Harlan Ellison Watching Essays and Criticism edition by Harlan Ellison Humor Entertainment eBooks
Download As PDF : Harlan Ellison Watching Essays and Criticism edition by Harlan Ellison Humor Entertainment eBooks 
“An enjoyable, irascible collection” of smart and sometimes-scathing film criticism from a famously candid author (Library Journal).
Everyone’s a critic, especially in the digital age—but no one takes on the movies like multiple award-winning author Harlan Ellison. Renowned both for fiction (A Boy and His Dog) and pop-culture commentary (The Glass Teat), Ellison offers in this collection twenty-five years’ worth of essays and film criticism.
It’s pure, raw, unapologetic opinion. Star Wars? “Luke Skywalker is a nerd and Darth Vader sucks runny eggs.” Big Trouble in Little China? “A cheerfully blathering live-action cartoon that will give you release from the real pressures of your basically dreary lives.” Despite working within the industry himself, Ellison never learned how to lie. So punches go unpulled, the impersonal becomes personal, and sometimes even the critics get critiqued, as he shares his views on Pauline Kael or Siskel and Ebert. Ultimately, it’s a wild journey through the cinematic landscape, touching on everything from Fellini to the Friday the 13th franchise.
As Leonard Maltin writes in his preface, “I don’t know how valuable it is to learn Harlan Ellison’s opinion of this film or that, but I do know that reading an Ellison essay is gong to be provocative, infuriating, hilarious, or often a combination of the above. It is never time wasted. . . . Let me assure you, Harlan Ellison is never dull.”
Everyone’s a critic, especially in the digital age—but no one takes on the movies like multiple award-winning author Harlan Ellison. Renowned both for fiction (A Boy and His Dog) and pop-culture commentary (The Glass Teat), Ellison offers in this collection twenty-five years’ worth of essays and film criticism.
It’s pure, raw, unapologetic opinion. Star Wars? “Luke Skywalker is a nerd and Darth Vader sucks runny eggs.” Big Trouble in Little China? “A cheerfully blathering live-action cartoon that will give you release from the real pressures of your basically dreary lives.” Despite working within the industry himself, Ellison never learned how to lie. So punches go unpulled, the impersonal becomes personal, and sometimes even the critics get critiqued, as he shares his views on Pauline Kael or Siskel and Ebert. Ultimately, it’s a wild journey through the cinematic landscape, touching on everything from Fellini to the Friday the 13th franchise.
As Leonard Maltin writes in his preface, “I don’t know how valuable it is to learn Harlan Ellison’s opinion of this film or that, but I do know that reading an Ellison essay is gong to be provocative, infuriating, hilarious, or often a combination of the above. It is never time wasted. . . . Let me assure you, Harlan Ellison is never dull.”
Harlan Ellison Watching Essays and Criticism edition by Harlan Ellison Humor Entertainment eBooks
In the 1970's Harlan Ellison published "The Glass Teat" a compilation of his articles he published in the L.A. Free Press. The articles were a critical assessment of television of the period and they became instant classics. "The Glass Teat" became part of the curriculum at numerous colleges and their media departments. In "Watching" Ellison takes his critical and rhetorical skills to the movies."Watching" covers a much broader span of time than "The Glass Teat" from the early 60's until the late 80's. In his articles, Ellison goes from straight movie reviewing to more behind the scenes and critical assessments of movies tackling subjects such as the "auteur" method of filmmaking, colorization, the so called homage and to the more subliminal messages behind the movies. Unless you're a rabid Ellison fan, his opinions on movies are never predictable and they may surprise or shock you but the reasoning behind his informed opinion is sound.
In writing his articles, Ellison's passion for the subject would get the better of him and he'd take off on digressions that would make even the best critical essayist jealous. Ellison is always the first to admit to the digressions and tries to control them, but even against his own will Ellison's reviews can stretch across two or even three articles because of his digressions. However, in the hands of Ellison those digressions are always interesting and thought provoking. I can't think of any other writer who can do this.
It's been a while since I've had the pleasure of reading anything of Harlan Ellison's and in reading "Watching" rediscovered that Harlan Ellison is a sheer pleasure to read! "Watching" captures Ellison's sense of humor and occasionally you'll find yourself laughing out loud at some points, agreeing with others, wondering at some, and disagreeing with him, but Ellison is always interesting and thought provoking. One note when reading "Watching", or anything by Ellison for that matter, you better sharpen up your vocabulary, you're going to need it.
After reading "Watching" you'll realize that when the lights go down and the movie comes on Harlan Ellison is thinking about the movie, and by reading "Watching" it'll make you a better watcher of movies.
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Harlan Ellison Watching Essays and Criticism edition by Harlan Ellison Humor Entertainment eBooks Reviews
Began reading this in a school library and was hooked on the humor of Ellison's film reviews.
great
Probably the finest modern writer of short fiction -- and non-fiction!
I have and always will enjoy any book that Mr. Ellison has out ..
I have and always will enjoy any book that Harlan Ellison has out in the market.
