50 Years Ago: The Best of Times, The Worst of Times

I was 15, going on 16, and it happened during my summer break as a student at St. Aloysius High School in New Orleans. Since the previous September, I’d been reviewing movies for the school paper, The Aloysian. (My first review: In the Heat of the Night, a movie that forever changed how I looked at and thought about movies.) The vice-principal evidently was impressed: He recommended me to Joseph Larose, the entertainment editor of the city's weekly Catholic newspaper, The Clarion Herald, as someone who could occasionally fill in as a second-string film critic.

And so, on the morning of Wednesday, June 5, 1968, when the issue officially dated June 6 started popping up in people's mailboxes throughout the city, I could see the very first review I ever wrote for a professional publication -- a thumbs-up appraisal of Wild in the Streets. This should have been the happiest day of my life.

But, of course, it wasn't: I woke up to news that Robert F. Kennedy was barely clinging to life after being shot in Los Angeles. And then, alas, the next day was worse.

I love film. And I will be happy to celebrate on Tuesday the 50^th anniversary of my career as a film critic. But I must admit: My gratitude for what happened  — and for what continues to happen, as I continue to write about what I love  — remains inextricably entwined with regret for what might have been. Maybe that’s why I take to heart these words from my favorite filmmaker, Francois Truffaut: “For me, cinema is not a sad imitation of life. It is an improvement on life.”

I ♥ In the Heat of the Night (and Norman Jewison)

Thanks to Michael Gibbons of the Film Society of Lincoln Center for allowing me to wax nostalgic in a blog posting tied to the Film Society's Friday screening of In the Heat of the Night, a movie that made me want to become a movie critic. Of course, the last time I got so emotional about Norman Jewison's masterwork, some folks felt compelled to criticize me as too fulsome and, ahem, long-winded. Such is life. My feeling is, if you're too busy trying to sound cool and look dignified while you're expressing your love, it ain't really love at all.

A passing thought about rampant remakes

As I told all my Facebook friends tonight: I can't help feeling weirded out by all these recent and upcoming remakes of '80s films that I reviewed back in the day. Because, really, I don't remember seeing that many remakes of '60s movies back in the '80s. Like, around 1987, no one was saying: "Hey, let's remake The Professionals with Charles Bronson in the Lee Marvin role and Burt Reynolds taking over for Burt Lancaster!" Or "Now here's a sure-fire hit: A new version of In the Heat of the Night with Eddie Murphy and Gene Hackman!" What's happened? Has Hollywood truly run out of original ideas? Or were the '80s actually a better era for cinema than I recall?

Yes, he did!

Segregated schools. “Whites Only” water fountains. Blacks compelled to sit on the back of the bus. TV news bulletins about civil rights workers found buried in shallow graves. Newspaper ads for In the Heat of the Night that used silhouettes, so you couldn't tell a black man was a protagonist.

I am 56 years old and I grew up in the South, in New Orleans, so you know I have living memories of all these things. But do you have any idea how amazed and exuberant – and, yes, how very proud – I am tonight? Can you imagine how much more I love my country than I already did before?

In the Heat of the Night

So I'm in my hotel room near LAX, waiting for a call from Viggo Mortensen to talk about Appaloosa, and I'm channel surfing. Guess what I found on Turner Classic Movies? Guess what I can't help watching for, like, the zillionth time?

Denver honors Norman Jewison (and I get to help)

As previously indicated here -- well, OK, as teasingly indicated -- Norman Jewison will receive the 2007 Mayor’s Career Achievement Award at the 30th Starz Denver Film Festival. But the really big news is that, after actually getting the grand prize, following a special 40th-anniversary screening of the celebrated filmmaker's In the Heat of the Night, he'll be interviewed on stage by... by... well, me. And let's face it, it's all about me, right?

Of course, I'm no Robert Osborne. But I hope I can rise to the occasion.