Ever since Roger Ebert gave the most beautiful and vicious pure verbal beating to Rob Schnieder last year (remember, Rob attacked a film critic for giving a bad review to his HORRIBLE movie, and then Ebert beat the intellectual shit out of him… see my story on it here… it’s amazing), you don’t hear many Hollywood folks attacking film critics anymore. And there’s a good reason for that. Film critics give opinions… that’s their job. Attacking someone for not liking your movie is just plain old pathetic. Anyway, that’s North America. But now according to Yahoo News, some German filmmakers have reverted to being 3 year olds and are crying in the newspapers about critics who say bad things about their films:
Guenter Rohrbach, president of the German film association and producer of films including “Das Boot” (1985) and “The White Massai” (2005), blasted German film critics in an essay published in the current edition of German weekly Der Spiegel. “Do we even need them, these elite self-promoters who turn pirouettes around our films?” Rohrbach wrote. “Is the meager praise they occasionally give worth all the suffering they inflict, all the damage they do to us?”
Oh no!!! How DARE anyone say something bad about our movies! HOW DARE THEY!!! Don’t they know that we are filmmakers??? That means we are above all criticism. All we do and say is good and beautiful and right! If we make it, that means it’s automatically good, and you have NO RIGHT to say anything bad about it.
Maybe the problem is that sometimes you make crappy movies. Maybe it’s just me.
A film critic is just someone who watches movies and then gives their thoughts an opinions on it. That’s it. No more, no less. That means, if they see a movie and they like it… they say it’s good. If they see a movie and don’t like it, they say it’s not good. Just like anyone else. Film is subjective, that means some people will love a film, while others will hate it. Critics are no different.
But here’s the thing Mr. Rohrbach, if you choose to make movies… you know… those moving pictures that you put out for public viewing and scrutiny in hopes of being rich and famous… then guess what… SOME PEOPLE WON’T LIKE YOUR MOVIES AND WILL SAY SO. Being an arrogant little prick and crying in the media about the “suffering” film critics cause you is pathetic and sad. Grow up. I don’t hear you complaining when they praise your movies and get more people to go to them. You make your movies the best you can, you put them out there and see how people respond to them. That’s the business, and THAT’S THE WAY IT SHOULD BE.
