I for one would like to applaud James Hurley's review of
Professor Bordwell's recent book for what might be called
its even-handed severity.
That is: Hurley may end up saying some rather damning
things about this particular book, but he does this because
of particular details rather than a general prejudice
against an entire theoretical school or method.
E.g., Hurley praises highly one of Bordwell's other books
(_Making Meaning_), and he calls attention to the new book's
strengths (such as breadth of knowledge) and praises
admirable qualities like concision.
But Hurley also points out omissions and inaccuracies, and
he quite rightly criticizes the book for falling prey to the
tendencies the book itself criticizes elsewhere.
Thus Hurley measures the book according to both his own
criteria and the book's own.
For me this makes a sharp contrast to writings which tend to
polarize the entire field of film studies into two camps:
useful and intelligent works (by whoever's writing and those
s/he takes to be like-minded) and fatally-flawed and useless
works of absolutely no value to anyone (by everyone else).
(This approach is not limited to any one theoretical
vantage, either.)
I find that kind of absolutist approach less
helpful--although not entirely without value. For me it is
a political and ethical question of how to conduct oneself
in relation to others rather than an epistemological
question of who is right and who is wrong.
I for one found the review very informative. I got a sense
of things in this book that would be extremely useful to me,
such as Bordwell's portrait of general approaches to film
history, and his detailed discussion of the issue of staging
in depth. But I also got a sense of argumentative
limitations.
Thus even if I disagree with Bordwell's judgments, much of
what he writes can still have value--especially in a
pedagogical context: I may be able to teach material from
the book even if I disagree with it.
Sincerely,
Edward R. O'Neill
UCLA
General Education Program/Sociology Department
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