Film professor Barry Wurst filed his first movie review at the age of 10 … at his father’s urging.
The pair had just seen “Allan Quartermain and the Lost City of Gold” and the younger Wurst couldn’t stop talking about it. So his dad said, “you should write a review…”
He does that now for the Maui Time Weekly Magazine in addition to his teaching duties at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs. WWTW caught up with him for a Q&A that explored just what kinds of movies are today’s film students buzzing about.
WWTW: Can you talk about your introductory class assignment – ‘what’s your favorite movie and why?’
BW: The first film class I ever taught was in 2000 and I began that class and every one after it the same way: after a brief introduction about myself, I say “… but if you really want to know someone, you don’t ask them what their favorite color is, or where they’re from, or what their favorite food is. You ask them what their favorite movie is.”
At this point, I either see their eyes light up or notice how nervous they become, so I say, “if you don’t know what your favorite movie is, here’s how you know- it’s the first film that came to mind when I said ‘your favorite movie,’ so yes, guilty pleasures count, too.”
WWTW: What films resonate the most with students? What common reasons do they give for their choices? Any surprises?
BW: The titles they reveal are sometimes surprising, though most of the films are 15-years old, tops. Among of the ones I’ve heard repeatedly over the past couple of years include “American Beauty,” “Diary of a Mad Black Woman,” “Fight Club,” “Boondock Saints,” “The Lord of the Rings,” “Goodfellas,” “The Fountain,” “Scream,” “You’ve Got Mail,” “Donnie Darko”, “Gladiator,” “Hocus Pocus” and “The Matrix”.
Essentially, they’re the movies they grew up with and had a personal response to and/or a memorable experience when seeing it for the first time. It also varies from reasons like filmmaker technique, great storytelling, nostalgia, originality or what the film “means” or means to them.
My classes often pride themselves on liking especially “edgy” films, but, when it comes to class time, they tend to shrink away from “challenging” works like “2001- A Space Odyssey” or “The New World”.
Other films I’ve shown to various classes that my students have frequently vocalized that they hated include the original “Cat People,” “The Birth of a Nation,” William Friedkin’s “Sorcerer” and Spike Lee’s “Girl 6″.
On the other hand, the films I’ve shown my classes that have received the best responses have been “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “Wait Until Dark,” “Singin’ in the Rain,” “Malcolm X,” “Dogfight” and “Cop Land.”
WWTW: Do students embrace older films, or even (gasp) black and white features?
BW: While some of my students are impatient with older films, particularly ones with a “leisurely pace” (the polite way of saying its slow), many of them have found the works of Charles Chaplin, Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock to be engrossing and state that they grew up with those films. I myself once found older works to be “boring” until film courses showed me the value and quality of “older” masterpieces.
I find myself stunned by the negative response the 1942 “Cat People” always elicits from students, though the film’s genteel approach probably clashes with it’s notoriety as a “horror classic”. I typically show “Wait Until Dark” the following class, to provide another essential horror film and one that, without fail, always makes my classes literally scream and jump in their seats.
James Dean’s charisma has little effect on my students, but Gene Kelly’s brilliance as a dancer still thrills my classes, even the ones who say they hate musicals.
WWTW: Thoughts on the current state of movie criticism … is the web helping/hurting film critics, and how?
BW: I don’t think that film reviewers will ever be obsolete, just as sports writers, book reviewers and political analysts will never be unnecessary. I think the “service”, if you will, that film critics provide is extremely valuable. The best reviewers open your eyes to a film that may go unnoticed, approach film criticism as reporting instead of spoiling a good movie and write reviews that, at best, can be as entertaining as the film itself (which is why so many bad reviews are so much fun to read).
With the Internet giving many more individuals the opportunity to declare themselves a movie critic, I’ve come across writers, like yourself of James Berardinelli, who are wonderfully engaging, intelligent film critics who offer reviews that are as insightful as they are fun to read.
The worst of the Web critics are the ones who declare a movie to be a “crap sandwich”, have the writing skills and life experience of an 8-year old and have knowledge of film history that isn’t older than 1995.
WWTW: If you could bend the ear of a Hollywood producer, what would you tell him/her about today’s young movies audiences and what they want to see in a movie?
BW: I’d say to take more chances on original material and to put aside easy sequels and remakes before they become box office poison. “The Matrix” was a terrific movie and we didn’t need a follow-up.
Some say “Iron Man” had an open-ended finish, but I thought it provided a satisfying climax for that character’s journey. I don’t think we need a sequel to provide Bigger and Better further installments every time, and am grateful that films I love and grew up with, like “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” and “E.T.” have a definitive ending and are sequel-free.
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