Film critic who got it wrong


In the Nov 7, 1977 issue of New York magazine, Bill Flanagan reviewed Close Encounters of the Third Kind. He hated it, and he was certain that everyone else was going to hate it too, predicting it would be "a colossal flop" and almost gleefully forecasting financial disaster for Columbia Pictures as a result, since they had bet heavily on the movie's success. He dismissed the fact that everyone else in the pre-screening he attended seemed to like it, noting, "When you give people free tickets to a movie, most of them are nice enough not to bitch."

Flanagan, of course, couldn't have been more wrong. As wikipedia notes:

"Upon its release, Close Encounters became a box office success, grossing $116.39 million in North America and $171.7 million in foreign countries, totaling $288 million. It became Columbia Pictures' most successful film at that time... Ray Bradbury declared it the greatest science fiction film ever made. Based on 46 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, 96% ("Certified Fresh") of the reviewers have enjoyed the film and the site's consensus states "Close Encounters' most iconic bits (the theme, the mashed-potato sculpture, etc.) have been so thoroughly absorbed into the culture that it's easy to forget that its treatment of aliens as peaceful beings rather than warmongering monsters was somewhat groundbreaking in 1977."
     Posted By: Alex - Wed Jun 10, 2015
     Category: Movies | 1970s





Comments
That's why its called an opinion. And opinions are like assholes, everybody has one and everybody thinks everybody else's stinks.
Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 06/10/15 at 08:47 AM
Probably Flanagan had in mind the previous year release of "Star Wars" which, face the facts kids, was a little short on plot and long on special effects. Actually, the plot of C.E. is fairly decent and Dreyfus plays his character well as he questions his sanity during the course of the story. Unfortunately Spielberg went over the top with the too cutesy "E.T." four years later. I have seen it once in theatre at the time and have no desire to watch it again. Once was enough.
Posted by KDP on 06/10/15 at 10:16 AM
Anyone who makes predictions is going to screw up royally. That it's a bad movie is unquestionable, but bad movies are often big moneymakers.
Posted by Phideaux on 06/10/15 at 06:35 PM
I have pretty much given up on movie critics. I felt it was a ok movie but was distracted by a friendly date who wanted to drive up into the mountains, look at stars and have our very own close encounters in a sleeping bag on a picnic table.
Posted by Gator Guy on 06/10/15 at 07:35 PM
I've found that overly or poorly educated liberal arts majors think that S/F is not a valid genre for serious minded people. Completely dismissing even Issac Asimov one of the greatest scientific minds in recent history.

I've also found that there are critics that are 100% wrong 100% of the time with my views so I have a tendency to subtract their opinion from 100 and accept the remainder as the true value.

@Gator Guy: The closest mountain to you would be, what, 2 days of hard driving? There was a pile of dirt alongside US40 just outside Naples that the town council was selling tickets to as a road-side attraction.
Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 06/10/15 at 11:08 PM
Gator Guy if you'd have gone to the drive-in you could have just stayed there to have your fun sweetie.
Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 06/11/15 at 06:48 AM
As a frequent movie-goer, Flanagan should have been aware of the Box Office Law of Audience Behavior - the cheaper the ticket the ruder the audience! But as a self-styled 'critic' I'm sure he made a career of remaining out of touch with public sentiment.
Danté also had issues with prognosticators: he condemned them to eternity in the Inferno with their head on backwards!
Posted by tadchem on 06/12/15 at 05:32 AM
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