talbotlucas.org: a word to the wise is sufficient

I love the "reviews" that are popping up across the Web before the movie opens to the public. I'm not a huge Michael Moore fan, but I'm willing to see this one, if only to develop my own opinion based on my own impressions of the film itself.

Today I've read several reviews that begin ""I haven't seen this film..." or "I'm not going to see this film..." and then go on to decry the film, the director, any criticism of the government's actions. What the hell is that? So typical of our current culture: I haven't seen this/read this/heard this/experienced this, but I have an opinion about its merits, or its veracity. (An easy example of this trend is the assortment of reviews one finds on amazon.com. Laughable, if this type of criticism weren't so prevalent.

Mind you, I'm all for criticism, but see the film before telling me your opinion of it. And if you're so turned off by the whole thing that you don't want to see the film...well, fine. But don't give me your "review" of it. I don't know if I'll agree or disagree with Christopher Hitchens or with A.O. Scott, whose review from Cannes for The New York Times was glowing, but I'll base mine on the movie.

So much about the lead-up to the film has been disappointing or strange: the hoo-ha over the Disney/Miramax relationship and whether Disney was right or wrong to refuse to distribute the movie; the suit-happy posture Moore seems to have taken; and lately the hemming and hawing of Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451. Shouldn't an author of Bradbury's stature understand (or perhaps have legal counsel who could tell him) that titles aren't copyrightable? (If they were, wouldn't most of the porn industry be out of luck finding twisted titles for its new features?) Far be it from me to tell Mr. Bradbury that he can't file suit, but I doubt it will get very far if he does. Allusion is part of our literary tradition; without it, we'd have been dead in the water, creatively, centuries ago.

Ugh ugh ugh. I think I'm going to watch Auntie Mame or something to get these thoughts out of my brain.

Update: The Times has made its assortment of articles on this film available in a special section. (When I initially posted, many of these, including A.O. Scott's review from Cannes, had been relegated to the pay-to-read archive.)