They are often feel-good inspirational features about serious issues and noble heroes.
Triumph of the spirit and will against all odds.
Films that don’t actively use their visual registry to produce meaning
Liberal films that do nothing in terms of visual elaboration to compensate for their verbal explicitness or conventional narratives–in other words, films without personal or pronounced style.
Noble films that make important social statements about the world, or real-life events and personalities.
A Beautiful Mind (2001):
The story of schizophrenic scientist has Oscar bait all over it, from the moment that mainstream director Ron Howard and star Russell Crowe had committed to the project.
Unlike many of its competitors, the movie did live up to its hype.
Fried Green Tomatoes:
A feature that sanitizes and sentimentalize its brutal issues (racism), and glosses over the novel’s more explicit lesbianism.
Gandhi:
Sort of a sanitized version in a salable package, full of goof intentions and noble sentiments.
Shine:
Hoberman:
“Shine is the generically perfect Miramax movie–emotionally effusive, middle-brow glitz.”
Verdict:
Lumet’s solid, if old-fashioned, courtroom drama, with a strong and measured performance by Paul Newman
Films
Beautiful Mind
Friendly Persuasion
Fried Green Tomatoes
Gandhi
Places in the Heart
Sounder
Verdict, The
Directors of middlebrow movies
Fred Zinnemann
Actors: Oscar Winners (1997)
In 1997, Robin Williams (Good Will Hunting) vs. Burt Reynolds (Boogie Nights): Reynolds character can’t distinguish between vulgarity and art.
Robin Williams tells a self-proclaimed genius (Matt Damon) that nothing is at fault. Williams won, possibly because his role was more reassuring, even if it echoed the role of Judd Hirsch in Ordinary People (the warm, sensitive Jewish therapist).
The notion of making films that will appeal to and please the largest possible audiences, and will offend no one.
Razor’s Edge (1946): high-faluting work, about the search of meaning and significance.
Friendly Persuasion (1956): a film about homespun, of tasteful pathos, often nostalgic for the uncomplicated past.
Places in the Heart (1984): a work of encrusted gentility, smooth meticulousness, humanity
Kael: Robert Benton’s gentle presentation muffles the town’s rough edges. His craftsmanship is like an armor built u around his refusal to outrage or offend anyone,
Film Theory: Middlebrow Ideology, Sensibility (Friendly Persuasion, Places in the Heart)
Oct 16, 2022
Research in Progress: June 26, 2021
Film: Middlebrow Sensibility
They are often feel-good inspirational features about serious issues and noble heroes.
Triumph of the spirit and will against all odds.
Films that don’t actively use their visual registry to produce meaning
Liberal films that do nothing in terms of visual elaboration to compensate for their verbal explicitness or conventional narratives–in other words, films without personal or pronounced style.
Noble films that make important social statements about the world, or real-life events and personalities.
A Beautiful Mind (2001):
The story of schizophrenic scientist has Oscar bait all over it, from the moment that mainstream director Ron Howard and star Russell Crowe had committed to the project.
Unlike many of its competitors, the movie did live up to its hype.
Fried Green Tomatoes:
A feature that sanitizes and sentimentalize its brutal issues (racism), and glosses over the novel’s more explicit lesbianism.
Gandhi:
Sort of a sanitized version in a salable package, full of goof intentions and noble sentiments.
Shine:
Hoberman:
“Shine is the generically perfect Miramax movie–emotionally effusive, middle-brow glitz.”
Verdict:
Lumet’s solid, if old-fashioned, courtroom drama, with a strong and measured performance by Paul Newman
Films
Beautiful Mind
Friendly Persuasion
Fried Green Tomatoes
Gandhi
Places in the Heart
Sounder
Verdict, The
Directors of middlebrow movies
Fred Zinnemann
Actors: Oscar Winners (1997)
In 1997, Robin Williams (Good Will Hunting) vs. Burt Reynolds (Boogie Nights): Reynolds character can’t distinguish between vulgarity and art.
Robin Williams tells a self-proclaimed genius (Matt Damon) that nothing is at fault. Williams won, possibly because his role was more reassuring, even if it echoed the role of Judd Hirsch in Ordinary People (the warm, sensitive Jewish therapist).
The notion of making films that will appeal to and please the largest possible audiences, and will offend no one.
Razor’s Edge (1946): high-faluting work, about the search of meaning and significance.
Friendly Persuasion (1956): a film about homespun, of tasteful pathos, often nostalgic for the uncomplicated past.
Places in the Heart (1984): a work of encrusted gentility, smooth meticulousness, humanity
Kael: Robert Benton’s gentle presentation muffles the town’s rough edges. His craftsmanship is like an armor built u around his refusal to outrage or offend anyone,