"Harlan Ellison's Watching" is a collection of opinion columns-cum-movie reviews, and the book, as a whole, is a rather intriguing jaunt through Ellison's career in 'watching' films (mostly for a living, writing opinions and editorials about the subject). Ellison, however, is NOT a film critic, and this book is NOT a collection of movie reviews. Let me put it this way, if you like movies, you probably won't like Ellison--but if you like Ellison, you'll probably like what he has to say about movies. I can see his point in many ways when he scowers the industry insiders with grit and anger, but he has no understanding of what movies really are supposed to be about. Yes, Val Lewton was a great producer, and his "put it in the mind" approach (rather than a "show it to 'em" approach) was effective in its day, but Ellison uses such an excuse to demand a level of quality from the movies--an "art form" that is not really designed to meet the criteria of such high standards. Ellison contradicts himself repeatedly when he seems to be praising movies that support the B-movie/monster genres at one point (such as Lewton's "The Leopard Man") while simultaneously condemning the "sci-fi" term and giant bug movies (because bugs can't breathe after they reach a certain size, ha!). I actually agree with Ellison on some of his points about the intellectual hijacking of literary properties for media adaptations (he's still harboring contentious feelings about the adaptation of his own story "A Boy and His Dog", brought to the screen by director/actor L. Q. Jones), but the author of a literary work (a singular project) should not be so unforgiving when his/her work has been accepted for the screen (which involves the work of A LOT of people, and is more about the art of pluralism (if you'll permit me) than it is about the preservation of an individual's vision). A literary work is not the same as a finished movie, and it shouldn't be. Let me say this, for example, "The Wages of Fear" is Georges Arnaud's story, his property--but the movie is Henri-Georges Clouzot's, NOT Arnaud's. I can't say it more plainly than that. Ellison, a laborer in the "Egyptian house of the dead" (his words) that is industry screenwriting for film and TV, has obvious strong and often harsh opinion about these showbiz people, and he's not afraid to lay it all on the line. He has an agenda in going after certain people that he detests, and certain industry practices that he despises. But he doesn't really get what makes movies fun--or seem to understand that it's okay if movies ARE just for fun. So, don't expect film criticism here--there is no visual analysis, no explanation of what makes a particular film a great cultural artifact, no worries about the look or sound of film (in terms of quality). Yes, story and politics and themes are important (Ellison thinks most movies are idiotic, and in a lot of cases, I can see his point, but...), but not as important as the "movieness" of movies themselves. One good thing about the book is that Ellison uses a lot of unique English words that one may not encounter otherwise, and his sarcasm and smart-ass attitude is fun to read at times. But Ellison is better as a primer for one who wants to get into reading rather than as an essential stop along the way. B
You'll learn more from one Harlan Ellison movie review than you did in a week of any college history or media class.
He's done the screenplays for various movies to varying degrees of quality, and he's honest about that, which gives him MAD credibility points with me (self-effacing is the path to free, open blasting of others). He blasts movies on the premise that, if they're bad, they've lied to you and sucked the very life out of your existence and should be punished. He's got lots of backstage insight and, even though a great deal of the films in this book are dated by the nature of the films discussed (ever seen a 10 page essay about how bad "Gremlins" was?) which slows the book down in spots, it's over 400 pages of the most erudite, informed, intellectually stimulating slamming you've ever read. He makes you want to go to the video store and stock up on everything in the 80s to see if its as bad as he says it is. I don't agree with every review (and some reviews aren't even reviews, but diatribes about how jacked up society and art is, and these are often chilling), but I am thoroughly engaged with every review, and what more could you ask for?
A must for movie fans or anyone looking for intelligent writing that dares you to not own a dictionary. The book literally makes you smarter.
In the 1970's Harlan Ellison published "The Glass Teat" a compilation of his articles he published in the L.A. Free Press. The articles were a critical assessment of television of the period and they became instant classics. "The Glass Teat" became part of the curriculum at numerous colleges and their media departments. In "Watching" Ellison takes his critical and rhetorical skills to the movies.
"Watching" covers a much broader span of time than "The Glass Teat" from the early 60's until the late 80's. In his articles, Ellison goes from straight movie reviewing to more behind the scenes and critical assessments of movies tackling subjects such as the "auteur" method of filmmaking, colorization, the so called homage and to the more subliminal messages behind the movies. Unless you're a rabid Ellison fan, his opinions on movies are never predictable and they may surprise or shock you but the reasoning behind his informed opinion is sound.
In writing his articles, Ellison's passion for the subject would get the better of him and he'd take off on digressions that would make even the best critical essayist jealous. Ellison is always the first to admit to the digressions and tries to control them, but even against his own will Ellison's reviews can stretch across two or even three articles because of his digressions. However, in the hands of Ellison those digressions are always interesting and thought provoking. I can't think of any other writer who can do this.
It's been a while since I've had the pleasure of reading anything of Harlan Ellison's and in reading "Watching" rediscovered that Harlan Ellison is a sheer pleasure to read! "Watching" captures Ellison's sense of humor and occasionally you'll find yourself laughing out loud at some points, agreeing with others, wondering at some, and disagreeing with him, but Ellison is always interesting and thought provoking. One note when reading "Watching", or anything by Ellison for that matter, you better sharpen up your vocabulary, you're going to need it.
After reading "Watching" you'll realize that when the lights go down and the movie comes on Harlan Ellison is thinking about the movie, and by reading "Watching" it'll make you a better watcher of movies.
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