaining Hitler" featured over on Slate. ...
Revisiting The Reader
Awards Daily —
... while my love for Frost/Nixon faded a bit the second time. (And I simply don’t have enough time to sit through Benjamin Button again.) With The Reader, though, the difference was the most dramatic. This time, I found myself quite moved by it, particularly during Kate Winslet’s centerpiece courtroom scene in which the film’s surprising plot twist is revealed. By the end, I was a wreck.
On the flipside, Slate Magazine rips the film to shreds, begging voters not to give the Oscar to the film:
What, ...
Not Good Enough
Hollywood Elsewhere —
Not Good Enough Real Geezers Marcia Nasatir and Lorenzo Semple, Jr. both respected but didn't quite buy The Reader . (And they both think that Ralph Fiennes ' first name is pronounced like Alf Landon 's.) In as far as they probably represent the thinking of over-70 Academy voters to some extent, the combination of this and Ron Rosenbaum 's Slate hit piece the other day suggests that the Slumdog Millionaire team needn't worry too much.
"The Reader" and the Riot Act
Carpetbagger —
Ron Rosenbaum seems to suggest in Slate that the only hardware “The Reader” should get is a shiv between the shoulder blades : And so a film that asks us to empathize with an unrepentant mass murderer and intimates that “ordinary Germans” were ignorant of the extermination until after the war, now stands a good chance of getting a golden statuette. The Bagger realizes the cultural expression of the Holocaust is an extremely legitimate target and is no huge fan of “The Reader” (although his critique ...
Oscar Watch: Will The Reader Debates Cost Winslet a Statue?
Thompson On Hollywood —
... Slate's Ron Rosenbaum begs Academy voters not to award The Reader an Oscar. And back in circulation is Cynthia Ozick's 1999 Commentary essay ...
Late Reader Retort
Hollywood Elsewhere —
Late Reader Retort Ron Rosenbaum 's blistering anti- Reader piece on Slate ("Don't Give an Oscar to The Reader ") went up on Monday, February 9th. Three days later , on 2.12.09, Rod Lurie 's similar criticism piece ("The Holocaust Revisionism of Hollywood") appeared on the Huffington Post . Five days later -- Tuesday, 2.17 -- the Oscar balloting deadline arrived and the voting issue was moot. Nonetheless it's taken Harvey Weinstein , Reader director Stephen Daldry , Reader screenwriter David Hare and producer Donna Gigliotti until today, ...
10 Worst Holocaust Movie Trends
SpoutBlog —
... “The fact that it was recently nominated for a best picture Oscar offers stunning proof that Hollywood seems to believe that if it’s a ‘Holocaust film,’ it must be worthy of approbation, end of story,” wrote Ron Rosenbaum in a Slate piece earlier this year requesting that the Academy not to honor The Reader. Not every Holocaust film has a shot at winning or even being nominated for an Oscar, though. Notice the lack of Academy love this year for The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, ...
